Helping Build Obama’s OpenGov Vision- Lessons Learned

In December 2009, President Obama issued an Open Government Directive requiring federal agencies to become more transparent, collaborative with both the private and public sector, and to increase citizen participation.

As a result of this directive, REI Systems, in partnership with Office of Management and Budget, helped create key websites such as USASpending.gov, Data.gov, and Performance.gov, three of the federal government’s key sites for meeting the President’s goals. In addition, they developed the Open Government Platform (OGPL), which provides the ability to build on Web 2.0 open-source technologies, engage citizens in open data initiatives, and to create data-rich community spaces around hot topics.

On January 31, REI is hosting a webinar to share lessons learned in creating these landmark sites, and will provide a comprehensive look at the Open Government Platform. It will also look at other open gov sites and examine the impact this approach is having on governance in the U.S. and around the world. Specifically in this training, Amit Yadav, REI’s Open Government program manager, will discuss:

• Open Government success stories, including the U.S. and India
• Extensibility of the OGPL model for state and city government
• OGPL’s impact on government transparency and citizen engagement
• Role of Drupal in the evolution of OGPL
• Future roadmap of OGPL, including Drupal 7 migration, CKAN integration, etc.

The webinar is Thursday, January 31 at 1PM ET. It is free and focused on how you can use cost-effective, open source solutions to improve transparency and collaboration at the federal, state, and local government levels. You can learn more and register here.