As 2015 winds to a close, we can look back on a year of success stories and failures when it comes to transparency in government.
At the start of the year, the federal government began releasing its enterprise data inventories — comprehensive indexes of the data sets it collects — to the public. The move, which came in response to a Sunlight Foundation Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, was a major victory for government transparency.
By making the indexes publicly available, we’ll have a better picture of what data and information the federal government collects and maintains, and it opens the door for further investigation and analysis by Congress, journalists and citizens alike. Continue…
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