Change we can believe in

The White House is soliciting feedback on improving Data.Gov and the creation of an Open Government Directive (OGD) Dashboard. They're look for ideas from the public in relation to these substantive initiatives of the the White House Open Government agenda. 

1.       Open Government Dashboard: The Open Government Directive calls for the creation of an Open Government Dashboard to measure progress and impact. Deputy Chief Technology Officer, Beth Noveck is looking for your input, including as to the metrics by which we measure success. 

The Dashboard will combine quantitative and qualitative measures of progress and we are looking to you for your input about what metrics the Dashboard should measure.

The Sunlight Foundation has a dashboard up and running to monitor progress. Ideas could also be taking from existing government dashboards, including the IT Dashboard and Recovery.gov. For more on existing government dashboards, check TechPresident's recent analysis.

To participate leave comments on the OSTP blog. 

2.       Future of Data.gov: The Open Government Directive instructs all federal agencies to make available high-value data that promote national priorities and improve the lives of everyday Americans through Data.gov. Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra is asking for your help in shaping the next version of this key open government platform. He wants to evolve and expand on the principles upon which Data.gov is based. These include:

• Focus on Access
• Open Platform
• Disaggregation of data
• Grow and Improve Through User Feedback
• Program Responsibility
• Rapid Intregration
• Embrace, Scale and Drive Best Practices

Through initiatives like Data.gov, we are laying a new foundation that changes the default setting of government from closed, opaque and secretive to open, transparent and participatory.

As part of the Data.gov Dialogue, you can download the draft plans, submit a new idea, or comment on someone else’s. The online Dialogue has already received dozens of suggestions and hundreds of votes.

(Via Sunlight Foundation)

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The White House has a nice collection of blog posts written by SAVE Award finalists. They outline their stories and the reactions they received after becoming finalists. The sense of pride and achievement they feel is invigorating. It showcases the passion and dedication of many in the federal government towards saving money and improving efficiencies.

Huston Prescott's SAVE Award Story:

All in all it was an overwhelming but exciting event to be involved in. I think that everyone that worked on the project submitting ideas or reviewing them and organizing everything should be very proud of themselves. As we begin to see some of the ideas implemented in the next few months or years, I can look back and smile as I know that I had a part in it.

Huston's (Department of Housing and Urban Development) idea and interview with Federal News Radio:

Christie Dickson's SAVE Award Story:

Becoming a finalist among more than 38,000 candidates is one of the greatest accomplishments in both my career and my life.  I received tremendous support from my family, church, friends and co-workers.

Christie's (Social Security Administration) idea and interview with Federal News Radio:

Julie Fosbender's SAVE Award Story:

As word got out about the “Final Four,” I started to receive emails from Forest Service employees all around the nation thanking me for submitting this idea because they are just as frustrated with our collections process as I am.  Those emails (from folks I don’t even know) and good wishes from present and former Forest Service co-workers and friends (as far back as college) really made this time special for me.

While I'm bummed that my idea didn't win (so I'm not going to meet with President Obama), I am totally psyched that there are already serious discussions higher up in my agency about how this process can be streamlined.

Julie Fosbender's (Department of Agriculture) idea and interview with Federal News Radio:

Nancy Fichtner is due to meet the president on Monday, so there will be an update from her then.

Nancy Fichtner's (Department of Veterans Affairs) winning idea and interview with Federal News Radio:

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The winner of the first-ever winning of the President's SAVE award has been announced as Nancy Fichtner. Her idea - on how to make the government perform more effectively and efficiently - was picked from the "final four" as the winner.

See video of President Barack Obama explaining the initiative and the finalists. 

On Monday, December 21, Nancy will present her idea to President Obama at the White House.

The winning idea (from Nancy Fichtner of Department of Veterans Affairs)

Veterans leaving VA hospitals should be able to take the medicine they’ve been using home with them instead of it being thrown away when they’re discharged.

As is the case in most hospitals all across the country, medicine that is used in the hospital is not given to patients to be brought home; instead, it is thrown out. “Currently the inpatient medications such as ointments, inhalers, eye drops, and other bulk items are being disposed of upon patient discharge.”

Nancy proposes ending this waste and finding a way to allow this medicine to be used by those who need it.

Listen to Nancy interviewed by Federal News Radio below:

Congratulations Nancy!

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Tech entrepreneur and blogger Anil Dash announced the launch of Expert Labs at Web 2.0 Expo NY 09. Its mission is to use the Web and online communities to crowdsource solutions to social problems. Dash explained explained:

If we can bring the right resources to bear and sufficient numbers of the right experts to help solve our social problems, there really is an order of magnitude increase in the types of problems we’re going to be able to solve

Expert Labs will work with policy makers, technologists, scientists, researchers and academics to leverage crowdsourcing as a way to “help government listen” and create better policy.

It's an independent non-profit initiative designed to help policy makers in our government take advantage of the expertise of their fellow citizens. It works by:

1. Asking policy makers what questions they need answered to make better decisions.
2. Helping the technology community create the tools that will get those answers.
3. Prompting the scientific & research communities to provide the answers that will make our country run better.

Earlier this year Dash wrote a blog post on the Most Interesting New Tech Startup of 2009; The executive branch of the federal government of the United States. Sites such as Whitehouse.gov, Recovery.gov, Data.gov and USASpending.gov have shown a 'willingness to embrace Web 2.0 techniques to share data and make Government more open'.

The labs will run as part of the American Association for the Advancement of Science with a $500,000 grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

For more on Expert Labs follow @expertlabs.

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