spotlightonspend leads the way for true transparency
In May 2010 the Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead became
the first public body to deploy spotlightonspend on their website,
and we began our mission to help public bodies share data
meaningfully. We have started with the spending on goods and
services in local government but there is much more to come.
Data geeks who turn numbers into knowledge
We believe we are data alchemists turning numbers into pure
gold. In truth we are a company of geeks crunching invoice numbers
with line by line accuracy. But, let’s face it, today’s governments
need help from geeks like us a lot. There are tough budget choices
ahead and we can help by giving a clear picture of current
spending. This insight drives innovation and helps people look for
ways to achieve a better society.
spotlightonspend is a:
- Do-tank: we are the people taking the
practical steps required to achieve transparency. Our interest lies
not in what policy should be, but in how it is implemented to
achieve political outcome.
- Transparency advisor: Public sector data can
be difficult to deal with. We advise on how to take unwieldy
information and turn it into practical information that can grow
into knowledge. This can make the difference between a workable
policy and difficult burdensome regulations.
- Communicator: Our role is to provide insight
and communicate clearly to as wide an audience as possible. It is
not our role to decide how to change the way public money is
spent.
- Buzz aggregator: we are constantly analysing
all the content online on blogs, forums, tweets and other media
interactions about openness and transparency. We are an aggregator
for the information driving the change in policy towards a more
open society.
Join our Advisory Panel
Our journey has begun but we’d prefer not to travel alone. If
you are willing and would like to contribute to our Advisory Panel
or our People’s Panel we’d love to hear from you. Likewise, if you
represent a public body and would like to know more about
publishing your organisation’s spending data then please click here.