"As Sunshine Week begins, I want to applaud everyone who has worked to increase transparency in government and recommit my administration to be the most open and transparent ever, an effort that will strengthen our democracy and ensure the public's trust in their government," said President Obama today, in a statement that also trumpeted his administration's achievements on the open government front. Special Counsel Norm Eisen also issued a Sunshine Week statement that included details about the "many areas where (the Obama administration has) opened government up and let the sunshine in.

Eric Schmidt will be the opening speaker at ASNE's NewsNow 2010 Ideas Summit, to be held in Washington, D.C. April 11-14. Schmidt will speak prior to the conference's opening reception on Sunday, April 11, which is being co-sponsored by Google and the Knight Foundation. Others scheduled to speak during the summit include Alan Rusbridger of The Guardian, David Carr of The New York Times, The Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington, Yahoo! News honcho Mark Walker, and the editor and author Dave Eggers.

Conference sessions and speakers bring old and new media together. Morning sessions will look at the future and present of news and the editor's role, while afternoons will be devoted to practical workshops, followed by small-group interaction with select speakers in an hourlong Innovation Salon on Monday and Tuesday.