Previously...
Note: Video included.
Note: The following text is a quote:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/open/blog/
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/09/05/21/Opening/
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Thursday, May 21st, 2009 at 1:00 pm
Transparency and Open Government
Vivek Kundra, our Chief Information Officer, and Beth Noveck, Deputy Chief Technology Officer for Open Government, explain the Open Government Initiative
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.
As Valerie Jarrett, Senior Advisor to the President says in the video below, 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.”
The Administration is committed to developing those recommendations in an open fashion. Consistent with the President’s mandate, we want to be fully transparent in our work, participatory in soliciting your ideas and expertise, and collaborative in how we experiment together to use new tools and techniques for developing open government policy.
Today we are kicking off an unprecedented process for public engagement in policymaking on the White House website. In a sea change from conventional practice, we are not asking for comments on an already-finished set of draft recommendations, but are seeking fresh ideas from you early in the process of creating recommendations. We will carefully consider your comments, suggestions, and proposals.
Here’s how the public engagement process will work. It will take place in 3 phases: Brainstorming, Discussion, and Drafting.
Beginning today, we will have a brainstorming session for suggesting ideas for the open government recommendations. You can vote on suggested ideas or add your own.
Then on June 3rd, the most compelling ideas from the brainstorming will be fleshed out on a weblog in a discussion phase. On June 15th, we will invite you to use a wiki to draft recommendations in collaborative fashion.
These three phases will build upon one another and inform the crafting of recommendations on open government.
Also check out the Innovations Gallery and see some of the innovations and innovators across the Government who are already translating the values of open government into practice. For example, just today the CIO Council launched Data.gov. Data.gov is a one-stop repository of government information and tools to make that information useful. In addition, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Office of Management and Budget today launched Regulations.gov Exchange, a website for taking public input on the best ways to achieve public participation in Federal agency rulemaking. These are just two of the many outstanding innovations featured in the Open Government Innovations Gallery.
The President has welcomed the open government innovations being developed across the Government and has encouraged each of his Cabinet departments to adopt more open government innovations in the coming year.
Thank you for participating. Open and effective government can only be achieved with everyone’s active engagement. We hope you will lend your insights, experience, and expertise to improve your government and strengthen democracy. Join the Brainstorming that has already begun!
Note: The following text is a quote:
How can we strengthen our democracy and promote efficiency and effectiveness by making government more transparent, participatory, and collaborative?
A Message from the White House
Last week, the White House launched an unprecedented online process for public engagement in policymaking. That process began with a week of Brainstorming, hosted by the National Academy of Public Administration.
You have shared almost 900 submissions and 33,000 votes on ideas ranging from strategies for making government data more accessible to legal and policy impediments to transparency. Thank you!
The Brainstorming phase is drawing to an official close tonight at midnight. We are reviewing all material on the site in preparation for the Discussion Phase, which begins on Wednesday June 3rd. We’ll be distilling both the ideas from the Brainstorming and the comments from an online dialogue with government employees that took place earlier this spring on the MAX federal wiki. All comments from MAX will be publicly posted tomorrow on the Open Government website.
Our goal is to use the ideas from this first phase of the process as well as other input to inform deeper discussion on the Open Government blog in the Discussion phase. While the voting on the brainstorming submissions will be instructive, it will not determine which topics are discussed in the second phase. Rather, the Discussion is designed to dig in on harder topics that require greater exploration or refinement.
While we are doing our analysis of the first phase of brainstorming and moving on to the Discussion Phase next week, the Brainstorming has been lively and productive. So we will keep the Brainstorming site turned on for addition submissions through June 19th. While new postings may not feed into the Discussion or Drafting Phases, we’ll be on the lookout for interesting new posts.
At the end of the public engagement process, all posted submissions will go up on the Open Government website. (For you records management fans, the Open Government website is run by the Office of Science and Technology Policy and subject to the Federal Records Act.)
The tight schedule of this process is designed to ensure that your ideas inform the development of open government recommendations and the writing of subsequent policy and the development of open government projects as soon as possible. So while we are keeping the Brainstorming open, we will also move on to the next phase of the process beginning on June 3rd.
Longer reports and papers can always be submitted through opengov@ostp.gov.
The process of crafting open government policy will not end this week, this month, or this year. This is an ongoing effort, and your participation has been and will continue to be essential to its success.
On January 21st, the President issued the Memorandum on Transparency and Open Government, calling for an unprecedented level of openness in government. In the memorandum, the President outlined three principles for promoting a transparent and open government: transparency, participation, and collaboration. Now, the President is calling on you to help shape how that commitment is fulfilled. This online brainstorming session, open from May 21st to 28th, 2009, will enable the White House to hear your most important ideas relating to open government.
This platform allows you to submit ideas, discuss and refine others’ ideas, and vote the best ones to the top. We are seeking innovative approaches to policy, specific project suggestions, government-wide or agency-specific instructions, and any relevant examples and stories relating to law, policy, technology, culture, or practice. The National Academy of Public Administration, a Congressionally chartered, non-profit, non-partisan institution, is hosting this brainstorming session on behalf of the White House.
The most important themes and ideas to emerge will provide the basis for two more stages of interaction: A Discussion Phase, when we will deepen the conversation about compelling topics raised during the brainstorming, and a Drafting Phase, when we will ask you to use a wiki to draft language for recommendations collaboratively.
Some questions to consider in formulating ideas include:
How might the operations of government be made more transparent and accountable?
How might federal advisory committees, rulemaking or electronic rulemaking be better used to drive greater expertise into decisionmaking?
What alternative models exist to improve the quality of decisionmaking and increase opportunities for citizen participation?
What strategies might be employed to adopt greater use of Web 2.0 in agencies?
What policy impediments to innovation in government currently exist?
What is the best way to change the culture of government to embrace collaboration?
What changes in training or hiring of personnel would enhance innovation?
What performance measures are necessary to determine the effectiveness of open government policies?
Please note: On Saturday morning, we made a small change to this site. Posting, commenting and voting on ideas now requires users to log in. This change was made in response to concerns that settings that allowed anonymous posting may also have allowed users to vote more than once on the same idea. Our privacy and moderation policies can be accessed here.
After searching, scroll down for results.
Getting Started
Here is a discussion question to get you started:
What alternative models exist to improve the quality of decisionmaking and increase opportunities for citizen participation?
While you’re here:
Search for Ideas to make sure that your idea or area of interest hasn’t already been covered.
Vote, Vote, Vote! Your votes are critical to ensuring that the best ideas “bubble up” to the top.
Add Your Idea by clicking on the “New Idea” button to the left.
Spread the Word! E-mail a link to this website to your network, and invite them to get involved.