Sunlight Foundation
  • Search
 
You should join the transparency movement

Join us in a Campaign for Transparency

*Launch Date: Thursday, March 18*

We seek to create a transparent government built on open data and information.

We believe a transparent government is one more deserving of our trust, and is one that allows its citizens the ability to fully participate, collaborate and hold government accountable as our Founders intended.

To create the open government we seek, we know we need (at least) three things:

  1. 1.) Transparency Laws requiring public government data to be published online and in real time - accessible to any citizen, at any time from any location.
  2. 2.) Transparency tools harnessing the latest online and mobile technology, allowing citizens, journalists and bloggers to search, sort, mash and make use of government data.
  3. 3.) A Transparency Movement of citizens advocating for online, real-time access to public government data, and engaging with government in new ways to hold government accountable and make it work better for them.

To accomplish this, we are launching a nationwide campaign to put necessary pressure on government. It will connect the hackers, bloggers, journalists and citizens across the country who are taking up the fight to make government truly open and transparent.

We know that putting enough pressure on government to pass the laws that make government transparency a reality will require massive political muscle. In the short term:

We will require a voting bloc of citizens calling for open government that is so large it cannot be ignored.

Find Out More or Volunteer to be a leader in your area

Volunteer | About the Campaign | Wiki | Google Group
Leadership Distribution as of 2/2/2010

Our Next Four Steps

  1. 1.) Continue identifying transparency leaders across the country and take inventory of everything and everyone we have.
  2. 2.) Recruit and connect leaders, online and face to face, at transparency happy hours, breakfasts, camps and un-conferences, pot-lucks, trivia nights, hackathons, blogger meet-ups, you name it.
  3. 3.) Hone our message from the local level to Capitol Hill so that our mayors, state legislators and our representatives on Capitol Hill hear and understand us perfectly clear. The refining of our message is critical and includes two primary components:
    • a.) How we speak, write and frame what we want to see in government
    • b.) The actual priorities and policies we want to see government adopt through legislation and action
  4. 4.) Create and distribute toolkits, guides and resources to provide shared best practices and common messaging / branding as well as useful strategies and tactics.