Transparency begins at home, fed says

The general public is not the only audience for the Obama administration’s open government initiative.

One individual, presumably a fed, proposes making federal agencies more transparent to their own employees. Here is the suggestion, submitted to the Open Government Dialogue (where you can submit your own idea and vote on this one and others):

It may be hard to believe, but even those of us who work inside the [federal government] hardly know how our policies are developed and why our procedures are the way they are. There is actually very little transparency within our walls. As a baby step toward more government transparency, let's start by letting people inside a department or agency have access to internal decision-making and documents. If decisions can't withstand the scrutiny of staffers on the inside, they're never going to make it past John Q. Public. Give federal workers, and their departments, the tools and infrastructure they need to be internally transparent.

Another intriguing idea: Include Congress in the initiative.

…A number of the ideas posted to this forum are aimed at Congress. A prime example is the idea with by far the most votes at this time, “Support a 72-Hour Mandatory Public Review Period on Major Spending Bills.” You can’t realistically plan to implement this idea without the full participation and backing of Congress, since they are the ones most impacted by it. Why would Congress support this idea if they weren’t active participants in the design, implementation and management of this new process?

You can check out the full comment here.

The brainstorming phase of the Open Government Dialogue will continue until June 3. Submit your ideas early and often.