I’m a big fan of quality public policy analysis, which we don’t have enough of, particularly at the state level.
One prerequisite of good analysis is good data, so I’m heartened by recent trends toward more data openness in the Congress.
The Sunlight Foundation’s Ellen Miller highlights this issue today as well:
OpenData Thursday
Massie Ritsch, the Center for Responsive Politics’ communication director, has declared 2009 “The Year for Open Data.” And judging by two announcements today, it looks like he’s right. CRP is just getting started opening up its vast databases to the world, making regular updates from here on forward. Check out what they are offering here.Also today, The New York Times. As their announcement says, the API provides summaries of roll-call votes in the U.S. Congress; retrieves lists of members of Congress, vote data, and biographical information for individual House and Senate members. The Time’s data includes House votes since 1991 and Senate votes since 1989. Information on House members goes back to 1983, while the info on senators goes all the way back to 1947. Just a heads up: there are some concerns around our office about their TOS. Check the Sunlight Labs blog is a few hours for more details.
This has been a very good day for open data.
