Open, Accountable Government / Public Data and Websites
EPA Pushing Data Out to the Public
Sep 15, 2009
The Obama administration has made government transparency a high priority in its early months, and of all the federal agencies, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) appears to be making the quickest progress in turning rhetoric into action. Across a range of issues, the EPA is taking proactive steps to improve transparency, collecting and releasing to the public important environmental data needed to protect the environment and public health.
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Public Comments Lost after Regulations.gov Glitch
Sep 1, 2009 by Matthew Madia
A glitch on the federally run Regulations.gov website prevented more than 100 users from successfully submitting comments to several rulemaking agencies, according to Nextgov.com reporter Aliya Sternstein. Unfortunately, even though the service disruption occurred in late July, the problem is far from resolved.
read in fullThe Rise of Gov 2.0
Aug 18, 2009
At the close of President Obama’s first 200 days in office, the administration has demonstrated a willingness to experiment with new technologies and their potential role in making government more participatory and accountable. New e-government tools have been deployed to keep track of government spending, gather public input on policymaking, and convey the status of government projects. These tools may hold the potential to give Main Street the same voice in government traditionally reserved for K Street.
read in fullEPA Seeks Public Input on Clean Water Plan through Online Forum
Aug 7, 2009 by Brian Turnbaugh*
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is taking the first step in implementing Administrator Lisa Jackson's call for greater transparency and improved enforcement of EPA's clean water programs. To gather ideas for its nascent Clean Water Enforcement Action Plan, the agency is accepting comments from the public through a new online forum on EPA's blog.
read in fullBureaucratic Unrest Surrounds New Regulations.gov Site
Jul 31, 2009 by Matthew Madia
In his “In the Loop” column in today’s Washington Post, Al Kamen reports that Department of Transportation officials are unhappy with the new version of Regulations.gov, the federally run website that allows users to comment on proposed regulations. (I blogged about the redesign here.)
read in fullNew Version of Regulations.gov Unveiled
Jul 28, 2009 by Matthew Madia
The Obama administration has launched a new version of Regulations.gov – the federally run website that allows users to comment on proposed regulations and find information in rulemaking dockets.
read in fullNIH to Edit Wikipedia – A Slippery Slope?
Jul 28, 2009 by Roger Strother*
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has initiated a program to encourage its scientists to edit and create articles in the online encyclopedia that anyone can edit, Wikipedia. Wikipedia is a widely used free resource on the web often criticized for its lack of reliability that results from its open editing format.
White House Opens Online Dialogue Concerning Cookies
Jul 27, 2009 by Roger Strother*
As a result of the Open Government dialogue the administration has conducted over the past few months, the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) has opened a new internet based discussion on the administration’s policy regarding the federal government’s use of web-tracking technologies. On previous government blog discussions of different topics the cookie policy was of continuous interest sparking this separate effort.
Phase Three of Open Government Directive Process Generates Recommendations
Jul 14, 2009
The third phase of public participation in generating recommendations for the federal Open Government Directive wrapped up on July 6. The final phase sought draft recommendations within three broad topics – transparency, collaboration, and participation – which President Barack Obama identified in his January memo as the three principles of open government.
read in fullDiscussing New Performance Report on Federal News Radio
Jul 7, 2009 by Adam Hughes*
I just finished up an interview about our new report Building a Better Government Performance System on Federal News Radio. The segment was a part of The Daily Debrief with Chris Dorobek and Amy Morris and I got to talk a bit about the unique process we used to develop these recommendations to the Obama administration and some of the implications of those recommendations on current performance measurement systems.
You can listen to the interview on the Federal News Radio Daily Debrief webpage or download the mp3 of the broadcast.
