The Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board is seeking requests for production of a better Recovery.gov. And in a bold stroke the Sunlight Foundation is stepping up to bid.
A substantial amount of database and Web talent circulates around and in the Sunlight Foundation, and they can produce as good a Web site or better than any government contractor — and cheaper too.
I think Sunlight stands a pretty good chance in this, simply because the contract award will now be subject to public scrutiny. Value-for-dollar to the taxpayer will be easily discernible, and that will raise the political risks of awarding the contract based on cronyism or go-with-whatchya-knowism. Transparency in all things.
If Sunlight wins the contract, I have little doubt that they will produce a much better site and make real progress in transparency and oversight — things I talked about at our December 2008 conference, “Just Give Us the Data!”
Kudos to Sunlight for taking this bold and fun step.
