The nice venture capitalists in Silicon Valley are always looking for "the next big thing". While we will have to wait for another six months to learn who will make it through the Republican and Democrat "Survivor" reality show we call primaries we can already see the next big thing in politics bubbling up from the 50 states: transparency. Making state budgets, contracts and individual expenditures available to the public on the internet

Rick Perry, the Republican governor of Texas, helped advance this cause of transparency last autumn by putting his own governor's office expenses on the web in a searchable form. Susan Combs, the state's elected comptroller, followed suit when she took office in January.