Over the past year I have been involved with a group of organizations pulled together by OMBWatch. The result of that effort has now been published as Moving Toward a 21st Century Right-To-Know Agenda: Recommendations to President-Elect Obama and Congress.
The executive summary, addressed to President Obama and Congress reads as follows:
Both the problems of secrecy and the new opportunities for strengthening openness that brought us together under this 21st Century Right to Know Project to fashion recommendations to the new president. We represent conservative, libertarian, and progressive values and include good government groups, journalists, bloggers, professional associations, issue-based groups, technology experts, and more. Our diversity ensures we have many, many differences. Yet we were willing to set aside these differences in our common pursuit of building a government that is honest, open, and ethical, starting with recommendations to improve government transparency. Our objective is to ensure that government decisions are made in a manner that builds and honors the people’s trust and confidence in their government and its ability to serve the people.
The Media Bloggers Association is a signatory. I was unable to attend the final session in Baltimore due to a scheduling conflict (I was in Las Vegas for BlogWorld launching MBA 2.0). The kickoff event was held at the Rockefeller Estate in Pocantico Hills; the Rockefellers Brothers Foundation is a major supporter of OMBWatch.
It was during this event that I had the unusual experience of spending a night in oil tycoon John D. Rockefeller's "summer home" where the various Rockefellers grew up. Gov. Nelson Rockefeller lived there during his time as Governor of New York. My room was in the servant's quarters
