We’ve been in contact with The Sunlight Foundation for a while now. We like what they are doing, and will continue to keep you posted via these re-posted e-mail blasts. -bd
In January we said that our goal for 2010 would be to make openness and transparency something that government had to answer to us for at every level — in our cities, in our states and in Washington.
It’s time to start making good on that pledge, friends. Government information should be as accessible to us as information about the weather, sports scores or knowing what’s going on in the stock market — all online and in real-time.
We need it to be this way so we can both hold government accountable and create new business with what is made available to us. In order to create this open, transparent government we seek, we have been building a national, nonpartisan campaign for the last two months, and you can see all our progress on the campaign page of our website. Next Thursday, March 18, we will officially launch our campaign for open government along with all of you. Ultimately our goal will be to build a movement of 250,000 citizens across the country that demand transparency in government. We’ll be asking that citizens sign a pledge stating that transparency is of highest priority in determining who they vote for, and also ask citizens to commit to staying engaged in holding government accountable. In this way, we’ll build political muscle big enough that we can’t possibly be ignored. It’s going to take all of us to get there, though. One of the first things you can do right now is volunteer to be a campaign leader, and serve next week as one of the people who will help us spread the word:
Throughout next week, we will announce ways we can make government more open, and share ideas for how to make it work better for all of us. Next Thursday, we’ll also unveil our new website, which will serve as the hub of our campaign. Each day, we’ll let you know about something new. It’s especially appropriate that next week is our launch because it’s also the nationally recognized “Sunshine Week,” in which the media focuses specifically on how to shine more light on government.
Transparency leaders nationwide will connect online and off-line, hosting “Open Government Happy Hours” to bring people together in their cities, and organizing blog swarms to raise awareness of what we’re doing. I’m sending this email this afternoon primarily as a heads up. We simply want you to know what’s coming up, get excited about it, and help us spread the word as we near the launch date.
This is going to be fun. We don’t want anyone to miss out!
Jake Brewer
PS One way to think about what we’ll be trying to do across the country with our campaign is find ways to complete a “Cycle of Transparency” – combining policy, technology, journalism, and engagement – in communities everywhere. This is a graphic we just put out to help make sense of it. Let us know what you think!
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