Obama Directs a New Web 2.0 friendly Communication Policy

Here is the actual FR Notice. I think I cut off a sentence or two in my original entry. The more I think about it, the policy is a big deal and could prompt ammendments to parts of OMB Circular A 130 and other related public policy documents. IT will be exciting times and I am niot sure it will all get done in the 120 day period unless agency directors start planning right now.

[Federal Register: January 26, 2009 (Volume 74, Number 15)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Page 4685-4686]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr26ja09-155]

Presidential Documents

___________________________________________________________________

[[Page 4685]]

Memorandum of January 21, 2009

Transparency and Open Government

Memorandum for the Heads of Executive Departments and
Agencies

My Administration is committed to creating an
unprecedented level of openness in Government. We will
work together to ensure the public trust and establish
a system of transparency, public participation, and
collaboration. Openness will strengthen our democracy
and promote efficiency and effectiveness in Government.

Government should be transparent. Transparency promotes
accountability and provides information for citizens
about what their Government is doing. Information
maintained by the Federal Government is a national
asset. My Administration will take appropriate action,
consistent with law and policy, to disclose information
rapidly in forms that the public can readily find and
use. Executive departments and agencies should harness
new technologies to put information about their
operations and decisions online and readily available
to the public. Executive departments and agencies
should also solicit public feedback to identify
information of greatest use to the public.

Government should be participatory. Public engagement
enhances the Government’s effectiveness and improves
the quality of its decisions. Knowledge is widely
dispersed in society, and public officials benefit from
having access to that dispersed knowledge. Executive
departments and agencies should offer Americans
increased opportunities to participate in policymaking
and to provide their Government with the benefits of
their collective expertise and information. Executive
departments and agencies should also solicit public
input on how we can increase and improve opportunities
for public participation in Government.

Government should be collaborative. Collaboration
actively engages Americans in the work of their
Government. Executive departments and agencies should
use innovative tools, methods, and systems to cooperate
among themselves, across all levels of Government, and
with nonprofit organizations, businesses, and
individuals in the private sector. Executive
departments and agencies should solicit public feedback
to assess and improve their level of collaboration and
to identify new opportunities for cooperation.

I direct the Chief Technology Officer, in coordination
with the Director of the Office of Management and
Budget (OMB) and the Administrator of General Services,
to coordinate the development by appropriate executive
departments and agencies, within 120 days, of
recommendations for an Open Government Directive, to be
issued by the Director of OMB, that instructs executive
departments and agencies to take specific actions
implementing the principles set forth in this
memorandum. The independent agencies should comply with
the Open Government Directive.

This memorandum is not intended to, and does not,
create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural,
enforceable at law or in equity by a party against the
United States, its departments, agencies, or entities,
its officers, employees, or agents, or any other
person.

[[Page 4686]]

This memorandum shall be published in the Federal
Register.

(Presidential Sig.)

THE WHITE HOUSE,

Washington, January 21, 2009

[FR Doc. E9-1777
Filed 1-23-09; 11:15 am]

Billing code 3195-W9-P