20070226 Tapscott on Internet and government transparency

Tapscott on Internet and government transparency

Internet and government transparency

February 26^th, 2007 – Posted March 3^rd, 2007

I had missed it – but just came across a fascinating commentary by Mark Tapscott, the “editorial page editor of The Washington Examiner and a member of The Examiner Newspaper’s national editorial board.”

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Mark Tapscott: They aren’t laughing now about the Internet and government transparency

Mark Tapscott, The Examiner

Feb 26, 2007 3:00 AM

WASHINGTON - There were more than a few skeptical chuckles seven years ago when I first wrote in a Knight Ridder column that posting federal contracts and other spending documents on the Internet could restore public confidence in government by making it more transparent.

They aren’t laughing anymore. Using the Internet to foster greater transparency and accountability in government has not only become one of the few points of agreement between liberals and conservatives, it has even become official government policy.

Exhibit A here, of course, is passage last year of Coburn-Obama, aka the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006, co-sponsored by Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., and Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and enthusiastically signed into law by President Bush.

Coburn-Obama directs the U.S. Office of Management and Budget to establish a Google-like searchable database of most federal spending by 2009. You can view the preliminary Web site at FederalSpending.gov. You can also get a good idea of the benefits to come by checking OMB Watch’s superb Fedspending.org, a precursor to the Coburn-Obama database.

Read the rest here. More great links and this informative commentary is well worth the time.

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Kevin