Open Government:Are We There Yet?

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Presented by Sarah GrangerTo the CDPIC

Stanford UniversityFeb. 5, 2011

What’s wrong with government?

Closed door decisions

Corrupt officials

Poor access to government information

Extreme distance from decision makers to ordinary citizens

Slow to change

Immense layers of bureaucracy and paperwork

How can new media help solve some of these problems?

Open government movement (#opengov) => transparency through technology

Government embracing social media “gov 2.0” (#gov20) => civic engagement online

Commitment to Transparency

Open government in action

White House Open Government Initiative – enhancing WH transparency & information sharing, Data.gov

Open Government Directive for executive branch departments

External projects like Sunlight Foundation’s OpenCongress & MAPLight.org

Apps for Democracy – Washington, DC

Transparency Camps around the country

DataSF.org for data, apps, SF311.org for info, services

Government & Social Media

Internal & external communications, i.e. State Dept. Intranet & robust social media engagement

Crowd sourcing ideas from citizens, gauging public interest & need - #NSTIC (National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace) – Ideascale

Building new networks within government – events and discussions with stakeholders in various departments

Direct engagement

Government agencies & officials on Twitter (over 3300 nationally)

City mayor @gavinnewsom

Secretary of State @dbowen

Governor @schwarzenegger

ExamplesIn Action…

Liberating the Data

Researching Bills

Mapping Crimes

Saving Lives

CA: Building from the Foundation

Secretary of State’s Office Online

Secretary of State on Twitter

Voter Information Guide Online

Custom election sites based on the data

Electionalert.us

Campaigning vs. Governing Online

Overarching goals of reaching constituents are the same – subtle differences in outreach and style

Must still stay on message

Need to continue authentic dialogue

Communicate less often (not begging for money)

More limits on what officials can say & do online

Maintaining a sense of community is key

Where do we go from here?

The Devil’s in the Data:Clean, Accurate, Accessible

More Sharing

Within government: between agencies, cities to states, cities to cities

Exchanging ideas and experiences

Cross-sector: public to private & vice versa – business, tech, military, civilian, NGO, educational

Speeding up the process

Removing barriers to innovation (i.e. USA Application Programming Interface)

More Information

GovLoop communities

Sunlight Foundation projects

Articles – GovFresh, techPresident, Federal Computer Week, NextGov, etc.

Fedscoop videos, Gov 2.0 Radio

Personal Democracy Forum calls & conferences

O’Reilly gov 2.0 conferences, Radar, books, etc.

Local data camps & transparency camps

Twitter lists – gov20, opengov

More Participation

Greater crowd sourcing & communication tools – from the White House to the town council

More government officials genuinely active and collaborating online

Re-education of government employees and staff; gradually introducing non-native technology users to social media

Natural turnover toward when the majority of government decision-makers understand technology

What’s right now in government?

More decisions are made and explained in the open online

Corrupt activities can be more clearly detected by tools from the nonprofit world

Access to government data and information is becoming easier every day

By crowd sourcing and engaging directly through social media, the people are becoming closer to decision makers

Rapid response is becoming a reality

All we need now…

And a little patience.

Questions?Sarah Granger@sairywww.publicedge.comsarah@sarahgranger.com