Stimulus Watch

Advanced search added: keywords, zip codes, and recipients

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 00:50:26 -0500

Thanks to the tireless work of developer Peter Snyder, Stimulus Watch 2.0 now has an advanced search capability that will help you more easily navigate the tens of thousands of stimulus awards in our database. You can now search by keyword, recipient, and zip code on the advanced search page. Here are some examples of possible searches:

Jerry Brito on Washington DC’s Federal News Radio...

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 22:22:00 -0500

Jerry Brito on Washington DC’s Federal News Radio discussing the new features available on Stimulus Watch 2.0.

We've relaunched with new official data of stimulus projects in your neighborhood!

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 11:29:00 -0500

Welcome to Stimulus Watch 2.0. While our original site featured proposed stimulus projects taken from the U.S. Conference of Mayors survey, this new version contains actual stimulus spending in your neighborhood. We get our data from the official recipient reports available at Recovery.gov. We will update the data quarterly when Recovery.gov makes new data available.

You can search for contracts and grants awards by state and city, by awarding agency, or by recipient. (Keyword searching is coming soon.) When you find an award that interests you, you can vote on whether you are satisfied with it or not, add to the wiki description of the project, and join in the conversation about the award in the comments section.

Let us know what you think! If you have any suggestions on how we can improve the site, please put them in the comments below. And please help us by sharing the site with friends, posting it on your Facebook page, and tweeting about it!

Jerry Brito talks about the new Stimulus Watch site on WUSA...

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 10:34:53 -0500

Jerry Brito talks about the new Stimulus Watch site on WUSA Channel 9 News.

Help Washington Watch track congressional earmarks

Thu, 23 Jul 2009 15:02:30 -0400

Stimulus Watch was inspired in part by Washington Watch, a site that lets you find, rate, describe, and discuss legislation being considered by Congress. They have now begun a project to crowdsource earmark tracking and they need your help. As an added bonus, one lucky earmark tracker will win an Amazon Kindle. From Washington Watch:

Earmarks – they’re how members of Congress and senators steer federal funds to special interests and projects in their districts. It’s often called “pork barrel” spending because the money is divided up based on seniority and insider deals rather than the general welfare of the country. For years now, earmarking has been conducted behind the scenes, but the House and Senate recently required their membership to reveal earmark requests. The door to the smoke-filled room has been unlocked, and now we’re going to kick it down! The problem is that earmark information is spread out across congressional Web sites, and it’s in many different formats. The solution? We’ve created a system for compiling earmark data in one place—actually, for you to compile it. We want you to add earmarks to our database through our earmark entry form. Pick your hometown member of Congress or Senator, your favorite representative—or your least favorite—and put their earmarks in the database.

Check it out and lend a hand at www.washingtonwatch.com.

Norcross on C-SPAN tonight

Thu, 28 May 2009 11:52:50 -0400

We haven’t said much here in a while, but be assured that we’re still planning revamp the site to include actual stimulus spending projects once we have access to the data. In the meantime, you can catch Stimulus Watch co-founder Eileen Norcross tonight on C-SPAN discussing online efforts to track the stimulus. She will be on a panel discussion at 8:20 along with Danielle Brian, executive director of the Project on Government Oversight. Hope you can catch it!

Joshua-Michéle Ross, who previously wrote a profile of Stimulus...

Tue, 10 Mar 2009 17:36:34 -0400

Joshua-Michéle Ross, who previously wrote a profile of Stimulus Watch for O’Reilly Radar, has also made a short video walk-through of the site that highlights how quickly and cheaply the application was built.

We’re starting to turn our attention to Stimulus Watch 2.0, which we hope will allow citizens to track which projects are actually funded and to provide local knowledge about how that funding is working in their community. Stay tuned.

"Not all believe the federal government is capable of such candor, and so far, an independent site,..."

Tue, 10 Mar 2009 17:28:31 -0400

“Not all believe the federal government is capable of such candor, and so far, an independent site, StimulusWatch.org, easily outclasses Recovery.gov.”

- The New York Times.

Stimulus Watch in O'Reilly Radar

Mon, 16 Feb 2009 12:58:09 -0500

If you are interested in how we built Stimulus Watch, check out a profile in O’Reilly Radar of the real heroes behind Stimulus Watch, developers Peter Snyder and Kevin Dwyer, who built the site from off-the-shelf parts and some ingenious coding. Here’s a bit:

None of these people knew each other previously. They were brought together by [a] blog post into a common effort. They used open source tools in rapid development. They plugged in off the shelf online social technologies (disqus, tumblr and mediawiki) to create a forum to discuss these local projects. They achieved this in seven weeks. In fact, according to Peter, “the real effort here was more like two weeks”

Minneapolis - St. Paul local TV station KSTP mentioned Stimulus...

Tue, 10 Feb 2009 11:58:00 -0500

Minneapolis - St. Paul local TV station KSTP mentioned Stimulus Watch after a piece they ran on the U.S. Conference of Mayors’ MainStreet Economic Recovery Report. In the piece they interview Roseville, MN, mayor Craig Klausing. That city is requesting $120,000 to hire a police officer, and also $1.5 million for a golf course clubhouse. The mayor explained that their wish list is a mix of critical needs and not-so-critical wants.

“There aren’t that many projects were everybody comes on board and says we’re all 100 percent in support of this,” the mayor said. “What you have to do is prioritize.”

Prioritizing is exactly how we hope Stimulus Watch can help. Citizens around the country can use this site to learn about, discuss, and then vote on the proposed projects. The result is a citizen prioritization of projects that we hope the administration and local government around the country will find useful.

Off the Map, a website dedicated to geodata and visualization,...

Mon, 09 Feb 2009 13:54:00 -0500

Off the Map, a website dedicated to geodata and visualization, has taken StimulusWatch.org’s dataset and mashed it on a map with regional unemployment numbers. Check out the interactive map. Also, be sure to read their post explaining what they did.

Most active projects scrutinized in the press

Mon, 09 Feb 2009 13:24:36 -0500

Since this site launched, two proposed projects in particular have drawn a lot of attention and have consistently placed at the top of the daily most active list. These are a project for doorbells in Laurel, MS, and the Forks of The Road Heritage Trail project in Natchez, MS. Now the local papers in each city have reported on the projects. You can read the articles here:

Doorbells ringing a sour note
Laurel Leader-Call

City did not ask for $600M for project
Natchez Democrat

Jon Gordon interviews Jerry Brito about Stimulus Watch on...

Fri, 06 Feb 2009 17:57:18 -0500

Jon Gordon interviews Jerry Brito about Stimulus Watch on American Public Radio’s Future Tense program.

More attention, but we still need your help

Fri, 06 Feb 2009 17:55:30 -0500

Here is an update of recent Stimulus Watch mentions in the media. The site depends on active participation by citizens, so we hope you’ll help us spread the word by emailing your friends and family and sharing the site on your Facebook profile and in other online forums. Thanks!

Everything You Need to Know About the Stimulus Is Online
Fast Company

Tracking Stimulus Funds Presents Daunting Task
NPR

The Politics Of Doom
CBS News

What I’ve Gleaned So Far About the Stimulus Plan: Get Ready to Put Out
The Huffington Post

Garland Robinette of WWL Radio in Louisiana interviews Jerry...

Thu, 05 Feb 2009 14:27:35 -0500

Garland Robinette of WWL Radio in Louisiana interviews Jerry Brito and Eileen Norcross about Stimulus Watch.

Chris Dorobek of Washington, D.C.’s Federal News Radio...

Wed, 04 Feb 2009 18:00:25 -0500

Chris Dorobek of Washington, D.C.’s Federal News Radio 1500 AM interviews Jerry Brito about Stimulus Watch.

Stimulus Watch in the media

Tue, 03 Feb 2009 23:06:00 -0500

Stimulus Watch has been getting some great attention from the media and blogosphere, and we note some of it below. Thank you all for visiting, participating, and spreading the word. If you’d like to help a bit more, please follow this link and click and Digg our site. Thanks!

Crowdsourcing the Stimulus
The New York Times Economix Blog

Stimulus stimulates crowdsourced oversight, activism
Ars Technica

Post on Stimulus Watch
Sunlight Foundation Blog

Daily Digest: What Progressives Want (and What They Should)
PDF TechPresident

New Site Tests Crowd-Sourced Transparency
Freedom to Tinker

Stimulus Watch: Where the Money Goes
Buffalo Rising

Via Talking Points Memo: Speaking about the stimulus this...

Mon, 02 Feb 2009 12:47:38 -0500

Via Talking Points Memo: Speaking about the stimulus this morning, President Obama promised to create a “an independent board … that actually looks at these programs, and the money, before it goes out the door.” That’s great news, and it makes the discussion and rating of projects that you’re doing here at Stimulus Watch that much more important. We hope an independent review board will look to what citizens are saying on sites like this.

Stimulus Watch officially launched today - Help us spread the word

Mon, 02 Feb 2009 01:49:00 -0500

StimulusWatch.org is officially open for business today, and we need your help spreading the word about it. Please tell your friends and family about it by emailing them, blogging about it, and posting it to your Facebook profile.

Stimulus Watch looks at the “shovel-ready” projects listed in the U.S. Conference of Mayors’ “MainStreet Economic Recovery Report.” The mayors and local officials around the country have asked that these projects be funded with federal money. However, once the stimulus bill passes, not every project will be funded. The agencies that administer the federal grant-making programs, which Congress will fund through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, will have to decide which of these projects to fund.

While these funding decisions are largely made by formula, the Obama administration has promised to be smart about which projects it funds with stimulus money. In his address on economic recovery on January 8, President Obama said:

We have to make tough choices and smart investments today so that as the economy recovers, the deficit starts to come down. We cannot have a solid recovery if our people and our businesses don’t have confidence that we’re getting our fiscal house in order. That’s why our goal is not to create a slew of new government programs, but a foundation for long-term economic growth.

That also means an economic recovery plan that is free from earmarks and pet projects. I understand that every member of Congress has ideas on how to spend money. Many of these projects are worthy, and benefit local communities. But this emergency legislation must not be the vehicle for those aspirations. This must be a time when leaders in both parties put the urgent needs of our nation above our own narrow interests.

Stimulus Watch exist to help the President keep his pledge. Citizens around the country can judge for themselves the merits of the mayors’ proposed projects. Using this site they can voice their opinions and local knowledge of the projects letting everyone know which are worth an investment and which are not. Local government officials are also invited to join the conversation to give context for their requests.

We hope you enjoy the site, and we hope you will help us spread the word.

Stimulus Watch soft launches - Help us test it!

Thu, 29 Jan 2009 13:51:05 -0500

While this site will officially launch on Monday, we’re asking you to help us test the site and seed it with content a little earlier. Starting Friday morning, please visit StimulusWatch.org and edit the project wikis, post comments, and vote on the projects. Please also feel free to spread the word about Stimulus Watch. Thanks!