SUNLIGHT AWARDS MASHUP “UNFLUENCE” AS BEST POLITICAL MASHUP

“Unfluence’s” creators to receive a $2,000 prize

May 4, 2007

Contact: Gabriela Schneider 202-742-1520 ext 236

WASHINGTON, DC - The Sunlight Foundation today announced that "Unfluence" (http://unfluence.primate.net/index.html) - submitted as an entry to its recent Mashup Contest - has won the $2,000 prize as the most innovative "Web 2.0" mashup.

"We are very impressed by the abundance of creativity shown by all the contest entries ," said Ellen Miller, executive director of the Sunlight Foundation. "Our judges chose 'Unfluence' as the best political mashup because of the way it sheds light on the relationship between donors and candidates. Its model could easily be adapted to show how the same type of contribution networks work in Congress."

Using data - and APIs - from the National Institute on Money in State Politics, "Unfluence" constructs maps of the relationship between groups of candidates and political donors.

"We are excited that Sunlight awarded "Unfluence" as the best mashup" said "Unfluence" creators Greg Michalec and Skye Bender-deMoll. "We hope more people will now use ‘Unfluence' as a transparency tool to better visualize political contribution data."

Runners-up included CityCon (http://www.tetonpost.com/citycon/) and Open Hearings (http://openhearings.org/live/). Descriptions and links to all contest finalists are online at http://www.sunlightfoundation.com/mashup.

Sunlight Board Directors Esther Dyson, EDVenture founder, Craig Newmark, Craigslist founder, and Advisory Board member Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia founder, served as judges of the contest.

Sunlight sponsored this contest to encourage more programmers to connect different information sources to effectively convey information about politicians and Congress. It was inspired by the Sunlight's commitment to using new tools to make Congress more transparent. Last year, the Sunlight Foundation's development arm, Sunlight Labs, mashed a database of earmarks in the Labor and Health and Human Services Bill with Google Maps, so that people could navigate a map of the United States covered with icons representing earmarks, and learn more about them.

Founded in January, 2006, the mission of the Sunlight Foundation is to strengthen the relationship between lawmakers and their constituents. Sunlight puts information and tools in citizens' hands so they can learn more about what Congress and their elected representatives are doing. Its ultimate goal is full transparency by Congress, its Members and staff will help reduce corruption, ensure greater accountability, and foster public trust in this vital institution of democracy.

Since its founding, the Sunlight Foundation has issued nearly $2 million to groups to digitize existing information about Congress and those that use Internet technology to further Sunlight's goals. Additionally, the Sunlight Foundation has fostered its own projects such as Congresspedia, OpenCongress.org and Congress' Family Business.

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