It's National Sunshine Week: promote transparency in government

Sunshine Week, March 11 to 17, 2012, is a national initiative to promote a dialogue about the importance of open government and freedom of information.

Participants include news media, civic groups, libraries, nonprofits, schools and others interested in the public's right to know.

Here is a link to a toolkit full of resources for use during Sunshine Week 2012, March 11-17. There are opinion columns, a Ray of Sunshine Quiz, editorial cartoons and infographics for your use: http://www.sunshineweek.org/Toolkits.aspx

With an inaugural grant from John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, which has continued to support the effort, Sunshine Week was launched by the American Society of News Editors in March 2005. This non-partisan, non-profit initiative is celebrated in mid-March each year to coincide with James Madison's birthday on March 16.

In 2011, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press joined ASNE as a national co-coordinator of Sunshine Week, enabling the organizations to join forces and resources to produce Toolkit materials for participants and keep the website and social media sites engaged.

Though created by journalists, Sunshine Week is about the public's right to know what its government is doing, and why., Sunshine Week seeks to enlighten and empower people to play an active role in their government at all levels, and to give them access to information that makes their lives better and their communities stronger. Individuals and public officials who embody the spirit of government transparency and fight for it in their communities are recognized each year with Local Hero Awards.

Participants include news media, government officials at all levels, schools and universities, libraries and archives, individuals, non-profit and civic organizations, historians and anyone with an interest in open government.