(SA14) Transparency via GAO, Academia

Title: Transparency via GAO, Academia
Publication Information: The Open House Project blog, Dec. 5, 2007
Summary: John Wonderlich, policy director for the Sunlight Foundation, expresses his views and adds insight to recently released documents on the effectiveness of transparency and open government.

Topic: Should the Obama administration implement a strong policy of openness and transparency?
Category: Citizen 2
What is it? Blog post on the Open House Project blog.
Author: John Wonderlich
Location: http://www.theopenhouseproject.com/2007/12/05/transparency-via-gao-academia/
Accessed: 14/Feb/2009

Support:
Paul Blumenthal
GAO-07-1068CG: Transparent Government and Access to Information: A Role for
Supreme Audit Institutions
David Walker, Comptroller General of the United States and head of the GAO
“academics at Harvard”

The author cites this people, studies and papers as a way of pointing out what’s out there in support of transparency. He uses two of the studies and selected quoted to further his own ideas of the importance of open government and how it affects the publc and private sectors.

Audience and Agenda:
The Open House Project is a subsidy of the Sunlight Foundation and collaborates with governmental and legislative experts, congressional staff, non-profits, and bloggers to study the how the U.S. House of Representatives uses the Internet and other technologies. They use this information to inform the public as to the activities of the HR and to make policy suggestions that might create a more transparent political landscape. The Sunlight Foundation is funded by individual donations from private citizens and other foundations and was started with a $3.5m grant from Michael Klein. According to Statbrain, the website receives 429 visits per day and Alexa gives it a traffic rank of 2,377,705. John Wonderlich is the Sunlight Foundation’s Policy Director and has a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from Penn State University.

Usefulness:
The usefulness of this blog post will be to show that the experts are not afraid to step out from behind the façade of their foundations and institutions to hang their own personal opinions on the line. The author uses well-selected quotes to illustrate his point and I believe his thoughtful opinion should be noted, as he is the policy director for one of the largest government watchdog groups vying for open government.

Works referenced / Links:

http://www.theopenhouseproject.com/2007/12/05/transparency-via-gao-academia/

http://www.theopenhouseproject.com/about/

http://www.transparencypolicy.net/pdfs/effectiveness.pdf

http://www.transparencypolicy.net/pages/pubs.html

http://www.gao.gov/21stcentury.html

http://www.sunlightfoundation.com/people/jwonderlich/

http://www.gao.gov/htext/d071068cg.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_M._Walker_(U.S._Comptroller_General)

http://blog.sunlightfoundation.com/taxonomy/term/The-Open-House-Project/

http://www.sunlightfoundation.com/about/

http://www.statbrain.com/www.theopenhouseproject.com/

http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details/theopenhouseproject.com