Open government effort makes big promises of enhanced transparency

A newly launched bilateral collaboration is taking shape, intending to democratize government information around world, nation by nation. 

Senior officials from the U.S. and Indian governments unveiled the Open Government Platform, which aims to foster transparency and enhanced citizen engagement by making government data, documents, tools and processes easily available. The event was part of the U.S.-India Joint Commission Meeting on Science and Technology Cooperation, which took place June 11 in Washington, D.C.

"The Open Government Platform is a new kind of collaboration and it can benefit the entire world of communities through greater government transparency and better customer service for all our citizens, said John Holdren, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. "It leverages out technological skills and our strong commitment to produce more transparent and open government." 

OPGL is built on open source code and will be available to any government around the world, for free, officials said. In addition to the U.S. and Indian governments leveraging the platform, the Rwandan government recently launched the tool. However, officials said they’re expecting to expand OPGL’s use to other nations. 

Officials touted its promise of more transparency as a way to unleash a new wave of innovation and strengthen ties with open source community developers worldwide. The launch “marks a very important milestone” in government collaboration and transparency, said Robert Blake, assistant secretary for South and Central Asia at the State Department.