Government Information Awareness

"Knowledge will forever govern ignorance, and a people who mean to be their own governors, must arm themselves with the power knowledge gives. A popular government without popular information or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy or perhaps both." - James Madison (Fourth President of the United States)

Mission
To empower citizens by providing a single, comprehensive, easy-to-use repository of information on individuals, organizations, and corporations related to the government of the United States of America. To allow citizens to submit intelligence about government-related issues, while maintaining their anonymity. To allow members of the government a chance to participate in the process.

Context
In the United States, there is a widening gap between a citizen's ability to monitor his or her government and the government's ability to monitor a citizen. Average citizens have limited access to important government records, while available information is often illegible. Meanwhile, the government's eagerness and means to oversee a citizen's personal activity is rapidly increasing. As the government broadens internal surveillance, and collaborates with private institutions to access data on the public, it is crucial that we maintain a symmetry of accountability. If we believe the United States should be a government "of the people, by the people, and for the people" it is of central importance to provide citizens with the power to oversee their government. At least as much effort should be spent building tools to facilitate citizens supervising their government as tools to help the government monitor individuals.

Technology
The Open Government Information Awareness suite of software tools acts as a framework for US citizens to construct and analyze a comprehensive database on our government. Modeled on recent government programs designed to consolidate information on individuals into massive databases, our system does the opposite, allowing you to scrutinize those in government. Citizens are able to explore data, track events, find patterns, and build risk profiles, all in an effort to encourage and motivate action. We like to think of it as a Citizen?s Intelligence Agency, giving people similar tools and technologies to those held by their government. Central to GIA is its extensible model of data: Everything in its system is either an entity or a link -- a thing or a relationship. This allows the system to grow in any direction, and accommodate as-yet unimagined institutions, organizations, or threats.

Getting Started
The best way to get started is simply by clicking around. Try looking for your elected representatives, judges in your area, or even your employer. You'll see some of the types of information available. Check back often, as the system grows quickly

- FAQ
Frequently Asked QuestionsWhat is the Government Information Awareness Program?
Government Information Awareness (GIA) is a research effort by the Computing Culture group of the MIT Media Lab. It aims to provide software and data to help citizens understand the complexities of their government.
We were motivated by the Defense Advance Research Program Administration (DARPA) program, Total Information Awareness, which seeks to gather, consolidate, and analyze information about Americans and foreigners. We see such research as possibly helpful, and probably dangerous to the democratic process.
The premise of GIA is that individual citizens have the right to know details about government, while government has the power to know details about citizens. Our goal is develop a technology which empowers citizens to form a sort of intelligence agency; gathering, sorting, and acting on information they gather about the government. Only by employing such technologies can we hope to have a government "by the people, and for the people."
The system presents itself to users as a Web site, but is actually a suite of information technologies that actively peruse data, accept contributions, and post alerts about government. The system will accommodate information of almost any type, allowing users to sort through volumes of information which would otherwise be unusable. More importantly, the system allows for people to submit any information, while retaining anonymity, but while also being identified as a consistent source.
For instance, say a scandal breaks, but the politician in question is later exonerated because of a specific fact. Users can poll the system to see if that fact was logged, and find out who contributed that fact, and when they did, without knowing their real name. They can then rank the credibility of that contributor, and ask the system to notify them if he or she makes further contributions in the future. Thus, they can learn whether they trust or mistrust a contributor, while the contributor still retains anonymity.
A further feature of the site is that any subject of a submission -- whether individual, agency, or organization -- is notified of the submission, and asked to respond. They can confirm or deny the submission. It's important to note that, like an FBI file, submissions are not purged when denied — the stakes are simply too high to do so. As with such files, subjects of spurious submissions who are nonetheless innocent have nothing to fear from GIA.
  Who is working on it?
Open Government Information Awareness was designed and implemented by Ryan McKinley, a researcher at the MIT Media Lab, working in the Computing Culture group. Our research unit is aimed at providing technologies that derive from values and motivations different than those usually held by technologists.
We actively solicit programmers, political activists from all denominations, lawyers, and others who are interested in supporting OpenGIA. From subroutines to facts to coffee, we can use any assistance possible. If you are serious about helping us develop this site, please contact contribute@opengov.us.


What is GIA's affiliation with CSPAN?
We are proud viewers of CSPAN. We laud the cable industry for providing this remarkable service to the country, and have watched innumerable microphones, podiums, and pitchers of water while developing GIA. We are happy to add value to this remarkable resource.


Is this legal?
It should be.


What is GIA's relationship to TIA?
We are grateful that the world of military-funded science offers constant initiatives to refute. That a government with countless details about its constituents will serve them better is a theory that's oft been proven wrong, while the theory that a country should have access to details about its governors is one that this country was built on, and is incontestably solid. TIA receives hundreds of millions of dollars a year, and will thus probably succeed in some sense. GIA cost a hundredth of a hundredth of that, and may well succeed because of the intelligence of the American people.

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