As federal agencies tighten their belts, they’ll be questioning the value of citizen participation initiatives under the Obama Open Government Initiative. Do they lead to better results or reduced costs? A new report, “A Manager’s Guide to Evaluating Citizen Participation,” by Tina Nabatchi, an assistant professor at the Maxwell School at Syracuse University, is designedRead… Read more »
Forty years ago, Congress passed a law to make government agencies more accountable and transparent in how they sought advice from industry and the public. It was called the Federal Advisory Committee Act. But over the years, the way the law was implemented led to less citizen involvement and reluctance by agencies from seeking advice.Read… Read more »
Transparency Advocates React to U.S. Open Government Action Plan (by techPresident) “President Barack Obama on Tuesday led the public unveiling of national open government action plans from the eight countries participating in the Open Government Partnership, a multilateral coalition on openness and transparency.” Find out what some advocates have said about it. September 2011 MunicipalRead… Read more »
6th edition of state-by-state Open Government Guide (HT NFOIC) How’d your state do? How do you think it could be improved? Social Media as a Credible News Source? “Still a little ooky about social media? Well, believe it or not, social media is a major element of news nowadays.” This talks specifically about social media,Read… Read more »
In recent weeks, the main stream media has questioned whether the Obama administration’s Open Government initiative has lost its steam. But is it really dead? For example, Washington Post columnist Vivek Wadhwa’s article “The Death of Open Government” followed the resignation announcement of the federal government’s chief information officer – and Open Government champion —Read… Read more »
If you’ve followed my blog or my tweets, or even come across them randomly, you would know I’m a big proponent of Gov 2.0, particularly in online communication between and among government and citizens. Going back to earlier years prior to Web 2.0, I was speaking and arguing for the need to replicate government online,Read… Read more »
Posted today on opensource.com: Crowdsourced Icelandic constitution submitted to parliament. It includes a poll: Do you think Iceland’s draft constitution is a milestone for open government? and an analysis of the open government elements in the draft constituion. Yes, I actually read the majority of their constitution 😉 Last week, the Iceland Constitutional Council, madeRead… Read more »
I came across an article today that I thought brought up an obvious (but much needed) point. The article says that CIO of Michigan gave a presentation and “[stated] that Online tools and social media are now the norm.” This is an important point that government officials who are resistant to using social media (suchRead… Read more »
Hi folks, I’m new to the GovLoop community. It was recommended that I post this here and get some feedback. Originally posted on opensource.com. The article is CC-BY-SA, attributions Jason Hibbets. How do you get techies, govies, and citizens to identify, collaborate, and start creating solutions for your local government? Host a CityCamp. It’s easierRead… Read more »
Last Friday, a new policy paper by Peter Levine was released entitled: “Civic Engagement and Community Information: Five Strategies to Revive Civic Communication“. “His paper is the sixth in a series focused on implementing the Knight Commission’s 15 recommendations for creating healthy informed communities across the country released in 2009 in a landmark report, InformingRead… Read more »