OpenTheGovernment.org will host “Opening Doors: Finding the Keys to Open Government” on Friday, March 20, at the Center for American Progress in Washington, D.C. Panelists will discuss implementation of President Obama’s transparency memoranda, as well as innovative ways to make government information useful online. This event will also be broadcast via Webcast to host sites around the country.

Groups in several states, including Arizona, Florida, Hawaii, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma and Pennsylvania, will also host events for Sunshine Week.

In addition, Sunshine Week is conducting a transparency project focusing on online access to state government records. Journalists, educators, students and others will develop a snapshot of public records that states make available on their Web sites. The information will be collected and compiled into a nationwide report to be released during Sunshine Week.

Sunshine Week began with a series of “Sunshine Sundays” in Florida hosted by the Florida Society of Newspaper Editors in response to efforts by Florida’s Legislature to create new exemptions to its public-records law. Several states followed Florida’s lead, and in 2003 the ANSE hosted a Freedom of Information summit in Washington, D.C. With this summit Sunshine Week took root.

A complete calendar of events and other resources are available on the Sunshine Week Web site.

Caroline Tenenbaum is a senior majoring in political science at Belmont University in Nashville.