The Day Job

Let me tell you about where I work, and why it matters to you, my dear readers.

It isn’t a secret that I work, as the administrator, for the Sunlight Foundation, which has

the goal of using the revolutionary power of the Internet and new information technology to enable citizens to learn more about what Congress and their elected representatives are doing, and thus help reduce corruption, ensure greater transparency and accountability by government, and foster public trust in the vital institutions of democracy.

(My staff bio even mentions that I’m a Unitarian Universalist minister.)

But I make it a practice to not talk about my day work on the blog. Danger, I’ve been told, lies there. The conventional wisdom, you know.

But I work with the sharpest team of data wranglers, designers, developers, journalists, policy wonks, social networkers, visionaries and writers I’ve ever met, to say nothing of our consultants and grantees. Each of them has given me an idea — either related directly to the work or from their interesting, vital backgrounds — that I want to blog. Some have come in, deeply cloaked. Many have important ideas, if seen sideways, that would help churches, the practice of ministry, and living an ethical, sustainable life. And I sometimes that means examining directly what we produce.

So I asked the powers-that-be if “danger lies there.” No, it doesn’t. Thank you.

And if anyone asks, my political opinions are my own. Whose else would they be?

Watch for some of the produce of these interactions in weeks ahead.

By Scott Wells

Scott Wells, 46, is a Universalist Christian minister doing Universalist theology and church administration hacks in Washington, D.C.

4 comments

  1. Sounds interesting. Is the Foundation also working on the international area? Because the image that the US institutions have abroad is in pretty bad state and, for the common good of those of us who believe in democracy, it needs to be repaired and restored asap. Just in case anyone cares at the other side of the Atlantic…

  2. How cool is that! I just was asking Mr. Web Diva if the Sunshine Act had sway in Tennessee, and he said (no surprise) no.

    As to “danger lies there,” I think that’s one of two things: the blogger being stupid or the blogger working for one of those god-forsaken places where danger lies everywhere.

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