Happy Birthday, Open Government Directive

To mark the one-year anniversary of the Open Government Directive (OGD), Patrice McDermott, Director of OpenTheGovernment.org, and Carolyn Lukensmeyer, Founder and President of AmericaSpeaks, penned a piece cross-posted on Government Executive (http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=46682) and NextGov (http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20101208_2722.php) highlighting the successes of the OGD to date and recommending “next steps” for the Administration to take to make government more open and participatory.

Briefly, they argue the primary success to date has been developing infrastructure that makes information more available to the
public and that increases opportunities for people to provide agencies with input and feedback. But to succeed in making the federal government more accountable, the administration should lead and set the standard for open government by, in part, making sure the public has easy access to information across the government about how the government is spending its resources, who is influencing public policy decisions, what information the government is collecting and so on, and by high profile government leaders taking a more active role in inviting, monitoring, responding to and incorporating citizen input into policy.

As advocates of open government, we at OpenTheGovernment.org and AmericaSpeaks commit to continue working with the agency personnel and the administration to establish real standards and targets for greater openness and more meaningful participation. We welcome your response and input, and look forward to celebrating the accomplishments of the Open Government Directive’s second year with you next year.