Jared points me to this report that Ed Tufte was appointed by the government to help visualize stimulus funds:

The purpose of the panel is to advise the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board, whose aim is “To promote accountability by coordinating and conducting oversight of Recovery funds to prevent fraud, waste, and abuse and to foster transparency on Recovery spending by providing the public with accurate, user-friendly information.”

Cool. I’ve been on many government panels but never anything so important. Once I was asked to serve on a panel to evaluate the evidence regarding a particular health risk. I agreed and they promptly sent me about 25 pages of paperwork to fill out. This seemed like too much, so I told them I’d be happy to serve for free. Turning down all compensation and reimbursement helped, but I still was left with about 6 complicated forms. I don’t think I ever got around to completing them all. On the upside, the government has supported my research with many millions of dollars over the years, so they must be doing something right!

Seriously, though, this is wonderful news. It’s great to see someone like Tufte involved with communication of public data.