Turning Crowds into Watchdogs
By Eugenie Samuel Reich
On supporting science journalism
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Government officials do not have to be the only ones exercising oversight. Through “crowdsourcing,” members of the public could comment on projects online, in such a way that inspectors-general would be alerted to problems quickly. “Even for technical projects, if a database is put out there others can police it,” says Eileen Norcross of George Mason University, who testified at the science and technology committee’s March hearing about Stimuluswatch.org, which monitors the stimulus expenditure. But to reap the full benefits of crowdsourcing, the federal agencies need to be more open: Norcross notes that, under the recovery act, agencies need provide only some information publicly.
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