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Jake Brewer
Public = Online : Your Government in Real Time
What our government does, how government spends our money, and the data it holds that could benefit our businesses and communities is public information.
Today, "Public" means making government data available to us "online" and in real-time.
We as citizens have already paid for this important data with our taxes, and we've given our elected officials the privilege of creating and holding the data through our vote. With the technology and tools now available to us, it's time to open government up fully - from how we release and make use of the data government holds, to how we engage with our elected officials in new ways and hold them accountable.
It's time to put pressure on government at every level to make this newly-possible openness and transparency a reality. There are new markets to be created (think of what's been created with weather and GPS data), businesses to be built (think of weather.com or Garmin), and perhaps most importantly, underlying all these efforts is a fundamental belief that a more transparent government is one more deserving of our trust and participation. It's democracy as it was always intended to be.
Let's talk about bringing it to life. Our Founding Fathers would have drooled.
About Jake Brewer:
Jake directs the Engagement division of the Sunlight Foundation, leading Sunlight's communications, online tools and strategy, and campaign organizing to get citizens engaged in creating a more transparent, accountable government.
Previously, Jake was the strategic communications director for the Energy Action Coalition - which brought over 12,000 people to lobby for clean energy reform at Power Shift '09, and mobilized 350,000 'climate voters' in 10 weeks in the 2008 elections.
Through these and other roles, such as helping run Idealist.org and bouncing around the world with community development projects, Jake hopes to one day return to his first job as a minor league baseball mascot.
