The Sunshine Review, a national non-profit that "brings state and local government to light" honored the city of Chicago's Web site as one of the 214 most transparent government Web sites in the nation, in a review of more than 6,000 government Web sites. The Sun-Times notes that the one year-old Rahm Emanuel administration established a Web site that includes information like the salaries of city employees, people who lobby for city contracts, and crime statistics from the last decade.

How important numerous datasets are to a transparent local government is up for debate. Emanuel is sometimes criticized for a decision-making process that can be outside public view. For example, last fall the Chicago Reader reported on their struggles in obtaining the mayor's daily calendar, and also discovered Emanuel has an arguably inordinate number of meetings with local and national business leaders.