Open Government Directive

Open government movement seen as way to engage private sector companies to improve government services

Tech book publisher Tim O’Reilly thinks that with greater openness in government, private sector companies will deliver software, services and applications to provide new and improved services at a lower cost to the public and in the process shrink the size of government. -db InformationWeek Opinion May 24, 2010 By John Foley Tim O’Reilly is raising the bar on what he envisions for the open government movement. At this week’s Gov 2.0 Expo in Washington,

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Open government advocates find much to like in latest federal plans for transparency

The Obama administration plans for implementing their Open Government Directive has received much praise with the reservation that some federal agencies seem more committed to transparency than others. -db The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press April 9, 2010 By Miranda Fleschert Federal agencies unveiled open government plans this week as required by the Obama administration’s Open Government Directive. Though the assessments made by open-government advocates have been largely positive, some agencies’ plans display

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Obama administration wants carrot method to promote open government

The Obama administration announced that it wants to use prizes and challenges to promote open government in federal agencies. -db Secrrecy News Federation of American Scientists March 11, 2010 By Steven Aftergood Executive branch agencies should “increase the use of prizes and challenges as tools for promoting open government,” the White House Office of Management and Budget said in a memorandum to agency heads (pdf) this week. “It is Administration policy to strongly encourage agencies

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Federal government agencies: Transparency watch group assesses open data web pages

OMB Watch designated “leaders and laggards” after it conducted a study of government web pages designed to give citizens access to crucial information. -db OMB Watch February 23, 2010 Complying with requirements of the Open Government Directive (OGD), federal agencies launched transparency pages on their websites Feb. 6. The content and functionality of the pages varied from non-compliant to barely compliant to above and beyond expectations. OMB Watch conducted an assessment of the webpages between

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Obama administration balks at releasing statistics online

In accordance with new government directives on transparency, federal agencies sent the Office of Management and Budget nearly 300 data sets on Jan. 22, but the Obama administration has withheld a number of the sets. -db NextGov January 27, 2010 By Aliya Sternstein The Obama administration has declined to post, and in some cases has removed, several sets of downloadable statistics that agencies submitted last week for publication online, due to privacy and other concerns.

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