Open Government Momentum Continues

Agencies continue to innovate in response to the Obama administration's open government initiatives, said panelists at a Wednesday event sponsored by Government Executive, Nextgov's sister publication.

Animated officials and an interested audience highlighted "pockets of excellence" in agencies' rollout of open government Web sites, along with a push to expand employee blogging, the potential for expanded social media use and well-attended online public forums.

Running an effective dialogue is about two-way conversation, said Dave McClure, associate administrator at the General Service Administration's Office of Citizen Services, adding that there are about 500 moderators running the public forums on agencies' open pages. Strong discussions are happening at Health and Human Services, Education and Interior, among others, he said.

But the open government directive isn't just about soliciting feedback from the public. HHS has created a cross-agency team to weave the principles of openness and transparency into day-to-day operations, and officials are tapping the workforce for ideas. After all, said HHS Chief Technology Officer Todd Park, it's "not something you can outsource to one dude."

The panelists alluded to several recent and upcoming developments in the administration's transparency push:

• USA.gov will see a redesign this year, bringing its look, feel and function up to date, according to McClure.
• McClure also said that government may see a growing culture of cross-agency collaboration with internal Facebook or Wikipedia capabilities as policy developments help draw the line between personal and official communication capacities.
• HHS is building a toolkit to encourage people across the agency to blog, said Park, adding that he would love to see widespread staff blogging.