News & Events > NewsBreaks Back Index Forward

Weekly News Digest

February 5, 2026 — In addition to this week's NewsBreaks article and the monthly NewsLink Spotlight, Information Today, Inc. (ITI) offers Weekly News Digests that feature recent product news and company announcements. Watch for additional coverage to appear in the next print issue of Information Today. CLICK HERE to view more Weekly News Digest items.

Open the Books and Citizen Portal AI Announce Partnership to Promote Transparency and Citizen Engagement

CONTACT: christopher.neefus@openthebooks.com

(WASHINGTON, D.C.)—Open the Books and Citizen Portal AI today announced that they have entered a partnership agreement to help citizens access and use Open the Books’ vast database of government spending, which includes federal, state and local spending. For the first time a repository of what public officials say and do—at meetings and in statements—will be married with what they spend. The partnership will offer citizens the most exhaustive picture yet of how public officials work on their behalf. 

Both organizations are led by CEOs who are accomplished leaders in the technology and transparency space. Citizen Portal AI CEO Paul Allen was one the co-founders of Ancestry.com while Open the Books CEO John Hart helped craft and pass landmark transparency legislation, the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act (Coburn/Obama), that put all federal spending online. 

“With Ancestry.com, Paul Allen helped Americans discover their stories. With Citizen Portal AI, he’s going to help citizens write their stories. Our organizations share a conviction that advances in technology should serve the citizenry. We believe the best way to thwart a surveillance state is to create a surveillance citizenry. We’re committed to giving citizens the tools they need to hold government accountable,” Hart said.

“John Hart helped create the modern transparency movement and ecosystem of which Open the Books and Citizen Portal AI are a part. His work across the aisle with Senators Coburn and Obama demonstrates that reform can happen when people of good faith put First Principles over partisanship,” Allen said.

Open the Book’s tagline is its mission: Every dime. Online. In real time. Co-founded by the late Adam Andrzejewski, Open the Books has built the largest repository of government spending data in history and conducts regular audits and oversight of government spending at all levels. Co-founder Craig Mijares leads Open the Book’s innovative data capture operation which includes nearly 60,000 unique units of government in all 50 states.

Citizen Portal AI’s mission is to “Revolutionize Civic Engagement with AI.” Citizen Portal AI describes itself as the ultimate tool for staying informed and holding leaders accountable. The site allows users to access what elected officials say and do—no spin, just facts—and empowers users with clear, reliable information straight from source material to help citizens make smarter decisions with confidence.

“We intend to celebrate America’s 250th anniversary by putting transparency and citizen engagement at the center of our public life. Like Abraham Lincoln, we believe each generation has a responsibility to bring about ‘a new birth of freedom’ and ensure ‘that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.’ We look forward to creating new tools and initiatives that will defend and support our great experiment in freedom,” Hart and Allen said.

###