APIs
With Liberty, and Information, For All?
Flickr Photo: FaysterNow that the stimulus package -- or the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, if you're keeping score at home -- has been signed into law, the work of making it all happen begins. No matter what you think of the law itself, everyone in our sector needs to pay very close attention to Recovery.gov.
You've heard a lot on this blog, and many others in the sector, about the power of social media and the web to bring more transparency to our work. I know that as good, smart people working at good, smart organizations, we believe in the power of transparency. But it's difficult to put the theory into practice.
When data is stuck on servers, web publishing is slow and centralized. When your stakeholders can't chew on, discuss, and disseminate your data and messages, transparency can't happen.
But the hurdles to transparency are vanishing rapidly. More and more of our data is in the cloud, or accessible via APIs. Publishing to the web is now, in the worst case scenario, easy, and in the best case scenario, automagic. Social media tools give your stakeholders ways to interact with data like never before.
That's where Recovery.gov comes in.
Obviously, there's not a lot on the site yet. But it could be a very good model for how nonprofits can use the web to open up all the way and be as transparent as possible. On the site, you can already read the bill, see the big breakdowns of how the money is being spent, and explore the projected timeline for implementation and impact. My favorite bit so far is the jobs map.
Obviously, you aren't overseeing a stimulus package -- but you can use the same set of tools and ideas to show your stakeholders exactly what you're up to. That's what turns a one-time donor into a long-term supporter.
Here's what I think we'll see on Recovery.gov that nonprofits should think about:
Win Up To $15,000 in Sunlight Labs Mashup Challenge
When I heard about this contest, I asked myself, "Who would I know with API coding skills and a passion for government transparency -- and who likes winning money?" Duh: the NTEN community! Here's the lowdown:
Apps for America will award developers for the best applications, based on data from Sunlight and its partners, that make Congress more accountable, interactive, and transparent.
