Web Watch: Recovery.gov 2.0 A new version of the website tracking economic stimulus spending went live on Sept. 28, but one critic snipes, “Meet the new Recovery.gov...(mostly) the same as the old Recovery.gov.” The Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board, which monitors stimulus spending, touts the site as a way for citizens and contractors to see how the dollars are being spent. The new home page is dominated by an interactive map that allows users to track contract and grant spending by state and zip code. A section headed “Data, Data & More Data” links to spending by agency. The oversight board awarded a $9.5 million contract to Smartronix to improve the site with new hardware and software infrastructure. But Craig Jennings, an analyst with the watchdog group OMB Watch, was not impressed. Jennings says it is still difficult or impossible to find details about individual projects and contracts funded under the act. Starting Oct. 15 contract and grant recipients must begin filing quarterly reports on what they are doing with the money. Jennings says that should make the site more useful. Currently the listing of contract opportunities includes only 25 contracts that are up for bids. Jennings found the lists are not sortable or searchable; anyone wanting details about the contract must follow a link to FedBizOpps. “The Recovery Board has added a new deck on the back of the house and put in some great landscaping, but the real questions remain: Have they repaired the foundation and fixed the plumbing?” Jennings wrote in his blog. “Only when recipient data come online and after the first phase of Smartronix contract expires in January will we know if this is the right house for Recovery Act transparency.”