March 8, 2007 3:54PM # Let the Sun Shine In By [Jim Harper](https://www.cato.org/people/jim-harper) --- SHARE Everyone believes that government would be better if there was more transparency — though people’s ideas of “better” can range quite widely. As I’ve noted before, the Internet and other new technologies have a lot to do with [making government information more available](https://www.cato.org/2006/08/01/getting-to-government-transparency/). Apropos of this phenomenon — and the impending advent of spring — next week turns out to be “[Sunshine Week](http://www.sunshineweek.org/),” which includes a wide variety of open government activities. Among other things, the [Sunlight Foundation](http://www.sunlightfoundation.com/), sponsor of the [Sunlight Network](http://www.sunlightnetwork.com/node/2), is having a panel discussion called “[Sunshine in the First Branch: How Transparent is Congress?](http://www.sunlightfoundation.com/node/2250)” Oh sure, this kind of thing is a little [kumbaya](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kumbaya#Popular_usage), but I’ve been known to [hum a few bars of that tune](http://www.washingtonwatch.com/) and, again, the benefits of transparency are a matter of (near) pan-ideological agreement. Secrecy is also [bad](https://www.cato.org/2006/10/12/fukuyama-on-secrecy-read-the-whole-thing/). Let the sun shine in. ##### Related Tags [Government and Politics](https://www.cato.org/government-politics), [Technology and Privacy](https://www.cato.org/technology-privacy) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).