OpenRegs.com vs. Regulations.gov: .Com Wins!

Remember Regulations.gov? It was launched by the federal government in 2003. While it's a nice symbolic step for transparency, the site is poky, has a bad interface, and (in my experience) has a pretty spectacular record of not being about to locate the reg you're looking for. It's basically the online equivalent of a bored lady on the phone saying "I'm sorry, ma'am. I don't have a record of that."

Not to worry: A new privately run site, OpenRegs.com, launched yesterday. The very sexy-looking site is the brainchild of Jerry Brito of the George Mason's Mercatus Center (also one of my fellow bloggers at the world's foremost libertarian food blog, Crispy on the Outside), and Peter Snyder, a Chicago-based programmer. You can track specific agencies or specific topics.

The site also encourages commenting and offers tools to facilitate the exchange of gossip about each agency, which you'd better believe is frowned upon over at the .gov site.

More on transparency failure here.