Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman recently announced a re-launch of his office\u2019s online public data portal, NYOpenGovernment.com. For the first time, lobbying disclosures collected by the Joint Commission on Public Ethics (JCOPE) can be matched to specific bills proposed and passed in the New York State legislature. Users will be able to track more easily what issues lobbyists and their clients are advocating, and how they result in specific legislation. Furthermore, users will be able to \u201cclick through\u201d pages of the data, allowing them to connect the business of a particular donor to the political contributions made to a candidate\u2019s campaign.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur new open government website is an important step in my office\u2019s efforts to improve transparency and accountability in government,\u201d said Attorney General Schneiderman. \u201cIn an effort to make government more responsive, these new tools will give the public easy access to data that is typically difficult to navigate and piece together. I look forward to seeing the outside analysis that results from this data, and pledge to continue our efforts in this area.\u201d<\/p>\n
NYOpenGovernment.com is an effort by the Attorney General\u2019s office to promote the public\u2019s right to know and monitor governmental decision-making. It is the only statewide resource that aggregates a range of sources for state government information \u2013 including data on campaign finance, lobbying, charities, state contracts, member items, corporate registrations, elected officials, and legislation \u2013 which is otherwise scattered or difficult to retrieve. Users will also be able to request access to the site\u2019s API, which was debuted during last year\u2019s Sunshine Week. The API will allow developers to build new graphical interfaces, devise algorithms for mining the data in innovative ways, create applications that join the Open Government information with other publicly available data, and explore a host of other potentially useful approaches.<\/p>\n