Change we can believe in

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

• Google Group: Citizens for OpenGov
• Wiki: Public=Online
• Sunlight Foundation
  

(H/T) GovFresh

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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:

• transparency of government information   
• accountability of elected officials,
• or civic engagement in the political process

Current projects include:

• ADOTE UM VEREADOR - a site encouraging Brazilian citizens to blog about the work of their local elected officials in order to hold them accountable.

• SITHI - a Cambodian human rights portal aiming to crowdsource and curate reports of human rights violations

• MZALENDO - tracking the performance of Kenya's Parliament by tracking votes, publishing records, and providing analysis and context

• VOTA INTELIGENTE - providing Chilean citizens with more information about their elected officials
• ISHKI - a complaint brokerage which collects and organizes complaints from local citizens about the public and private sector 

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/.

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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). 

Situation Room

An exclusive look inside one of the most secure spaces in the United States, the White House Situation Room.

The Cabinet

President Obama and Cabinet members share their perspectives on their bimonthly cabinet meetings. 

The White House garden

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.

Letters to the President

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.

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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:

1. Proposed Standards
2. Interoperability
3. Vocabularies
4. Privacy
5. Security
6. Quality
7. Implementation Case Studies (Your Story - the good, bad and in-between)

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.

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For more on this initiative and to sign the declaration visit http://www.endorsetheopendeclaration.eu.

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Funny video from the Sunlight Foundation regarding their Read The Bill campaign. The legislation the want passed is called H. Res. 554. It seeks to amend the rules of the House of Representatives so legislation and conference reports are made available on the Internet for 72 hours before they are considered by the House.

For more on the campaign see the altogether less dramatic video below.

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On September 29, the FASTforward blog hosted a conversation between Beth Simone Noveck, US Deputy Chief Technology Officer for Open Government and Andrew Rasiej, the co-founder of the Personal Democracy Forum.

The conversation focused on how new collaborative technologies were driving a critical cultural in the U.S. from closed to open government.

You can listen to a recording of the webinar below, or view an ebook of the conversation at the FASTforward blog.

Topics discussed included:

• The Vision of Open Government
• The Big Shift: Moving from Collaborative Elections to Collaborative Governance
• The changes in behaviour necessary for collaboration to flourish
• Best practices in the areas of collaboration and transparency
• The future for the Open Government initiative

All of these topics are elaborated upon in the superb ebook of the conversation.

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A relaunched Recovery.gov, went live earlier today with a host of new features designed to improve transparency of data and prevent and stop potential waste and fraud. The really important stuff, the recipient data, however, will not be available until Oct 15. Nevertheless there is some great new features including:

• New Mapping Tool - The maps are done very well with the ability to enter a zip code and get details of nearby contracts, grants and loans
• Download Center - This area allows users can download agency reporting data (and eventually recipient data). Data relating to contracts, grants and loans can be downloaded in XML and Excel formats.

Overall, the site looks a lot better and more interactive than its previous incarnation. While there has been some disappointment with different site features and its move away from the Drupal platform, it's nonetheless a highly interactive and polished site.

For more on the site relaunch listen to the interview with Earl Devaney - Chairman of the Recovery, Accountability and Transparency Board on Federal News Radio.

(cross-posted to http://rfahey.org)

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Abraham Lincoln in the Gettysburg Address symbolized the definition of democracy itself: "government of the people, by the people, for the people."

Carl Malamud's presentation at the Gov2.0 summit begins with the famous quote. He goes on to talk about the importance of government releasing information and data into the public domain. Agree with James Jacobs that he'd make a great public printer.

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