Photo: Rhode Island Treasurer Frank Caprio put the state's cash flow on Twitter and has a blog, YouTube video, Facebook page, RSS feed, and Flickr page.

Today, Rhode Island Governor Donald L. Carcieri announced two new transparency portals, so the public can view expenditures of the Office of the Governor and the Department of Transportation. According to the Governor's Office, the data will be updated weekly.

The portals were created by the Department of Administration in partnership with RI.gov -- a collaborative effort between the State of Rhode Island and Rhode Island Interactive -- at no cost to the state.

In addition, Rhode Island Treasurer Frank Caprio has put the state's cash flow on Twitter and has a blog, YouTube video, Facebook page, RSS feed, and Flickr page.

Transparency sites have become more important as stimulus funds are disbursed and accountability has become an issue. Missouri's accountability Web site predated the stimulus package and reached the 10 million hit mark last summer. More recently many states have launced transparency sites, and a comprehensive site of state, federal and local transparency sites was launched by NIC corp.