Getting back into the Government 2.0 grind, here’s two links that crossed my desk:
US Open Data Moves ‘Have Created New Culture’
It’s nice to see that the Open Government Directive is meeting President Obama’s goals: transparency, public participation and collaboration. I was also pleased to see recognition that the transparency goal has a long way to go before we can check it off as complete, especially in the realm of datasets. You’ll recall my experimentation with government datasets that illustrated this point 100 percent. The report touches on several aspects of the datasets that I didn’t pick up that are extremely important – open forums for users to comment on data, usage statistics, quality control, timeliness and transparency in decision making. My work touched briefly on quality control (specifically, metadata), and it was comforting to know I am not alone.
The report (prepared by the non-partisan Information Technology and Innovation Foundation) notes the one area where the Open Government Directive fails (or in less fatalist terms, is having difficult meeting its goals): public participation.
That’s where the “solution” enters stage left:
11 Ways Government Can Better Spread Its Tech, Open Government Efforts
These are ridiculously simple solutions – establishing regular communications by leveraging social media and blogging, responding to social media requests and other communications, etc. Using contact info is also important – it seems so trite, but if your users can’t find your contact info they’re not going to call you. (This goes for web forms too; here are some great tips on making your web forms easy to use.) The idea of user-centered government is useless if you don’t explain how the data, apps, etc. affect Joe and Jane Citizen (noting one of the failings with data.gov!) and conveying that message as concisely and simply as possible.
The NIH is a great example of putting these ideas in practice. Take a look at their social media page. You have quick and easy links to Twitter and Facebook, along with an RSS feed and email lists. User options so you can “choose the one for you!”
With these tooks in the government information toolkit, there’s no excuse not to fully meet the Open Government Directive. It’s way overdue.
