Politics

The Year in Sunlight: 2010

By Ellen Miller

As we wind down the year, I want to take this moment to thank all of you wholeheartedly for your interest and support of Sunlight?s work in 2010. This has been a tremendous year for Sunlight and for government transparency. We?ve witnessed progress in Washington to create online disclosure for the work of government, but we?ve also seen very unfortunate set-backs that have curtailed decades worth of campaign finance restrictions and disclosure requirements. Our own work has developed in new directions, from mobile to real-time investigative reporting to increasingly collaborative with grassroots allies across the country. We fostered a new ?data commons? and a series of sites that make campaign finance, lobbying, earmark and government contract data more accessible, and we started making great strides in assessing how to help open up state legislatures.

During 2010, Sunlight also had some fun, broke some news and our Reporting Group made it easier for you to see who was spending $455 million during the election.

But better than listing every activity from 2010, I?d like to share the embedded video below, which highlights some of the achievements from this remarkable year of discovery, innovation and progress ? made possible through the generosity of many of you.

The coming year will see an expansion of Sunlight?s efforts as we build new tools and websites to enable easy access to critical government data, advocate for new laws to require that such data is available 24/7 online, train hundreds of journalists and citizens in how to use those tools, create the narrative that shows how powerful lobbyists hold sway over Washington, and communicate to the broader public the power of openness and transparency to restore faith and participation in our democratic process.

I look forward to sharing that with all of you next year.

From all of us at the Sunlight Foundation, warmest wishes for a wonderful holiday season!

Full post as published by Sunlight Foundation on December 24, 2010 (boomark / email).