Open Government Challenges

The White House on Tuesday unveiled a new open government directive that requires agencies to begin taking steps to expand access to and improve the quality of government information. The directive requires federal agencies to create within 60 days an open government Web page, and to develop and publish within 120 days an open government plan that describes how it will improve transparency and integrate public participation and collaboration into its activities.

What I find most interesting about this is the workforce challenges underlying these new demands. For example, there will certainly be some culture clash among the four generations in the federal workforce, not necessarily because of the specific technology involved, but because of the ways different generations in the workplace instinctively use and share information.

Additionally, the workload demands placed on federal managers and employees will undoubtedly increase. A recent survey by Nextgov found that most federal managers currently communicate less than once per week with the public to collect input on policies, meaning managers and federal employees will have their work cut out for them to meet the new requirements. Additional staff may also be necessary, and that introduces a host of other human capital challenges.

How do you see your workload as well as the nature of your work changing as a result of the open government directive? What additional resources would be helpful in implementing such a directive? And what cultural or generational challenges do you see in making agency information more readily available?