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:

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.

Kintera has an Open API. Kintera customers and select vendors can now access an extensive and documented API to connect their applications to Kintera Sphere. From their press release:

Kintera,® Inc. (NASDAQ: KNTA) today announced that Kintera Connect™, the company's open application integration platform, is available for clients and partners to integrate directly with Kintera technology. As a result, best of breed solutions are now available through the Kintera Connect Partner Program, providing organizations with the freedom to select solutions to best meet their unique needs.

If you are looking for more information, check out:

• Kintera Connect Resource Page
• Kintera Connect API Documentation
• Upcoming Kintera Connect Webinar

 

Every day nonprofits deal with software systems that don't talk to each other or work together. They spend time and money on systems that aren't integrated. They're hampered by the inability to extract needed information from a given tool and resort to entering the information several times in different systems.

Following up on the NTEN Open API Debate last fall, we are publishing a White Paper that gives an overview of what open APIs are, what they do, why software buyers in the nonprofit market should care about them, and where some of the major vendors in the space are at in regard to opening up their APIs.

So, we figured we ASK them. Here are our questions, directed at key contact at each of the vendors:

1. Does your product have APIs that allow other applications to access data from your application?

2. Do you have features that call APIs of other

In the past few months we've talked a lot about the importance of data integration, and many of you voiced your frustrations that your systems don't talk to each other and work together. We even hosted the Great Open API Debate to hear where some nonprofit software vendors stood on the issue.

What we discovered wasn't groundbreaking - you want data integration because it will make your jobs easier

My friend and colleague Eugene Kim blogged about the Kintera data sharing announcement at my request, in light of the recent Open API conversations that NTEN hosted. Below are his thoughts, re-posted here with permission.

Implications of the Kintera Data Sharing Announcement

By Eugene Kim, Blue Oxen Associates

AndyDale reported earlier this month that La Leche League will be using

Gearing up for next week's midterm elections, the Institute on Money in State Politics has opened up its APIs help get information on campaign contributions out to the public. By making its APIs open, the Institute hopes to make it easier for people to access and use its large database of state level campaign finance information and encourage them to share their knowledge on local contributions and their impact.

So far it's working. Different projects are using the Institute's APIs and are showing campaign finance numbers in interesting and compelling ways. Edwin Bender, executive director of the Institute, described a few in an email he sent to

David Lawson, Kintera

"Open APIs are a natural evolution in the nonprofit and software vendor communities. It is critical, however, that security standards be developed within the vendor community to accompany this evolution. Donors trust nonprofits with sensitive information, such as credit card numbers, social security numbers and income levels. Donors and supporters must be assured that sensitive information remains securely held by the nonprofit and that open APIs will not enable data to be available to external parties with less secure

We heard from software vendors in the Open API debate, but we also wanted to hear what you had to say. We asked people who listened in on the debate and who work at nonprofits to sound off on what our panelists said and what APIs mean for them.

Aaron Bauman, The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center

"This debate boils down to one thing: whether a vendor is more interested in making money or serving its customers. As