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OpenGov co-founder Zac Bookman lets taxpayers see where cash goes
Key Excerpts from Article on Website of San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper)
Posted: February 9th, 2015
http://www.sfgate.com/visionaryoftheyear/article/OpenGov-co-...
Sometimes people laugh when Zac Bookman tells them what his company, OpenGov does. Not out of mockery. Out of disbelief that a website or, really, anything can make it easier to track how the government spends trillions of dollars of their tax money. Users [of OpenGov] can easily share what they find with friends or push back on government officials to question their spending. Still, Bookman hears doubters. Cynicism runs deep, especially when it involves government becoming more transparent. Bookman ... understands their skepticism. People have lost faith in government officials to improve their lives. People dont think of (government) as an industry, but it is, said Bookman, whom Ronnie Lott nominated for the first Chronicle and St. Marys College Visionary of the Year award. Our software allows you to see where the money goes. $7 trillion in public dollars ... flows through federal, state and local government entities, from big cities to mosquito abatement districts. Much of it is hidden in plain sight, virtually inaccessible to the public because of user-unfriendly tech interfaces. But now more than 250 government organizations are using [OpenGov], including the city of Los Angeles. There is a bipartisan appeal to this sort of transparency. Conservatives like it because it helps to highlight where to cut government fat, while liberals buy into it because this sort of tool can quantify the value of government services. OpenGov is attempting to ... make this very complex data usable by people who are not financial experts.
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