FCW’s Open Government Recommendation? Use Microsoft.

by Doug Ward on March 3, 2010

Federal Computer Week has posted A Step-by-Step Guide to the Open Government Directive, a list of 6 steps agencies can follow in order to meet the requirements of the OGD.

Curiously, the FCW guide seems to simply be a port of the same information posted on Microsoft’s Gov2.0 Ready site, which presents the same six step plan and, of course, recommends Microsoft solutions.

Microsoft Gov2.0 Ready

Microsoft Gov2.0 Ready

That said, the steps outlined do make sense for agencies, and Microsoft has provided numerous tools to help agencies create effective Open Gov strategies.

{ 0 comments }

Is Open Government Dangerously Digital? – Mark Drapeau

by Doug Ward on March 1, 2010

Excellent post by Mark Drapeau – Is Open Government Dangerously Digital?. Mark touches on issues that I’ve also found to be of concern regarding the Open Government Initiative. Namely, it is wonderful to post cool Open Gov widgets, but what is the actual value of such efforts? What is the cost/benefit of these projects? Can you quantify the value of open government projects?

Ultimately these questions need to be addressed if this effort is to amount to more than simple window dressing.

{ 0 comments }

Does Open Government Matter?

February 18, 2010

A few years ago Nicholas G. Carr published an article in the Harvard Business Review titled, “Does IT Matter.” It argues that IT has become a commodity input for businesses and, thus, no longer provides much opportunity to gain a competitive advantage. The article encouraged business leaders to re-examine their assumptions about the value of [...]

Read the full article →

Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis testifies about Open Government initiatives

February 8, 2010

Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis, in testimony before the House Education and Labor Committee last week, cited recent Open Government initiatives to make the Department of Labor’s information “more transparent to the public.” Secretary Solis cited three specific efforts: “…our FY 2010 proposed budget was made public using innovative web media tools, which allowed for [...]

Read the full article →

Can the U.S. can learn about Open Government from China?

February 2, 2010

TimesArgus.com posted a story today about Wu Junliang, a Chinese businessman who successfully pressed the Guangzhou city government in southern China to “put budget plans for all 114 municipal departments and agencies online.” In a country “notorious for keeping citizens in the dark” posting these budgets online represents a victory for open government advocates. Two [...]

Read the full article →

State of the Union Open Government Commitment – Earmarks.gov?

January 29, 2010

Wednesday night, about three quarters of the way through the State of the Union, President Obama addressed earmark reform: “I’m also calling on Congress to continue down the path of earmark reform…Democrats and Republicans. You’ve trimmed some of this spending, you’ve embraced some meaningful change. But restoring the public trust demands more. For example, some [...]

Read the full article →

Open Government Wireframe Posted on USA.gov

January 26, 2010

On today’s OpenGovRadio broadcast, moderator Stephen Buckley pointed out a new page posted on USA.gov. The Guidance for Agency Web and New Media Teams page contains “resources to help agencies comply with the Open Government Directive” (OGD). Of particular interest is a sample wireframe (PDF) of a generic agency “open” page. The wireframe addresses a [...]

Read the full article →

26 Agencies Fail to Meet the First Open Gov Deadline

January 25, 2010

The Open Government Directive establishes a series of deadlines for agency action demonstrating each agency’s embrace of transparent, participatory, collaborative tools and technologies. The first of these deadlines was last Friday, January 22nd, 2010. According to the Directive ,”Within 45 days [January 22nd, 2010], each agency shall identify and publish online in an open format [...]

Read the full article →

White House Forum Addresses the Challenges of Modernizing Government

January 19, 2010

Spend a minute reviewing government websites (see USA.gov) and it is apparent how un-dynamic, un-collaborative, and behind the curve government websites are. So, the Obama Administration’s Open Government Initiative, which aims to use contemporary tools and technologies to bring transparency, participation, and collaboration to government, is a welcome effort. The challenge of seeing this effort [...]

Read the full article →

FDA transparency task force spurs FDA Basics website

January 17, 2010

As reported by iHealthBeat.org, last year FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg “established a task force to develop recommendations on how to make the agency’s operations and decision-making processes more transparent .” Last week the FDA released FDA Basics, a site directly resulting from the efforts of the task force. The site presents a general introduction to [...]

Read the full article →

← Previous Entries