Public Square Project Founder to Speak at Launch of Sunlight Foundation Campaign

WASHINGTON, DC – The Sunlight Foundation will kick off a national campaign for transparent government this THURSDAY, March 18, 2010. The “Public=Online” campaign will be an ongoing effort by the Sunlight Foundation to harness public support for accountability and transparency to build a grassroots movement that works to hold elected officials accountable on the local, state and federal level.

The campaign will be launched at a panel discussion that will include some of the leading names in government, the media, think tanks, the political parties and citizen activism groups. The panel will be held at Google’s Washington, D.C. offices located at 1101 New York Avenue, N.W. starting at 2:00 PM.

Where:
Google D.C.
Second Floor
1101 New York Avenue, N.W. (Entrance on Eye Street)
Washington, DC 20005

When:
Thursday, March 18, 2:00 – 3:30 p.m.

Who:
Guest speakers include:

Jake Brewer, engagement director of the Sunlight Foundation
Mark Tapscott, editorial page editor of the Washington Examiner
Jose Antonio Vargas, Technology & Innovations Editor at the Huffington Post
Ginny Hunt, Head of Google’s Public Sector Lab
Ryan Hopkins, Public Square Project
And a representative from the federal government

The Sunlight Foundation is a non-partisan non-profit that uses cutting-edge technology and ideas to make government transparent and accountable. Visit http://SunlightFoundation.com to learn more about Sunlight’s projects, including http://PoliticalPartyTime.org and http://OpenCongress.org.

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Blog

The Public Square Posterous

In order to provide the latest and greatest in blogging technology, The Public Square Project is now going to be blogging at our new Posterous blog - The Public Square Posterous, which you can check out that this link, or at publicsquare.posterous.com. Come on over and join the conversation about government transparency, Government 2.0 technology, and citizen journalism.

Public=Online

On Thursday of this week, I was in Washington, D.C. to participate in a panel discussion on the importance of transparency at all levels of government. The panel was hosted by the Sunlight Foundation and Google and held at Google's D.C. office. I'll share my thoughts on the panel in the next post, but I wanted to first explain why I was there.

Year One of The Public Square Project: Where We've Been, Where We're Headed.

It's hard to believe that it has been one year since we kicked off the work of The Public Square Project with a series of citizen journalism training workshops held at The Union Project in East Liberty. Since that time, we have registered some key successes, dealt with many challenges, and made our share of mistakes.

Report the News. Make Money!

The Public Square Project is now offering a one-time $75.00 stipend to the first 10 citizen journalists who publish a news story in the upcoming edition of The Pittsburgh Citizen, formerly PittPoint, the new citizen-driven news site and publishing platform developed by The Public Square Project (read more below).  It's that simple: Report the News. Make Money.*

News

Public Square Project is quietly tapping the power of local citizen journalists

A grassroots project is quietly emerging as a profound voice for citizen activists in the region.

PMweekend Features Citizen Journalism Workshops

Belated thank you to Pittsburgh Magazine for featuring The Public Square Project's Citizen Journalism Workshops in PMweekend.

Read the full story in PMweekend here.

Blog Role

BY CHRIS YOUNG, Pittsburgh City Paper

Old-media journalists are losing jobs everywhere, while new-media journalists often lack the resources and expertise to fill in the gaps. But Ryan Hopkins hopes his effort to combine old and new media will improve local news reporting and create greater government transparency.