Recovery.gov has gone live

http://www.recovery.gov/

by babyshake • 17 years ago

50 45 17 years ago

recovery.gov

sam_in_nyc• 17 years ago

I don't have much to say about the actual plan, but it's just so nice to see this stuff online.

rrhyne2• 17 years ago

Agreed. If the transparency Obama claims materializes, it could end the grafting and pork.

Also, this website could keep a handful of people employed! Yay!

anthonyrubin2• 17 years ago

"If the transparency Obama claims materializes, it could end the grafting and pork."

Have you read much about this bill?

dpifke• 17 years ago

I think the last item on the FAQ is probably the most interesting for hackers:

Q: Is the spending data on recovery.gov available in a format (like XML) that developers can use to create mashups and gadgets?

A: Not at this time. But, as new systems are developed to capture the allocations and expenditures under the Act, we plan to make that data available in exportable form.

CalmQuiet• 17 years ago

I find it refreshing that they even recognize this question: a stark contrast to past federal "know-nothing" approaches to hacking & tech.

byrneseyeview2• 17 years ago

I'm glad their words are starting to catch up to the Republican party's deeds:

http://www.gop.gov/api

Open, competitive government is probably a good thing; the fact that different parts of the government are competing to see who can be more open is even better.

thesethings3• 17 years ago

Aside: I hear via twitter that it's running Drupal.

antipax• 17 years ago

It's true: http://www.reynoldsftw.com/2009/02/recoverygov-uses-jquery-o...

lisp_padawan• 17 years ago

Looks like it, there's mention of drupal in a javascript call near the bottom of the source. Nice clean html too from a quick glance - wonder if this is the same team as did Obama's election site, similar visual style. Good stuff.

cjoh2• 17 years ago

It isn't. Blue State would never use Drupal. Blue State uses Expression Engine and their own suite of tools.

alecco• 17 years ago

Playing with fire.

gills• 17 years ago

"Mission Accomplished"

...

jonknee• 17 years ago

Neat to see all the open source software being used (Apache, PHP, MySQL, Drupal, jQuery, MIT Simile Timeline, etc). And once again YouTube is front and center.

Mix in an API and they'll be rocking.

jmatt• 17 years ago

This is part of the bill^.

SEC. 1201. TRANSPARENCY REQUIREMENTS. (b) (1) (A)

Each such agency shall notify the public of funds obligated to particular infrastructure investments by posting the notification on the website Recovery.gov.

[Continues from there... details at SEC. 1226. RECOVERY.GOV.]

This site improves accessibility but not transparency. All congressional bills are already readily available... but it's limited to watchdogs and those few that are motivated enough to find and read them.

^ http://appropriations.house.gov/pdf/RecoveryBill01-15-09.pdf

EDIT: Formatting.

indiejade• 17 years ago

Coincidentally, the Wiki on TransparentAccounting.org also went "live" today: http://www.transparentaccounting.org/wiki/us

The words "accountability" and "transparency" (from Recovery.org) do seem to be used much more frequently by the Obama Administration than its predecessor. This makes me think that the wiki just might work.

I don't know how much work needs to be done on a wiki before blowing the kazoos and writing the press releases. What might be the best way to go about building the site? Starting with abbreviations seems like a good idea, as it seems both techies and government people love the acronyms.

Any and all thoughts / ideas / opinions are welcome.

adatta02• 17 years ago

Unfortunately "Q: Is the spending data on recovery.gov available in a format (like XML) that developers can use to create mashups and gadgets? A: Not at this time. But, as new systems are developed to capture the allocations and expenditures under the Act, we plan to make that data available in exportable form"

http://www.recovery.gov/?q=content/frequently-asked-question...

euroclydon• 17 years ago

Why do Tax Cuts contain $61B for Protecting the Vulnerable when there is already a Protecting the Vulnerable category with $81B?

Also, if Obama were really interested in transparency, he would direct the Treasury and Federal Reserve to comply with the FOIA requests made by the media regarding the TARP and the liquidity injections.

yummyfajitas• 17 years ago

Because that lets politicians talk about $BIGNUM in "tax relief" and also $BIGNUM2 in "protecting the vulnerable"?

Another fun fact, obscured by the headlines, is that "tax relief" includes wealth transfers from taxpayers to non-taxpayers (http://www.investopedia.com/terms/r/refundablecredit.asp).

ckinnan• 17 years ago

Ironic that Obama's approach to tech is open source and decentralized, but his approach to the economy is command and control.

nazgulnarsil3• 17 years ago

transparent government isn't really a solution unless people are willing to act on the data. but we have already shown that this isn't the case. when people hear of corruption are the people involved outed? for the most part no.

TFrancis2• 17 years ago

I don't think that's fair. Exposing government data in general will allow people (citizens, consumers, whatever...) to see _systemic_ corruption. Often when we hear of corruption, it is represented as a single point (politician X, company y, etc...) of failure in the democratic system.

Exposing data like thins allows the citizenry to be data driven instead of anecdotal and emotional. I think that's the important break from past governmental practices.

nazgulnarsil3• 17 years ago

maybe young people see it as a single failure. most people over the age of 30 know better.

besides, what is the punishment model of our democracy? voting the other party in? yeah, that works.

I vote for a return of the public gallows.

newmediaclay• 17 years ago

Very cool site. They're using opensource Javascript from MIT's Simile Project to power the timeline at the bottom. Good incorporation of an existing, powerful opensource resource: http://www.newmediacampaigns.com/page/recoverygovs-javascrip...

rwebb• 17 years ago

i got it to go past 4000 BC. any idea when it ends?

babyshake• 17 years ago

Hey, you can never be too careful when it comes to economic recoveries.

For instance, what if Bernie Madoff is secretly plotting to use a frozen donkey wheel to make us travel through time?

Yeah. That's what I thought.

greyhat3• 17 years ago

The design of this and whitehouse.gov drive me crazy. The gratuitous use of italics randomly in headings always seems to emphasize the wrong part of the sentence. Right on the front page of this site we have "Your money AT work". Now why on earth would you emphasize the least important word in the phrase? It makes it sound like someone who can't quite make out some handwriting is narrating the page. Maybe a minor nitpick that not everyone notices, but in my case I find it really detracts from the readability and professional veneer these sites are trying to achieve.

greyhat3• 17 years ago

Read the fine print(!):

* Tax Relief - includes $15 B for Infrastructure and Science, $61 B for Protecting the Vulnerable, $25 B for Education and Training and $22 B for Energy, so total funds are $126 B for Infrastructure and Science, $142 B for Protecting the Vulnerable, $78 B for Education and Training, and $65 B for Energy.

So the largest bubble, tax relief, actually includes the other bubbles? Wouldn't the normal expectation that if there is one large bubble marked tax relief that it actually represent tax relief and not science spending? Or is that just an almost transparent attempt to pander to people who want tax cuts? Help me understand this!

greyhat3• 17 years ago

For a much more insightful breakdown, http://stimuluswatch.org/ has a pretty interesting listing that allows people to vote, comment, and offer arguments for and against individual items.

bdittmer• 17 years ago

This is transparency after the fact. The actual bill was only available for review for something like 10 hours before it was voted on and passed. 1100 pages in 10 hours? Great.

This information should available on ALL bills at least a week before the bill is voted on by congress. I for one am appalled at how this thing was driven through.

Recovery.gov has gone live

Related Stories