Implementation of the Open Government Directive

The public policy think tank Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) published a paper What’s Next for Open Government? by Daniel Castro in March of 2010 which is surveys and critics the implementation of the Open Government Directive delivered by the President Obama on his first day as President. Mr. Castor's discussion is useful in pointing out the various projects the Administration has set in place to fulfill the directive's guidelines, but it also offers innovative suggestions that municipal governments might make use of in their e-government initiatives. The directive called for “an un­precedented level of openness in Gov­ernment” through three pillars:

• Transparency
• Public participation
• Collaboration

The Administration took steps to publish government infor­mation online, upgrade the quality of government information, create a culture of open govern­ment, and produce policies that would enable open government. As a result, the volume of data presently available to the public is unprecedent­ed and the plethora of government blogs offers citizens more insights into the inner workings of government than ever before.

This transparency enables government accountability and heightens citizens' trust in govern­ment. A market research firm, Foresee Results, found in a 2009 survey of over 36,000 visitors to federal websites that “citizens who believe a site is highly trans­parent are 46 percent more likely to trust the overall government, 49 percent more likely to use the site as a primary resource and 37 percent more likely to return to the site.” Examples of the Administration's transparency are data and publications found on Data.gov (containing more than 118,000 datasets), Recovery.gov and USASpending.gov (tracking federal spending). Of particular interest to municipal IT departments might be IT.USASpending.gov that tracks federal spending on information technology.

In an effort to assist citizens understand and make use of all this data, the Administration has partnered with the universities to create FedThread.org, Public.Resource.org, and GovPulse.org.

An example of the Obama Administration's strides toward fulfilling the Public Participation segment of the directive was the hosting of an online town hall meeting on YouTube, and using various government blogs to collect comments on the meeting.

Prizes and competitions have been used to improve Collaboration with citizens. Over 50,000 caste their votes to determine the best Flu Prevention public service announcement (PSA) submitted by individuals. The winner collected a $2,500 prize. Also, the Department of Labor hosted a a “Tools for America’s Job Seekers” challenge that attracting over 16,000 individuals to review and rate job search and career advancement tools. The re­sults became a website, Careeronestop.org. Local governments seeking to initiate or improve their e-government offerings will do well to follow the themes of transparency, public participation, and collaboration.