open government

Obama, Congress get poor grades for Internet openness

Both President Obama and the U.S. Congress get failing grades for not allowing the public to learn through the Internet what's actually happening in Washington, D.C, according to a forthcoming report.

It might seem like a surprising conclusion after Obama launched Data.gov and endorsed greater transparency on his first day in office, saying at the time that he's committed to an "unprecedented level of openness in government."

But since then, says the report from the Cato Institute scheduled to be released next week and reviewed by CNET, there's been an "Obama … Read more

GOP readies major push for Internet transparency

Republicans are planning to use the Internet as a sledgehammer to clobber the secretive way in which Congress has traditionally done business.

Through a set of almost-radical changes that most Americans would probably view as common sense, the incoming GOP majority is set to approve rules saying that legislation must be posted online three days before a vote and that committee amendments will also be publicly posted.

Politicians' formal votes in committees will also be disclosed, and audio and video recordings will be permanently posted "in a manner that is easily accessible to the public," according to the … Read more

Feds get new tool for online public feedback

The U.S. General Services Administration announced on Tuesday a new tool designed to help federal departments and agencies solicit ideas from the public as mandated by the Obama Administration's recent Open Government Directive.

The tool, which will be made available free of charge to any federal department or agency, will allow members of the public to submit ideas and vote or comment on others' ideas. The tools will go live on the Web site of each participating agency or department on February 6, and will be active for five weeks.

The hope, at least among participating departments and … Read more

Charting a course from virtual reality to the White House

Editor's note: This is the second in a series of articles discussing how people in the tech industry are working with or around federal and state governments.

Can you chart a logical path from a 2003 academic conference on the legal issues surrounding virtual worlds and online games to Barack Obama's first executive action as president?

Beth Noveck can.

If you're not familiar with her--and few outside her specific professional and social circles would be--Noveck, a 38-year-old lawyer originally from Toms River, N.J., is Obama's deputy chief technology officer for open government.

Precisely what &… Read more

Obama's open-government director opens up

On Tuesday morning, the Obama administration formally unveiled its Open Government directive, an effort aimed at weaving the philosophies of openness, transparency and participation into the DNA of the federal government and its agencies.

That directive comes as a direct result of President Barack Obama's first executive action, on January 21, only hours after the hoopla from his inaugural parade and parties had died down, when the new chief executive issued the so-called Memorandum on Transparency and Open Government.

That document, which began, "My administration is committed to creating an unprecedented level of openness in government," was … Read more

White House unveils open government directive

The Obama administration on Tuesday officially unveiled its Open Government directive, a document that charges each federal agency with making high value data publicly available and with quickly coming up with formal open government plans.

The announcement follows up on President Obama's first executive act--the issuing on January 21 of his Memorandum on Transparency and Open Government. That document set forth, among other things, that, "We will work together to ensure the public trust and establish a system of transparency, public participation, and collaboration. Openness will strengthen our democracy and promote efficiency and effectiveness in Government." … Read more

Dot-com thinking for D.C.: Expert Labs debuts

NEW YORK--Former Six Apart executive and well-read blogger Anil Dash has a new gig: he announced at the Web 2.0 Expo here on Wednesday that he will be the director of Expert Labs, a new nonprofit that will take the dot-com incubator model and apply it to new digital tools for the federal government.

"Despite what our ego tends to think in the tech industry, the issue is not that we need to have more tweeting from the White House," Dash said onstage. "(We can) help them learn the lessons that we've seen over the … Read more

State high court rules public has a right to know

Open government is a central tenet for democracy. After all, if it's your government then you have the right to know what your money is going toward. But what about the rights of public employees' personal privacy? As reported in today's SFGate , the California Supreme Court has ruled that "the public has the right to know the names of police officers and the salaries of local and state government employees."