What the public sector might learn from philanthropy

This short piece from NPR interviews several foundation executives on the challenges of spending the dollars in the federal stimulus bill well.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=101234127
"The art of doling out stimulus dollars"

I was struck by the juxtaposition of the above story - which relies on the expertise of professionals in setting goals and monitoring them - with the approach of ShovelWatch - a crowdsourced effort to watch those same dollars.

ShovelWatch is a joint effort of PRI's The TakeAway, WNYC, and ProPublica. This effort intrigues me not only as a means of monitoring major spending and policy implementation, but for what it might mean in the raging, lived debates over the future of journalism and news.

Tags: philanthropy, publicpolicy, stimulusbill, futureofnews, journalism, propublica, jayrosen, wnyc, Thetakeaway, osnos, shovelwatch