Current Situation: The spirit of openness and transparency have been percolating through the public sector and public interest advocacy in recent years, borne out by such milestones as the Senate’s first release of its voting record in XML format in Spring 2009 and the Open Government Initiative that accompanied the President’s arrival in office. While open government should improve politicians’ honesty with and accountability to the public, it cannot do so without ordinary Americans, tinkerers, and technologists using public information inventively. Some design-minded groups like the Sunlight Foundation and Code for America have produced various tools that enable muckrakers everywhere to bury themselves in data, from politicians' partying schedules to special interest lobbying to the everyday traffic of our fruits and vegetables. The importance of such research tools cannot be overstated; however, we also believe that the next wave of innovation in open government should empower web users to directly engage in the legislative process, in realtime, as it unfolds.
