Sunlight Foundation

  1. OGD: Commerce repackages old data and offers broken links

    By Sarah Dorsey Jan 28, 2010 2:34 p.m.

    To comply with the Open Government Directive, the Commerce Department released four high value datasets that require considerable technical sophistication on the part of users--and patience. Some of the files are so large and cumbersome they're very difficult to open and use;  others require a great deal of explanation--and you can currently only find those explanations by digging through the agency's site. Still other entries feature broken links or only contain a fraction of the information described on Data.gov. The Commerce Department says they're working on all of these problems, so hopefully we'll see an improvement in the coming days.

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  2. Must Read: NYT Series on Radiation Poisoning

    By Nancy Watzman Jan 28, 2010 9:54 a.m.

    A fascinating series on new radiation treatments for cancer patients by New York Times reporter Walt Bogdanich caught my eye for two reasons.

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  3. OGD: USAID's missing data

    By Aisha Qidwae Jan 27, 2010 4:05 p.m.

    One of USAID's high value data sets on U.S. economic and military assistance aka the Greenbook cannot be accessed on data.gov/ogd. Unfortunately, the source of the broken link is coming from the USAID website.

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  4. OGD: Transparency for Whom?

    By Ryan Sibley Jan 26, 2010 5:38 p.m.

    Most of the raw data released by the Open Government Directive on Friday was released in an XML format.  For those of you who dont know what that is or what to do with it, thats because it most likely isnt for you.  Common knowledge about XML is that its a platform only Web developers and programmers use.  And thats what it looked like after opening up the datasets in XML on Data.gov. The unfamiliar code can be off-putting and might cause people to not try to figure out whats in these high value datasets.  In order to use XML one has to know how to convert it or how to use an XML reader. Its also possible to import XML to Microsoft Excel, and thats only if the file isnt so big it crashes the gentle Microsoft application. (We've had marginal success using Microsoft Access 2007 to look at some of the XML data.)

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  5. OGD: Defense releases what it already releases

    By Lisa Chiu Jan 26, 2010 5:17 p.m.

    To comply with the Open Government Directive, the Defense Department designated three high-value datasets last week, among them a listing of those requesting more transparency from the Pentagon. DoD released details on the 4,000 Freedom of Information requests it has received as well as datasets with information on service members gender and race, U.S. state, and marriage statistics.

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  6. OGD: Department of the Interior

    By Aisha Qidwae Jan 26, 2010 3:18 p.m.

    Two of the other data sets released Friday, probably the ones most useful to the public, the volunteer opportunities and the recreation data sets are already available online here and here in a better and usable format compared to the XML downloads on data.gov.

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  7. OGD: High value...er, never mind

    By Ryan Sibley Jan 26, 2010 2:46 p.m.

    Data.gov has apparently changed its mind about which datasets are high value. When datasets were released on Friday, the 2007-2008 State-to-State Migration Outflow file released by the Department of Treasury was designated high value--an asterisk appeared next to its entry in the raw data catalog on data.gov. Today that asterisk is gone. This would leave treasury one high value data set short of the three required by the Open Government Directive. But dont worry, they've added another. The dataset titled, Tax Year 2007 County Income Data, has been placed in the list and given an asterisk. What isn't shared with the public in this instance is the day it was released. The entry only says January 2010, while all other datasets identify the day as well.

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  8. Surveying the first fruits of the open government directive

    By Bill Allison Jan 25, 2010 5:48 p.m.

    We're still surveying those high value data sets released as part of the open government directive--there are hundreds of files to sift through, which is obviously a good thing. But while we don't have a final analysis done, a few trends are becoming apparent.

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  9. Ruling may free corporate influencers from contortions

    By Luke Rosiak Jan 25, 2010 4:25 p.m.

    The Supreme Court's Citizens United vs. FEC ruling undoes years of restrictions on the ability of corporations and labor unions to use their treasuries to attempt to sway elections.

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  10. OGD: Justice

    By Luke Rosiak Jan 22, 2010 8:10 p.m.

    Radiation Exposure Compensation Program tallies per state from the Justice Department are pretty straightforward, but still intriguing. Manhattan Project fallout--so to speak--sixty years after the fact for these Los Alamos neighbors?

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  11. OGD: IRS migration data doesn't capture everyone

    By Ryan Sibley Jan 22, 2010 7:34 p.m.

    The Department of Treasury's release of IRS migration data immediately made me want to see for myself what Hurricane Katrina's effect on Lousiana's population was. The data is state and county level and based on tax returns.

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  12. OGD: Housing and Urban Development

    By Luke Rosiak Jan 22, 2010 7:28 p.m.

    How bad are the public housing projects where our nation's poorest live? A handful of tables from HUD released minutes ago may lend some insight. Here are some quick takeaways:

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  13. OGD: EPA visualizes the Chesapeake Bay's problems

    By Ryan Sibley Jan 22, 2010 6:57 p.m.

    The Environmental Protection agency is highlighting their Chesapeake Bay water quality database. The site has some pretty cool visualizations of water temperature and salinity changes over time. The 3-D graphics make it easy to see the drastic changes the bay has undergone in recent years.

  14. OGD: Homeland Security (but really just FEMA)

    By Lisa Chiu Jan 22, 2010 6:31 p.m.

    Of the 27 offices within the Department of Homeland Security, DHS chose to release three high-value datasets from only one of them -- the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The new datasets are:

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