Photo credit: Flickr user mightymightymatze. Today we celebrate Sunshine Week, a Knight-funded initiative to promote more open governments and freedom of information. The following is written by Emily Shaw of the Sunlight Foundation, a Knight grantee, and cross-posted from sunshineweek.org. This week is Sunshine Week, a nationwide discussion about the importance of access to public information and what it means for you and your community. During this week we pay special attention to our collective obligation to bring some “sunshine” to the often shadowy processes of government decision-making. Different governments have different ways of inhibiting effective oversight of government decision-making, from intentional stonewalling and secrecy to budget-driven decisions to reduce hours and staffing. These problems, while diverse, may have a similar solution: Public records and the content of public meetings should be considered public data, and accessible to anyone who wants it, including electronically. Technology has made the transmission of information easy and inexpensive, and when we demand electronic, online access to public information, we add a new and important method of bringing sunlight to all corners of government.