Does GovLoop Fulfill Open Government Directive Step #3?
When I first reviewed the Open Government Directive, I was struck by #3 and the possibility that GovLoop could help government agencies accomplish that requirement. I've shared this third step below and underlined the stuff where I think GovLoop may be able play a role:
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3. Create and Institutionalize a Culture of Open Government
To create an unprecedented and sustained level of openness and accountability in every agency, senior leaders should strive to incorporate the values of transparency, participation, and collaboration into the ongoing work of their agency. Achieving a more open government will require the various professional disciplines within the Government – such as policy, legal, procurement, finance, and technology operations – to work together to define and to develop open government solutions. Integration of various disciplines facilitates organization-wide and lasting change in the way that Government works.
a. Within 120 days, each agency shall develop and publish on its Open Government Webpage an Open Government Plan that will describe how it will improve transparency and integrate public participation and collaboration into its activities. Additional details on the required content of this plan are attached. Each agency’s plan shall be updated every two years.
b. Within 60 days, the Federal Chief Information Officer and the Federal Chief Technology Officer shall create an Open Government Dashboard on www.whitehouse.gov/open. The Open Government Dashboard will make available each agency’s Open Government Plan, together with aggregate statistics and visualizations designed to provide an assessment of the state of open government in the Executive Branch and progress over time toward meeting the deadlines for action outlined in this Directive.
c. Within 45 days, the Deputy Director for Management at OMB, the Federal Chief Information Officer, and the Federal Chief Technology Officer will establish a working group that focuses on transparency, accountability, participation, and collaboration within the Federal Government. This group, with senior level representation from program and management offices throughout the Government, will serve several critical functions, including:
i. Providing a forum to share best practices on innovative ideas to promote transparency, including system and process solutions for information collection, aggregation, validation, and dissemination;
ii. Coordinating efforts to implement existing mandates for Federal spending transparency, including the Federal Funding Accountability Transparency Act and the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act; and
iii. Providing a forum to share best practices on innovative ideas to promote participation and collaboration, including how to experiment with new technologies, take advantage of the expertise and insight of people both inside and outside the Federal Government, and form high-impact collaborations with researchers, the private sector, and civil society.
d. Within 90 days, the Deputy Director for Management at OMB will issue, through separate guidance or as part of any planned comprehensive management guidance, a framework for how agencies can use challenges, prizes, and other incentive-backed strategies to find innovative or cost-effective solutions to improving open government.
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What do you think?
How can GovLoop directly help agencies to accomplish this particular step?
What more can we do to support you?
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3. Create and Institutionalize a Culture of Open Government
To create an unprecedented and sustained level of openness and accountability in every agency, senior leaders should strive to incorporate the values of transparency, participation, and collaboration into the ongoing work of their agency. Achieving a more open government will require the various professional disciplines within the Government – such as policy, legal, procurement, finance, and technology operations – to work together to define and to develop open government solutions. Integration of various disciplines facilitates organization-wide and lasting change in the way that Government works.
a. Within 120 days, each agency shall develop and publish on its Open Government Webpage an Open Government Plan that will describe how it will improve transparency and integrate public participation and collaboration into its activities. Additional details on the required content of this plan are attached. Each agency’s plan shall be updated every two years.
b. Within 60 days, the Federal Chief Information Officer and the Federal Chief Technology Officer shall create an Open Government Dashboard on www.whitehouse.gov/open. The Open Government Dashboard will make available each agency’s Open Government Plan, together with aggregate statistics and visualizations designed to provide an assessment of the state of open government in the Executive Branch and progress over time toward meeting the deadlines for action outlined in this Directive.
c. Within 45 days, the Deputy Director for Management at OMB, the Federal Chief Information Officer, and the Federal Chief Technology Officer will establish a working group that focuses on transparency, accountability, participation, and collaboration within the Federal Government. This group, with senior level representation from program and management offices throughout the Government, will serve several critical functions, including:
i. Providing a forum to share best practices on innovative ideas to promote transparency, including system and process solutions for information collection, aggregation, validation, and dissemination;
ii. Coordinating efforts to implement existing mandates for Federal spending transparency, including the Federal Funding Accountability Transparency Act and the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act; and
iii. Providing a forum to share best practices on innovative ideas to promote participation and collaboration, including how to experiment with new technologies, take advantage of the expertise and insight of people both inside and outside the Federal Government, and form high-impact collaborations with researchers, the private sector, and civil society.
d. Within 90 days, the Deputy Director for Management at OMB will issue, through separate guidance or as part of any planned comprehensive management guidance, a framework for how agencies can use challenges, prizes, and other incentive-backed strategies to find innovative or cost-effective solutions to improving open government.
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What do you think?
How can GovLoop directly help agencies to accomplish this particular step?
What more can we do to support you?
Tags: open gov, open government, open-government-directive, opengov, transparency
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Caryn Wesner-Early on
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Recently, employees (and contractors) of federal agencies were asked to take part in a contest to come up with the best ways of implementing Open Government. I suggested that the government formally take part in GovLoop, because it's a great way to achieve points c-i and c-iii. My suggestion didn't win, but I still think GovLoop can further the goals of Open Government, and the more government people who join, the better our chances.
Caryn Wesner-Early
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Permalink Reply by Andrew Krzmarzick on -
Wow, Caryn. That's awesome. Thanks for being such a great champion of GovLoop! I think it's pretty clear when you read c-i and c-iii that GovLoop plays an important role...but I'd like to hear more of the pros and cons from folks. Did you get any feedback on the why?
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Permalink Reply by GovLoop on -
Pretty sweet. I think we've seen throughout the years that there is a need to share best practices. And this has been done throughout the years mainly with in-person meetings. I think there's a lot of opportunities to bring this best practice sharing and collaboration online with venues such as GovLoop.
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Permalink Reply by Jay S. Daughtry, ChatterBachs on -
While GovLoop does not "fulfill" this directive, it is a tool that can be used in the process. GovLoop definitely meets the definition of a forum that can be used for collaboration and the exchange of ideas and best practices.
I'm going to give some more thought to "How can GovLoop directly help agencies to accomplish this particular step?"
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Permalink Reply by Andrew Krzmarzick on
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Hi Jay - thanks for your thoughts. Admittedly, I used the word "fulfill" to make it a bit more loaded and provocative...but the intent/spirit of the question is precisely how you re-framed it. Something akin to "Can government agencies set up a group on GovLoop or start a forum discussion such as this or post a blog to gain feedback in a way that allows them to cite that activity as meeting that step? And not just to check a box, but to take some serious steps toward completing a report or obtaining a specific outcome related to knowledge sharing and collaboration.
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Permalink Reply by Chris Jones on -
Hey Andy, good question. While I agree with Jay that GovLoop is fundamentally a tool to facilitate dialog, communities are springing up and collaboration is happening. Why wouldn't agencies be able to leverage GovLoop Groups for internal collaboration, in concert with their blogs and other public-facing sites? I'd argue that GovLoop should be considered as part of the OGD solution fabric, especially if agencies don't have a ready alternative.
Of course collaboration is more than just tools/platforms, and includes a process that defines stakeholders, scope of target collaboration ("what will we be talking about?'), criteria for success, resources for conducting dialog, etc. Those requirements are mission sensitive, and can't be addressed with a one-size fits all answer.
Getting at culture barriers is actually a much bigger challenge altogether. Stay tuned: more to come on that front.
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Permalink Reply by Andrew Krzmarzick on
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I think this is a critical point, Chris...it's not about GovLoop as a viable tool alone - there are other tools. Obviously, we believe that this is one of the best tools/resources available - especially when agencies are striving to engage in their collaboration in a transparent manner. And they can break down traditional silos by gaining feedback and fresh insight from stakeholders that otherwise might not be at the table - also enabling them to overcome the group think that can pervade a longstanding team.
Of course, agencies will need to think through the tie to mission, map the achievement path, determine their desired outcomes, identify stakeholders, implement, measure progress, evaluate and iterate. In that process, GovLoop can be a resource and a platform to accomplish outcomes...and we can help agencies based on our experience with building and generating community and integrating the conversations with the various features and functionality we have here.
I'm eager to talk more about this possibility at the OGD Workshop Series event next week.
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Permalink Reply by John E. Montreal on -
It definitely helps!
I think we can help in motivating the sharing of resources (e.g. training, library resources, space, etc). A number of us in the Small Agency Council have gone a long ways towards openning up our training to other small gov agencies on a space available basis. that has seen terrific results. Not only has increased the efficiency of running training programs with little to no empty seats, but also stimulated the class discussions by having various agency employees in the same room. Just can't say enought about how this has been really a great experience! And we owe it all to those of us that aren't affraid to step out and share a little.
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Permalink Reply by GovLoop on
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Great idea and glad you stepped out to share with training...I can see how the discussions would be even more interesting...
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Permalink Reply by Megan on -
We've moved elements of this conversation onto the GSA IdeaScale site..or at least a higher level version of this discussion which has to do with how the various open platforms can play well together.
Join us!
http://opengsa.ideascale.com/a/dtd/19320-6960
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