Phase One open government consultant Justin Herman appeared on TBD’s Capital Insider last night with host Morris Jones to discuss a recent report on government transparency and the Obama Administration’s Open Government Initiative.
The Obama Administration’s Open Government Directive ordered Federal agencies to produce open government plans by April 7th, and while some advocates are disappointed, we have before us a bewildering number of initiatives to improve transparency, collaboration, and participation across the Government. It will not surprise you to learn that I spent some time looking for places where open source is being used in these plans.
Put down the best-seller and cancel the rest of Spring Break, the White House announced today federal agencies have released their open government plans. The plans are part of the Administration’s Open Government Initiative and should make for great beach reading.
The federal government may have closed during #snowmageddon 2010, but Jessy Cowan-Sharp and Robbie Schingler didn’t. They created OpenGov Tracker, a Website that tracks citizen ideas for federal agencies related to the Open Government Directive.
Cowan-Sharp shares what inspired them and how they did it.
John Stewart’s Daily Show coverage of the White House Open Government Directive hones in on what everyone’s asking:
‘What was so funny?’
Quotable:
Huge event yesterday. ‘Open for Questions,’ a new experiment in open government debuted on the whitehouse.gov Website, hosted by Kevin Smith, Mike D, and Indian George Clooney. It was, as you can imagine, HIGH-larious.
In the spirit of open government, we’d like an official response from the White House.
Guesses on Gigglegate?
Here’s what open government and Gov 2.0 leaders are saying about the new White House Open Government Directive.
You can now follow the latest news related to the White House Open Government Initiate (OGI) on GovFresh at whitehouse.govfresh.com.
The new site includes:
On January 21, 2009, President Barack Obama signed a ‘Transparency and Open Government’ executive order. Here is video of the signing and full text of the memorandum.
The White House today announced its Open Government Directive, instructing agencies to open their operations to the public and providing a framework for doing so. The directive was accompanied by a Open Government Progress Report to the American People.
From the White House:
The three principles of transparency, participation, and collaboration are at the heart of this directive. Transparency promotes accountability. Participation allows members of the public to contribute ideas and expertise to government initiatives. Collaboration improves the effectiveness of government by encouraging partnerships and cooperation within the federal government, across levels of government, and between the government and private institutions.
From the White House’s new ‘Open Government Progress Report to the American People:’
For too long, the American people have experienced a culture of secrecy in Washington, where information is locked up, taxpayer dollars disappear without a trace, and lobbyists wield undue influence For Americans, business as usual in Washington has reinforced the belief that government benefits the special interests and the well connected at the expense of the American people.
This progress report offers the American people a snapshot of the progress to date, highlights of the Administration’s new open government policy framework—the Open Government Directive —together with a road map for what’s to come.
Full text of the White House’s ‘Open Government Directive’ sent to the head of every federal department and agency, instructing agencies “to take specific actions to open their operations to the public.”
Just found this White House Blog post (Your Government: Open for Business in New Ways and New Places) and video from Bev Godwin (@BevUSA), White House New Media Director of Online Resources & Interagency Development.
The video, featuring Macon Phillips, White House New Media Director, highlights how government is using new media as a resource for citizens.
On January 21, 2009, his first full day in office, the President issued a Memorandum on Transparency and Open Government and called for recommendations for making the Federal government more transparent, participatory, and collaborative. On May 21, 2009, the Administration kicked off an unprecedented process for public engagement in policymaking on the White House website. As Valerie Jarrett, Senior Advisor to the President said, we are proud to announce an important next step in this historic call to action one that will help us achieve a new foundation for our government a foundation built on the values of transparency, accountability and responsibility.
Flagship Initiatives Shine in Open Government Plans
Ever since Open Government Day – the 120 day deadline in the OGD when agencies had to release Open Government Plans – I’ve been pouring over them hoping to get a better understanding of how openness is going to be implemented. If we are to judge government openness by the barrage of documents we received last Wednesday, then we open government advocates ought to be very happy! But what are these documents made of, anyway? A word cloud illustrates it quite well – all the buzzwords that you would expect: Information, government, data, open, public.