open government

The growing interest in “engaging the crowd” to identify or develop innovative solutions to public problems has been inspired by similar efforts in the commercial world.  There, crowdsourcing has been successfully used to design innovative consumer products or solve complex scientific problems, ranging from custom-designed T-shirts to mapping genetic DNA strands. 

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 included unprecedented provisions to disclose how more than $275 billion in grants, contracts, and loans were spent under the Act.  These requirements fell not only on federal agencies but also the recipients and sub-recipients of these monies.  In many cases, state governments were the focal point for collecting and reporting this information.  How did states respond?  Did this increased transparency change how states managed their own monies as well as federal dollars?  Are there lessons for future transparency efforts at the state or fed

The Obama administration’s Open Government Initiative is now three years old. But is it making a difference?  Dr. Nabatchi’s report is a practical guide for program managers who want to assess whether their efforts to increase citizen participation in their programs are making a difference. She lays out evaluation steps for both the implementation and management of citizen participation initiatives, as well as how to assess the impact of a particular citizen participation initiative.

The plans of top agencies have been assessed by both the government and advocacy groups to see if they met the requirements laid out in the directives, often with an emphasis on the degree to which they increase transparency.  This report focuses on how well these agency plans increase public participation and collaboration.  

Mr. Leighninger’s report begins to pull back the veil on how the various online engagement tactics and tools can be used, and when they work best.  

His report describes common scenarios where public managers may find themselves needing, or using, public input.  He describe a mix of ten different tactics managers may find useful for engaging the public online and highlights over 40 different technologies in use today to support those kinds of engagements.

The release of this report comes on the heels of the first anniversary of the Open Government Directive issued in December 2009. This Directive required all executive departments and agencies to take the following steps toward the goal of creating a more open government:
 

To date, federal agencies have largely been on their own in terms of how to manage records created via social media tools.  This historically decentralized approach has resulted in some agencies banning the use of social media while other agencies have rapidly adopted their use but ignored the potential records management implications.  The National Archives and Records Administration released a bulletin on managing social media records at the same time this report was released.  It offered some “guidance to Federal agencies, who must then determine the most appropriate ways to incorporate