RE: White House releases 2nd Open Government National Action Plan

The second NAP is available in StratML format at
http://xml.fido.gov/stratml/drybridge/index.htm#OGP-USNAP2 or, more
specifically, http://xml.fido.gov/stratml/carmel/OGP-USNAP2wStyle.xml 

It is good to see the Performance.gov site will soon have the capability to
export performance data -- presumably in open, standard, machine-readable
format, as directed by the Executive Order and accompanying OMB policy memo
making openness, machine-readability, and data standards the default for
government information. http://xml.fido.gov/stratml/carmel/EOOMRDwStyle.xml
|
http://xml.fido.gov/stratml/carmel/M-13-13wStyle.xml#_78e85ef4-b91c-11e2-bf2
b-79d279ad226c | http://www.performance.gov/ 

It would be good if State and local agencies were to begin publishing their
strategic and performance plans and reports in machine-readable format, as
Federal agencies are now required to do by section 10 of the GPRA
Modernization Act (GPRAMA).
http://xml.fido.gov/stratml/references/PL111-532StratML.htm#SEC10 

Owen Ambur
Chair, AIIM StratML Committee
Co-Chair Emeritus, xml.gov CoP
Communications/Membership Director, FIRM
Former Project Manager, ET.gov
Invited Expert, W3C eGov IG



-----Original Message-----
From: Steven Clift [mailto:clift@e-democracy.org] 
Sent: Friday, December 06, 2013 12:53 PM
To: newswire; brigade; sunlightlabs; open-government@lists.okfn.org; OGP
Civil Society group; eGovIG IG
Subject: White House releases 2nd Open Government National Action Plan

This plan is part of the U.S. involvement in the global Open Government
Partnership. I recently had a chance to chat with folks involved with
OGP-related efforts across Europe and this is a really big deal that may not
have crossed your radar.

Below is a full collection of links. Start here:
http://bit.ly/usopengovplan2

My big take away from the plan - participatory budgeting is one of the only
commitments that impacts the local level where most people interact directly
with "open government." Let's build on that. We need state and local action
plans too!

With my community engagement and former state e-gov lens on, I want to see
national commitments and "open government" strings attached to Federal
funding that for example get people the key government information they
really want - greater access to personalized local crime information for
example. (This comes up daily on our BeNeighbors.org networks.) If we want
to demonstrate the value of open government to the masses, find out what
they want most and make it a priority for release at every level of
government.

On another point, the biggest problem with open government world-wide is
that there is almost no investment in increasing broad and inclusive use
beyond those who essentially already "show up." If we settle for a user base
that is demographically highly unrepresentative, open government will be
left to competitive partisan politics and not be an engine for civic change.
Some slides I put up today illustrate the fact that so far the democratic
participation divide is wider online than off: http://bit.ly/newvoicesslides
- So, we need the U.S. Federal government to set solid goals for broader
e-government use and they can start by digging into their own 2011 Census -
http://bit.ly/us2011egovquery - and tracking uptake across income, race,
etc. on a yearly basis. Lessons from promoting HealthCare.gov to many
demographics likely to have been the least likely e-government users and
sharing it more widely with the open government/civic tech community would
be a good step as well.

Links below.

Thanks,
Steven Clift
E-Democracy.org


White House Blog post:
http://bit.ly/usopengovplan2

Doc:
http://bit.ly/usopengovplan2pdf

US Civil Society Open Gov Partnership input:
http://bit.ly/usogpcivilsoc

US Civil Society OGP email group:
http://bit.ly/usogpcivilsocelist

Global Civil Society OGP email group, news:
http://www.ogphub.org/profile/


>From the White House blog post:
http://bit.ly/usopengovplan2

Among the highlights of the second National Action Plan:

"We the People": The White House will introduce new improvements to theWe
the People online petitions platform aimed at making it easier to collect
and submit signatures and increase public participation in using this
platform. Improvements will enable the public to perform data analysis on
the signatures and petitions submitted to We the People, as well as include
a more streamlined process for signing petitions and a new Application
Programming Interface (API) that will allow third-parties to collect and
submit signatures from their own websites.

Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Modernization: The FOIA encourages
accountability through transparency and represents an unwavering national
commitment to open government principles. Improving FOIA administration is
one of the most effective ways to make the U.S.
Government more open and accountable. Today, we announced five commitments
to further modernize FOIA processes, including launching a consolidated
online FOIA service to improve customers' experience, creating and making
training resources available to FOIA professionals and other Federal
employees, and developing common FOIA standards for agencies across
government.

The Global Initiative on Fiscal Transparency (GIFT): The United States will
join GIFT, an international network of governments and non-government
organizations aimed at enhancing financial transparency, accountability, and
stakeholder engagement. The U.S.
Government will actively participate in the GIFT Working Group and seek
opportunities to collaborate with stakeholders and champion greater fiscal
openness and transparency in domestic and global spending.
Open Data to the Public: Over the past few years, government data has been
used by journalists to uncover variations in hospital billings, by citizens
to learn more about the social services provided by charities in their
communities, and by entrepreneurs building new software tools to help
farmers plan and manage their crops.  Building on the U.S. Government's
ongoing open data efforts, new commitments will make government data even
more accessible and useful for the public, including by reforming how
Federal agencies manage government data as a strategic asset, launching a
new version of Data.gov to make it even easier to discover, understand, and
use open government data, and expanding access to agriculture and nutrition
data to help farmers and communities.

Participatory Budgeting: The United States will promote community-led
participatory budgeting as a tool for enabling citizens to play a role in
identifying, discussing, and prioritizing certain local public spending
projects, and for giving citizens a voice in how taxpayer dollars are spent
in their communities. This commitment will include steps by the U.S.
Government to help raise awareness of the fact that participatory budgeting
may be used for certain eligible Federal community development grant
programs.




Steven Clift - http://stevenclift.com
  Executive Director - http://E-Democracy.org
  Twitter: http://twitter.com/democracy
  Tel/Text: +1.612.234.7072

Received on Monday, 9 December 2013 02:04:44 UTC