Sunshine Review:About

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Sunshine Review
nonprofit
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Leadership: Mike Barnhart
Political Party: nonpartisan
Website: Sunshine Review.org
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Email: kristinpedia@sunshinereview.org
Transparency Focus
Local governments


Contents

Sunshine Review is a non-profit organization dedicated to state and local government transparency. The Sunshine Review wiki collects and shares transparency information and uses a "10-point Transparency Checklist" to evaluate the content of every state and more than 5,000 local government websites. Sunshine Review collaborates with individuals and organizations throughout America in the cause of an informed citizenry and an accountable government.

The first focus of Sunshine Review is an awareness-building effort to evaluate the transparency of local government entities, based on if the websites proactively disclose government data.

The checklist for each entity is slightly different, please review them here:

We launched in July of 2008 and our Executive Director is Michael Barnhart, with the senior editors being Kristin McMurray and Diana Lopez. In the past Sunshine Review was a project of the Sam Adams Alliance (SAM), but in 2010 separated from SAM and launched its own organization dedicated to educating the public about affirmative disclosure and other open government initiatives.

The website addresses several areas of transparency, including state spending, state sunshine laws, and rating local government websites on transparency.[1] Sunshine Review works with the National Taxpayers Union[2] to develop information on state spending, and with the Lucy Burns Institute who runs the WikiFOIA project..[3]

[edit] Website evaluations

In March of 2010, the organization reported that it had evaluated over 5,000 government websites, including 3,140 counties, 805 cities, and 1,560 school districts.[4] In March of 2010, Sunshine Review launched the Sunny Awards just prior to Sunshine Week to recognize the 39 local government websites that had score an A on their checklist.[5]

  • See also: FAQ

[edit] Upgrading to meet the checklist

St. Charles Parish, Louisiana re-did their website partly "in response to the critique [on Sunshine Review], which examined the sites of every parish in the state, she put the parish's budget online and is preparing to add information about how to obtain public records from the parish."[6] Dupage County, Illinois promised to add county contracts to its website.[7] Champaign County, Illinois was recognized by a local newspaper for its informative website based on Sunshine Review's evaluation of the county's website.[8][9][10]

Other local government has also upgraded their websites to recieve perfect grades on Sunshine Review's checklist including Tulsa County[11], Owasso City[12], Carbondale[13] and Anderson County.[14]

Sunshine Review was also credited with inspiring Cook County, Illinois to post its checkbook register online.[15]

[edit] Anyone can edit the Sunshine Review

The Sunshine Review is a wiki website that anyone--including you right now--can edit by clicking on the "edit" link that appears in the horizontal menu bar across the top of every article. By helping to edit existing articles, add information, and fix mistakes, you can help improve and grow the site.

Where to start: Everything you need to know to get started on the Sunshine Review.

[edit] Sunshine Review Community

Once you register on the site, you are considered an editor and a member of the Sunshine Review Community. There are several ways to interact with other editors, and we encourage you to do this. Editors can share tips, plan bigger joint projects, and get to know each other. Some ways to participate in the Sunshine Review community include:


If you have any further questions, please consider joining us for some Q&A at one of our Wednesday Webinars. These occur every Wednesday at 1 pm CST.


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[edit] References

  1. ↑ Sunshine Review
  2. ↑ Show Me The Spending
  3. ↑ WikiFOIA
  4. ↑ Sedona Times, Arizona “Sunny Award” Winners, March 10, 2010
  5. ↑ Reason Hit & Run, Top Government Websites for Transparency, March 10, 2010
  6. ↑ The Times Picayune, St. Charles redesigns Web site, January 22, 2008
  7. ↑ Argus Press Spectator, County Web site earns top marks for transparency, Dec. 8, 2008
  8. ↑ News-Gazette, Champaign County Web site recognized for openness, Dec. 4, 2008
  9. ↑ PJ Star, Illinoisans more than one click away, Nov. 30, 2008
  10. ↑ Beacon News, A not so twisted Web for counties, Dec. 1, 2008
  11. ↑ Tulsa World, County kudos, Oct. 24, 2009
  12. ↑ Tulsa World, Owasso gets high mark for openness, January 9, 2010
  13. ↑ ICMA News Briefing, Sam Adams Alliance Praises Carbondale, Illinois, Website As Model Of Openness, March 16, 2009
  14. ↑ Independent Mail, Openness is Anderson’s message at convention, July 29, 2009
  15. ↑ Civic Federation, Cook County’s New Online Check Register Gives Public Access to County Spending Records, Feb. 24, 2010
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