Recovery Reax Roundup

WaPo's Dan Froomkin has a helpful roundup of reactions to the newly-launched Recovery.gov. Particularly worth reading is Julian Sanchez, who has an interesting take on the unintended consequences of federal transparency schemes:

The real test of the site's efficacy, of course, will come as actual data about funded projects begins to pour in. And while it's easy to celebrate an effort to provide greater political transparency, it may also be worth recalling the fate of the congressional franking privilege: meant to enable legislators to keep their constituents informed about matters of public concern, it's become primarily a means of mailing out free, self-congratulatory press releases. Given that the current incarnation of the site is arguably an ad for an "unprecedented effort to jumpstart our economy, create or save millions of jobs, and put a down payment on addressing long-neglected challenges so our country can thrive in the 21st century," the best recipe for accountability may be to ignore the site itself and wait to see what third-party analysts make of that exportable data.