Change we can believe in
Change // Reform // Collaboration
Change // Reform // Collaboration
How can data be used to fuel positive social change? How do we design data to help communities pursue their interests? The Knight Foundation recently brought together a panel of three open data advocates at the 2010 Future of News and Civic Media Conference at MIT to discuss the answers.
The panel discussed ideas about how to foster civic engagement and social change. These strategies primarily focused around the areas of opendata and transparency. The speakers agreed that social change can be fostered by increasing the amount of quality data available and correspondence between residents and their governments. MIT Tech TV
Speakers included:
(Via KnightBlog)
Jennifer Bell's post on Canada's VisibleGovernment blog describles a great speech given earlier this year by Suzanne Legault, Canada's Interim Information Commissioner, to a Parliamentary Committe. The speech - described as a "blockbuster" - outlines 5 open government principles required to "lead the paradigm shift from reactive to proactive disclosure, and ultimately to open government".
The 5 priciples include:
Along with these principles Legault acknowledges the work done by municipalities and engaged citizens in creating practical applications from open government data:
In municipalities, there are a significant number of practical applications being developed by both the cities and citizens. For example, Edmonton, Nanaimo, Toronto and Vancouver, have mounted online data catalogues containing information regarding council meetings, fire and rescue response reports, garbage collection and public transit schedules and building permit statistics. Many of these, such as property searches and restaurant sanitation reports, are supported by online search engines that allow the public to retrieve and manipulate the data. Ottawa is also moving forward to capitalize on new technologies to expand its service offerings.
It is at the grassroots level where many of the most innovative initiatives are occurring. These initiatives are an indication of the types of information Canadians actually want. In a recent Globe and Mail article entitled “if you won’t tell us about our MPs, we’ll do it for you”, David Eaves, an internationally recognized open government guru, described new websites mounted by what he called “digital democratic activists”. He cited, as an example openparliament.ca, which enables the public to see what Members of Parliament say, explore how they vote, and search related press stories. Another example is howdidtheyvote.ca. This site provides a breakdown of Members of Parliament statistics, including the number of words spoken in a session, the frequency with which Members vote against their parties and Members’ attendance records.
Along with these Canadian efforts, Legault referred to ongoing open government initiatives in the UK, US and Australia as examples of international leadership in this area.
She ends with:
In 2010, democracy, government efficiency and national prosperity share the same core requirement. Citizens, experts and entrepreneurs must be able to easily access, interact with and reuse current and relevant public domain data. To quote from an excellent report compiled by Deloitte entitled Unlocking Government: How Data Transform Democracy:
Government leaders have before them an opportunity to combine the resourcefulness of online citizens and entrepreneurs with the power of factual data to more effectively achieve their mission. In an information-driven age, the ability of governments to seize this opportunity may ultimately determine whether a government fails or succeeds.
(H/T VisibleGovernment.ca)
Campaigns and Engagement Director at the Sunlight Foundation -
This “Cycle of Transparency” demonstrates, in one image, the specific actions and the variety of actors that need to work together to create the open, transparent government we seek.
Ultimately, informed citizen action creates greater public awareness; citizens become more effective, responsible advocates; holding government accountable becomes informed by data rather than inside-the-Beltway pundits, and better decisions can be made for our democracy.
As each element of the Cycle of Transparency moves forward concurrently, bringing about the changes we need to create a more transparent government, we also identify new needs.
At the end of the day, the process that the Cycle of Transparency describes is about creating a government more deserving of our trust, and ultimately, a government that allows its citizens to fully participate and hold government accountable as our Founders intended.
For more, check the full post at Govfresh.
U.S. Deputy Chief Technology Officer & Director White House Open Government Initiative Beth Noveck on Transparent Government and the Long Now of Democracy.
For more, and a transcript of the speech, check Fora.tv and The Long Now Foundation.
Yesterday, Representative Steve Israel introduced the Public Online Information Act, which if enacted would make vast amounts of government information available online. All too often, information that the law requires be publicly available is hidden within the walls of government departments and agencies and in paper silos.
POIA seeks to tear down these walls by:
The legislation requires:
Executive Branch agencies to publish all publicly available information on the Internet in a timely fashion and in user-friendly formats. It also creates an advisory committee to help develop government-wide Internet publication policies. Freeing government information from its paper silos provides the private sector with raw material to develop new products and services and gives the public what they need to participate in government as active and informed citizens. Establishing an advisory committee that brings all three branches of government and the private sector together to develop government-wide information best practices will improve how the government serves the American people.
It has far reaching reaching effects including:
The POIA requires the Executive Branch to follow commonsense rules in making public information available online, and encourages all three branches to work together with the public to develop online disclosure best practices.
Rep. Steve Israel:
This bill will make government more transparent, accessible and efficient.
For more see:
(via SunlightFoundation)
The Sunlight Foundation recently launched a national campaign to make government more open, transparent, and ultimately: accountable. The campaign has adopted a new logo that can be used by any organization working toward government transparency.
On launching the campaign Sunlight's Engagement Director Jason Brewer explained the new logo and the rational behind the Open Government 'movement':
We hope this emblem is a first step in giving us something we can all own and point to as a symbol for what open government means to us, and what we believe.
[...] We believe that what government does, how it is influenced, or how it spends our money are all things that are public information – and today, “public” means that the government’s data must be accessible by any citizen, at any time, from anywhere: online and in real-time.
Through the campaign we hope to dramatically further the movement for open government that has been building, and give it the infrastructure it needs to be successful at the local, state and federal levels for years to come.
Open Government beliefs
The primary objectives of the campaign - and beliefs at the heart of the Open Government movement - include:
1) An open, transparent Government is something we create when public government data and information about government activity is made easily accessible to us – online and in real-time – and we use it effectively.
2) Government has a responsibility to be open and transparent, but it will not become so on its own.
3) We would rather use positive incentives (the “carrot”) than negative incentives (the “stick”) to make government transparent, but we will use whichever is most effective.
4) Changing the way government thinks and behaves is as important as changing government rules.
5) Technology isn’t part of the open government “pie.” It’s the pan.
6) Changing the way the public thinks about government and how they engage with it, is as important as making government data and information accessible.
7) Effective and responsible engagement with government will make it work better for all Americans.
8) Achieving our vision of a transparent government will require the ongoing commitment of citizens in every district across the United States to make it possible.
9) We will sacrifice “perfect” in order to take action and make progress today.
Open Government Logo
In the video below, Noah Kunin from the Sunlight Foundation walks through the reasoning behind the logo, and explains the campaign to ensure more government is transparent and accountable.
For more on the Campaign for Transparency, and to provide feedback, check out
(H/T) GovFresh
The citizen media training initiative of Global Voices Online recently opened their new Transparency website. The site's aim is to provide a resource to map and evaluate technology projects promoting transparency, accountability, and civic engagement around the world - primarily outside Europe and North America.
There are currently four case studies available documenting grassroots online technology projects. Each of the cases studies concentracts on either:
Current projects include:
The Open Government and Gov 2.0 movement is progressing steadily in Western Europe and North America. It is reported on extensively in the media, through blogs and various social networking sites. The situation outside of these advanced democracies, however, is less well understood and discussed. As such, the Global Voices site provides a necessary portal to highlight advances in democractic accountability and transparency in developing countries.
For more on this worthwhile initiative, visit http://transparency.globalvoicesonline.org/.
The White House has been running a series of Behind the scenes films providing an interesting insight into how the Executive branch operates, and a look at areas of the White House not seen before.
My view is these kind of behind the scenes videos contribute towards the tenets of the recently released Open Government Directive. These short films promote the principle of Transparency, by providing a more human perspective into how the White House operates. After all, the White House entity is just a collection of government employees doing their day jobs.
While the Transparency component of the Open Government plan does not explicitly state any requirement for Behind the Scenes films of how agencies operate, they're a useful mechanism for addressing the increasing YouTube centric youth of today.
It's MTV Cribs meets the Federal Government (well at least the Executive branch anyway).
An exclusive look inside one of the most secure spaces in the United States, the White House Situation Room.
President Obama and Cabinet members share their perspectives on their bimonthly cabinet meetings.
First Lady Michelle Obama and White House chef Sam Kass telling the story of the first garden on White House grounds since Eleanor Roosevelt's Victory Garden during World War II.
President Obama reads ten letters from the public in order to stay in tune with America's issues and concerns. The video provides an insight into how these letters arrive at the White House and are sorted for the President's attention.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has launched Health IT Buzz, a new blog for the discussion of Information Technology (IT) issues, particularly electronic health records.
David Blumenthal, the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, said on the initial posting:
With this new venture, we hope to create a forum for engagement. We plan to report on progress, and create an open dialogue among members of the health IT community. We intend to address a wide and diverse range of timely topics relevant to the “why’s and how’s” of efforts to support the secure and seamless exchange of electronic health information. We will discuss our ongoing work to protect patient privacy, secure information, and implement standards. We’ll also be using the blog to provide additional information regarding our new grant programs. And the conversation wouldn’t be complete without discussing the meaningful use rulemaking and incentive programs, clarifying our vision and addressing key challenges.
We want to hear from citizens, patients, health professionals, managers, policymakers, technology enthusiasts and technology skeptics. We can’t succeed unless we understand the wishes and concerns of the many constituencies we serve.
Federal Advisory Committees
The first blog post has already produced a lively debate with dozens of comments from doctors and interested groups. While there is already a wide range of forums to discuss Healthcare reform, this blog differs in that it focuses specifically on Health IT. It does, however, follow on from a similar blog that has been running for the past couple of months concerning the work of the Federal Advisory Committees on Health IT.
Aneesh Chopra - Federal Government CTO - has previously stated his ambition to uncover new strategies to accelerate the adoption of health IT standards.
"Standards" are really the guardians of quality, consistency, and interoperability.
Without thoughtful, clear and uniform standards, we cannot enable the seamless and secure exchange of electronic health information (or the benefits that accrue to providers and patients from such protected exchanges). So, while the exploration of technical standards may seem mundane to some, it is foundational to electronic health records (EHRs) and electronic health information exchange more broadly.
In this vein, Public hearings on Health IT (HIT) Standards began earlier this year and will continue into next year. Aneesh Chopra wants all stakeholders to be able to follow the activity of the Committees and contribute to their current thinking. Consequently, members of the Health IT Standards Committee began a blog to facilitate Transparency and Collaboration in the work of the HIT Policy and Standards Committees.
The Federal Advisory Committees blog has, and is due to focus on:
The new Health IT Buzz and the Federal Advisory Committee blogs provide the public with a new and accessible medium in which to follow activity on formulation of policy and standards in this area. They exemplify President Obama's Memorandum on Transparency and Open Government.
The aim is for quality, consistent and interoperable standards to emerge as a result of wide-ranging, transparent discussions by all on the topics above.
