Rock Creek Roundup (October 9 Edition)

Posted by: Meagen Ryan, Director of Strategy Oct 08, 2009 0 Comments

Transparency and access to data are the themes of this week’s edition of the Rock Creek Roundup. From the new Federal Register 2.0 to the federal government’s first crowd-sourced website, it’s been a busy week. Let’s dive right in:

• On Monday the White House announced “Federal Register 2.0,” by which it means the release of the Federal Register in XML. The XML edition of the Federal Register is available at www.gpo.gov or on Data.gov, but don’t visit those sites expecting fancy interfaces and sleek design. The power of the XML edition is not in what the government will do with it (aside from make it available) but what citizens can do with it. Check out www.fedthread.org from the Center for Information Technology Policy at Princeton University. These smart folks have taken the XML and created an interface that allows users to search and discuss documents.
• Is your government agency transparent, collaborative, and participatory? Prove it. That’s the message that the General Services Agency and the White House are expected to deliver to federal agencies within the next two weeks. But rather than having to live up to an unyielding (and impractical) one-size-fits-all standard, agencies are being tasked with developing their own metrics for measuring outcomes. They will also be advised to listen closely to their on-the-ground employees, rather than those in the top offices, when it comes to identifying realistic and appropriate metrics. It will be fascinating to see how each agency interprets the edict, and what information and new practices develop as a result.
• But federal agencies aren’t the only ones being “encouraged” to put transparency as a top priority; state and local governments should also be taking the steps to open up their data repositories to the public. According to the National Association of State Information Officers, the first step in a state or local government’s transparency plan should be to create their own publicly accessible data portal, a la Data.gov. You can read the Association’s full report, including specific guidelines, here (PDF).
• California representative Mike Honda is the proud new owner of the federal government’s first crowd-sourced website. The new site, located at http://honda.house.gov, is the result of a web design contest that invited the public to submit designs and vote for their favorite. Honda received quite a bit of attention when he launched the contest, and it’s exciting to see the final results.

Enjoy this post?

Subscribe to the feed

Meagen Ryan

Director of Strategy

• Most Recent
• Topics

View all previous posts