Open Government

On Barack Obama�s first full day in office (Jan. 21, 2009), the President issued a Memorandum on Transparency and Open Government  establishing an Open Government Directive.  The order offered a vision for government organized around three principles: 

� Government should be transparent, with information about agency operations and decisions available to the public online.

� Government should be participatory, tapping the collective expertise of the American public in government decision-making processes.

� Government should be collaborative, using technology to share and cooperate with other agencies, businesses and nonprofits, and the public at large.

Each federal agency was ordered to publish online within 45 days, three high-value data sets and within 60 days, each agency was to create an open government webpage.  Related to this, agencies were to take steps to reduce any backlog of Freedom of Information requests. 

�Throughout 2009, a number of federal agencies produced innovative products in support of this strategy.�  For more on the success of these initiatives go here.

�As government agencies at all levels bring their services online, Americans are turning in large numbers to government websites to access information and services.�

The Pew Research Center released a report this week, called Government Online, measuring how Americans interact with the government (federal, state and local) online during 2009.  Here are some highlights from the results.

� Fully 82% of internet users (representing 61% of all American adults) looked for information or completed a transaction on a government website in the twelve months preceding this survey.

� 48% of internet users have looked for information about a public policy or issue online with their local, state or federal government

� 46% have looked up what services a government agency provides

� 41% have downloaded government forms

� 35% have researched official government documents or statistics

� 25% have gotten advice or information from a government agency about a health or safety issue

� 23% have gotten information about or applied for government benefits

� 19% have gotten information about how to apply for a government job

� 11% have applied for a recreational license, such as fishing or hunting license.

� �Americans are not simply going online for data and information; they want to share their personal views on the business of government. Nearly one quarter (23%) of internet users participate in the online debate around government policies or issues, with much of this discussion occurring outside of official government channels. These �online government participators� are also discussed in more detail in Part 2 of the report (page 26).�

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More on President Obama�s Open Government Directive can be found here, here and here. 

Go here for the newly released data sets due to the President�s directive.

Tagged as: open government, open government directive, Pew Research Center, transparency in government