Monthly Showcase posts on MediaShift

I'm excited to announce that from starting this today, Public Media 2.0 Showcase posts will be featured on MediaShift once per month. In honor of election day, this week's post features 10 exciting government transparency projects that help users serve as watchdogs:

With the 2010 U.S. elections coming into view, many people are looking for more information about the people running for office -- and the individuals and organizations funding these candidates.

Fortunately, there are dozens of initiatives that mine and share the data that influence policy and policy-makers. Many are funded by The Sunlight Foundation, which aims to use "the revolutionary power of the Internet to make information about Congress and the federal government more meaningfully accessible to citizens."

Below are 10 innovative government transparency projects that employ powerful online databases to make political data accessible (and, in many cases, fun as well). They serve as examples of Public Media 2.0 by providing much-needed intelligence about the relationships between officials, corporations, and policy-makers.

Head on over to MediaShift and check it out! Or, you can read it here next week. (There will be a one-week posting delay for all Showcase posts appearing on MediaShift.)