The New York Times has a profile on the “Big Man” tasked with monitoring spending for the US recovery bill. The article talks about both recovery.gov (a government run site) and Stimulus Watch (a private site).
As you can see from the images below, the difference in level of detail and speed of posting is staggering. Which one would you want to visit to get the details on spending? This really hammers home what others like Visible Government and David Eaves have been saying: open the data to the people and be amazed at what the people will build. For you. For free.
US Government Stimulus Package reporting site
And by contrast, a private site from Stimulus Watch
Tagged: accountability, crowdsourcing, open data, open government, stimulus package, transparency
