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 quotes in the article provide lessons for open government advocates in the U.S.:
“The very idea that citizens are entitled to obtain information from their government was electrifying to many.”
“If we only rely on the law to push for openness and there is no pressure from the citizens, the government probably won’t take the initiative to open up…”
The first point, that citizens are entitled to obtain information from government, not only applies to the public’s perception of government, but also applies to how government perceives its provenance over the data it collects and produces.
US-China
But (this is the point of the second quote) government won’t change based on regulations alone. The public must actively participate with government to create policy, review procedures, and make use of the data government collects.
By the end of this week all agencies are required (according to the Open Government Directive) to post an “www.[agencyname].gov/open” page on which they detail their efforts towards meeting the requirements of the OGD. The point of these pages is for agencies to begin engaging the public in meaningful ways.
I’ll be taking a look at these agency “open” pages over the next few weeks, and reporting back my findings. Please let me know of any particularly helpful “open” pages you may find.