Tracking the Stimulus

Transit Transparency

Technology for Transparency & Accountability

RESEARCH

Tracking the Stimulus

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act marks the first time that states and other recipients of federal contracts, grants and loans have been required to submit detailed reports on their spending with the aim of ensuring full transparency and accountability. This research examines these new reporting systems and asks how the resulting data is used by the public sector and citizens, advocacy groups, and other organizations to monitor expenditures, set priorities, and asses equity. This study is funded by a grant from the Open Society Institute.

Transit Transparency

Real time transit data accessed directly by riders on their mobile phones and on the web is taking the anxiety out of asking, “Where’s the bus?” This research project employs case histories to trace the origin, development and evolution of open data initiatives in major U.S. transit systems and evaluate how constituents, including transit riders, software developers and transit agencies, use the information. This study is a joint project of the Transparency Policy Project and the Taubman Center for State and Local Government at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and is funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation.
 

Technology for Transparency & Accountability

The Transparency Policy Project is working with the Transparency and Accountability Initiative to investigate how civil society groups around the world employ technology for transparency and accountability in a variety of fields. Our first project maps out how NGOs in the extractives (oil, gas & mining) and the natural resource governance fields employ technology as part of their transparency strategies.