Last week, March 12 to 18, was Sunshine Week 2006 -- ASNE's second annual campaign promote public awareness of government secrecy and protect public access to government information.

Despite its ephemeral reputation, online media can vastly extend the life and reach of a time-focused event like a one-week campaign. By today, most print newspaper subscribers have tossed out their Sunshine Week papers. But those Sunshine Week links live on, continuing to attract visitors and discussion.

Thus, even simple "shovelware" can offer considerable value for Sunshine Week -- which is good, because shovelware is mostly what mainstream news organizations appeared to offer for Sunshine Week 2006, from what I saw. (I'm not denigrating that journalism, which was generally first rate. I'm simply commenting on the presentation.)

Of course, Sunshine Week isn't only for news organizations and professional journalists. The advent of the Web, citizen journalism, social computing weblogs, and viral media have yielded ample opportunities for anyone to participate. Here are a few intriguing online Sunshine Week efforts from organizations and individuals:

• FreeCulture.org: This community site for the "international student movement for free culture" organized Blogshine Sunday -- a two-day collective effort among U.S. bloggers. According to Wikinews, the goal was to "...organize Web-based writers to relate their experiences and thoughts on open-access to governmental records and freely available public information. Bloggers [were] encouraged to highlight the need to have public records available in electronic formats to facilitate easier searching of information and more widespread access. Another goal of Blogshine Sunday [was] to emphasize that open access to governmental information should be granted to everyone, unpaid reporters and bloggers as well as professional journalists." Noble and worthy goals, with a keen eye toward media evolution. Even though only a handful of bloggers participated in this effort, I think Blogshine Sunday is a useful idea that might benefit from more concerted planning, promotion and implementation.

• Coalition of Journalists for Open Government: Not surprisingly, CJOG has become one of the leading organizations in the fight against government secrecy. They created a list of Sunshine Week coverage and resources, which includes Sunshine Week reports, FOI audits, stories about open government, stories using public records, and resource guides on records access.

• Society of Environmental Journalists: SEJ has battled government secrecy for many years. This year SEJ's First Amendment Task Force assembled a special package of Sunshine Week Web features. This includes model open-government stories from the environment beat, essential documents every environmental reporter should have, links to outstanding Sunshine Week 2006 environmental coverage, and a list of top ten FOIA requests. Kudos to Joe Davis (who writes SEJ's Watchdog Tipsheet) and the rest of SEJ's First Amendment Task Force for creating these resources. (Full disclosure: I am a freelance writer for the biweekly SEJ Tipsheet, and Joe Davis is my editor for that project. I have worked with SEJ in various capacities for many years.)

• Sunshine Week: End The Closed Partisan Caucuses! Tony Palmeri teaches communication studies at the University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh. In this posting to his personal weblog, he tackled a crucial open-government concern for his state. While his posting didn't get much apparent attention, it's a good example of how to leverage an independent weblog on behalf of Sunshine Week.

• Other blogs: Particularly intriguing commentaries on the Sunshine Week theme appeared in Phonoirlex's LiveJournal blog, Peter Porcupine and Green Goddess Gazette. While these postings are less objective and polished than traditional journalism, they demonstrate that Sunshine Week is definitely not just for newsroom pros. Anyone can participate constructively. I think Sunshine Week benefits from a diversity of views, voices and venues.

• Student Press Law Center: See this March 13 article, "High school journalists dig through public records to get the real dirt." Sidebar features open-records tips for student journalists from Diana Mitsu Klos, ASNE senior project director.

• Sunshine Week anthem: I kid you not -- journalists and others who doggedly pursue public meetings and open records now have a tune to hum while they file their FOIA requests: Open Record Blues (MP3 audio file, 3.8 MB, about four minutes long). The lyrics were written by Bill Lueders, news editor of Isthmus newspaper and president of the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council. It was performed by musician Peter Leidy. More info from ASNE's Sunshine Week blog. This song not only injected a much-needed jolt of fun into Sunshine Week (let's face it: it's hard to motivate people to tackle such a thorny downer of a problem) -- it also capitalized on the viral nature of online audio, especially downloadable MP3 files.

• Open The Government: This nonprofit organization advocates on many open-government issues. They produced a short Flash animation, "In the Dark." Reminiscent of the popular JibJab shorts, this is genuinely funny -- if a touch inflammatory. The point is, it clearly and effectively communicates many current problems stemming from or exacerbated by government secrecy. I couldn't help but think: wouldn't it be great if news organizations occasionally offered animated editorial cartoons?

Finally, it's worth noting one online publication where it's Sunshine Week every week: Secrecy News (blog and e-mail newsletter), published by the Federation of American Scientists' Project on Government Secrecy. Secrecy News is tirelessly edited by Steven Aftergood, who this year won the American Library Association's James Madison award.