According to reporting by Aliya Sternstein at National Journal’s NextGov, Macon Phillips, the White House director of new media, has a new idea when it comes to government soliciting public input on government policy: Do it yourself.

"I don't think it's something we have to create," [Phillips] said. "Government is not always the solution."

Apparently he was talking about the development of Obama’s Open Government Directive. Sternstein adds in her story:

Phillips said the advocates' desire for a voice presents a perfect opportunity for them to reach out on new media platforms.

So Macon Phillips is saying that it isn’t the government’s responsibility to create a forum for public comment on the Open Government Directive?

Whoa…wait a minute. Hold the horses.

The Open Government Directive was something that President Obama announced on January 21. He said that his administration would be guided by three principles: transparency, public participation, and collaboration. He asked for recommendations by mid-May on ways to implement these principles, which would ultimately become the Open Government Directive.

Obviously, the Directive is a highly important policy document that can shape ways in which the public interacts with the government. Yet there has been no formal public comment process on the development of the Directive. Is Phillips saying that it is the public’s responsibility to create our own forum for that?

The Obama administration has started with a bang when it comes to government transparency and openness. In the case of making the regulatory process more transparent and participatory, OMB issued a notice in the Federal Register and sought input. In the case of bringing greater integrity and transparency to the scientific process, the Office of Science and Technology Policy also sought public input through a notice in the Federal Register – and asked for comments on its blog.

Why wouldn’t it follow the same procedure for the Open Government Directive?

I’m hoping that Phillips was quoted out of context or that he said something that he really didn’t mean to say. (We’ve all done that.) But if this is the beginning of a new Obama policy, get ready to lock horns.

UPDATE (4/30/09 late afternoon): I saw an Obama official at a conference today and was told that there are plans for a public comment period on the Open Government Directive.  It has been delayed because the administration just selected someone as the Chief Technology Officer.