> We're just at the beginning of a new wave of data- and citizen-empowered watchdogging of government

Back in the mid 90s, a company called Hamilton Securities created an online tool for analyzing flows of government money at the local level. It didn't work out so well for them:

http://www.dunwalke.com/11_Hamilton_Securities.htm

Much has changed since then. It's still going to be hard slog.