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Obama Opens O-Government

By Aliya Sternstein   05/20/09 05:43 pm ET

The day that recommendations for a more open government are due to the president, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) plans to file a request for public input, prompting questions galore.

Months ago, President Obama asked department heads to compile recommendations for an open government directive that will instruct agencies to take steps toward a more transparent, collaborative and participatory government. Government transparency groups instantly urged the president to let them participate in creating a more participatory government, too. That was Jan. 21. The deadline for agency submissions is Thursday, May 21.

Now, the government is finally giving the public what it wants, in the form of an expected May 21 Federal Register notice asking for "comments, ideas, and proposals" on possible initiatives to increase openness in government. The deadline for public submissions is June 19.

Questions left unanswered:

  • Did Obama authorize an extension for agency recommendations?
  • Is the White House waiting for Chief Technology Officer Nominee Aneesh Chopra to be confirmed? The president had tasked the federal CTO with organizing the recommendations.
  • When will he issue the actual directive?
  • How much of it does the public get to see?
"While this is a very positive step, it is disappointing that it took so long for such a simple invitation of public participation," according to a blog post by OMBWatch, a group of government accountability advocates. "The notice does not appear to include any draft recommendations or specific issues the government plans to address. You would think that after 120 days the government would have some draft ideas to test out with the public. The good news is that the directive is moving forward and the public is being involved."

The May 21 Federal Register notice states:

Members of the public are invited to participate in the process of developing recommendations via email or the White House website at www.whitehouse.gov/open offering comments, ideas, and proposals about possible initiatives and about how to increase openness and transparency in government. DATES: Comments must be received by June 19, 2009. ADDRESSES: Submit comments by one of the following methods:

  • http://www.whitehouse.gov/open
  • E-mail: opengov@ostp.gov
  • Mail: Office of Science and Technology Policy, Attn: Open Government Recommendations, 725 17th Street, ATTN: Jim Wickliffe, Washington, DC 20502.

    • *********************

    The Presidential Memorandum requests recommendations to inform an OMB Directive that will instruct executive departments and agencies on specific actions to implement the three principles of transparency, participation, and collaboration.

    The purpose of this Federal Register notice is to solicit public participation in the development of those recommendations. There is a great deal of dispersed information among the nation's citizens. With twenty-first century tools, the United States is in a unique position to take advantage of that dispersed information to inform the policymaking process. Our goal is to use the principles of open government to obtain fresh ideas about open government itself.

    Comments on open government may relate to government-wide or agency-specific policy, project ideas, and relevant examples. Comments may address law, policy, technology, culture, and practice on issues such as:

  • What government information should be more readily available on-line or more easily searched?
  • How might the operations of government be made more transparent and accountable?
  • How might federal advisory committees, rulemaking, or electronic rulemaking be better used to improve decisionmaking?
  • What alternative models exist to improve the quality of decisionmaking and increase opportunities for citizen participation?
  • What are the limitations to transparency?
  • What strategies might be employed to adopt greater use of Web 2.0 in agencies?
  • What policy impediments to innovation in government currently exist?
  • What changes in training or hiring of personnel would enhance innovation?
  • What performance measures are necessary to determine the effectiveness of open government policies?

    • COMMENTS

    • I'll be brief. I believe this is a good faith effort by
      the president, and should be taken as such. My
      only question is if he really believes in openess
      and transparency than why on earth did he specifically
      make ACTA IPR documents secret by presidential
      order? The president can't have it both ways when
      publically important information and policy is being
      discussed in secret while at the same time preaching
      the opposite.

      Jeffrey A. Williams   05/30/09 08:44 pm ET

    • With the launch of the Open Government Directive website, the President threw open the doors to what could be the most significant effort to include citizens in governance making in American history.

      We need your voice and your vote. You can help make sure that citizens have a government-mandated role in solving the most pressing issues facing our nation:
      http://www.americaspeaks.org/opengovernment

      Join the 100 thought leaders, advocates and federal agency managers who have worked over the past year to strengthen our nation’s democracy. They have developed a list of important recommendations for the Obama Administration, as a result of convenings held by AmericaSpeaks and our partners Demos, Everyday Democracy and Harvard’s Ash Institute.

      Now, we need your help to take up these ideas and add your own in this unprecedented opportunity.

      Please visit us today at http://www.americaspeaks.org/opengovernment

      There you will find out how you can champion greater public participation through the website provided by the White House.

      For those of us who care deeply about citizen voice in democracy, this is a time to take quick action and to invite hundreds of other people to do the same.

      Susanna Haas Lyons   05/22/09 11:37 am ET

    • The launch of data.gov offers a fundamental shift in how we understand the role of the state: The contractarian/administrative state of the last centuries was integrated through the institution of the state and the secret (arcana imperii, administrative secrets), while governance in network society is integrated through the ability of mashing up machine-readable data into new forms of public value. It's huge. Join the debate at Shaping Network Society, http://www.philippmueller.de/a-new-governance-paradigm/

      Philipp Mueller   05/22/09 06:31 am ET

    • Having spent 10 years helping government and industry address these same issues, I would like to suggest that some of these questions have already been answered in various studies and reports. Here are some quick hits;

      How might the operations of government be made more transparent and accountable?
      Answer: Fill the gaps in the planning, architecture, assessment and acquisition processes much like AF CIO did via ASAP. Also, enforce FAR Organizational conflict of Interest rules that bar anyone developing architectures from being able to participate in an award, either as prime or a supplier.

      How might federal advisory committees, rulemaking, or electronic rulemaking be better used to improve decisionmaking?
      Answer: You are not going to get objective advise from trade organizations that are run by major suppliers. You really need an inclusive public/private partnership as recommended in reports out of CSIS and Markle Foundation.

      What strategies might be employed to adopt greater use of Web 2.0 in agencies?
      Just like any emerging technology, (SOA, Cloud Computing), its never about the technology, its about the process. Fix the IT Acquisition process and start holding people accountable. Stop giving contracts based on flawed past performance information.

      What policy impediments to innovation in government currently exist?
      Try the disconnect between Title 10 and Title 40 to start. Also, get rid of the CCA check lists that have no rigor of validation. Defense contractors have never been motivated to leverage innovations of the market as they are selling "butts in seats" and ECPs. Change the incentives and make sure the buyer stays involved in decision making.

      What changes in training or hiring of personnel would enhance innovation?
      This is why some non-profits exist so as to provide economies of scale for agencies seeking to track and assess how innovations can be leveraged. Most small companies don't have the resources to keep 100,000 govies informed, as well as their contractors. Only big shops like Oracle and Microsoft are staffed to keep up, and I would not put them in the category as a "innovators" any more.

      What performance measures are necessary to determine the effectiveness of open government policies?
      How about a way of making Solution Architecture a collaborative approach vs one that is controlled by a handful of large contractors.

      John Weiler   05/21/09 01:16 pm ET

    • Obama will not achieve this objective if his administration leaders fail to learn from history and/or fail to leverage proven approaches that were over looked by the Bush team who over relied on outsourcing of key government functions. One effort worth looking into is the Solution Architecture Integration Lab (SAIL) developed for the CIO Council and the Solution Architecture Working Group that Mark Forman led. This laid out a comprehensive value chain approach for exposing innovative solutions to the requirements and architecture process. Bottom up must meet top down efforts, else we end up over specifying and causing costly custom development.

      Paper on SAIL are posted at www.ICHnet.org/sail.htm . Comments welcome; info (at) ICHnet.org

      John Weiler   05/21/09 11:14 am ET