Ready for Open Government? Part 2

Launch Part 2 of Survey Results.

This is the second of a three part series on the Government Executive survey of federal managers' attitudes about open government and a discussion of those findings on the federal social networking site GovLoop. The first part provided results on how federal managers viewed the efficacy of open government and their agencies' ability to carry it out. This segment presents findings on how familiar federal managers are with social networking and what that could portend for the open government initiative.

The White House issued its long-awaited open government directive on Tuesday, setting deadlines for agencies to publish more data online, improve the quality of that information and create a culture of openness.

The reaction to the directive has been mostly positive, but some technology specialists say agencies could find it difficult to meet deadlines.

That is only part of the story, however. According to the survey, agencies also might have to overcome managers' apathy toward reaching out to citizens, as well as the problem that the processes to do so aren't developed yet. In our first segment, many managers said they supported open government in theory, but they weren't completely sold on the idea. Add to that -- as we show in the second part here -- the fact that federal managers are not frequent users of social networking tools either in their job or for personal reasons, and you have the makings of some sizable obstacles that the Obama administration will have to overcome to create that culture of openness.

What does this mean for the future of the president's open government initiative? We want to know what you, the managers who will be asked to create this new public space, think. Nextgov has teamed with the federal social networking site GovLoop to discuss the survey's findings. We invite you to read through the latest set of results here, then click on the link on this page or in the slide show to access GovLoop to post your thoughts, reactions, beliefs and respond to your colleagues' opinions.

If you haven't read the first part, please do. And come back on Dec. 16 to view the third segment in the series on the primary obstacle managers say stands in the way of open government: cybersecurity.

Launch Part 2 of Survey Results.