I’m stunned that the mainstream media isn’t paying more attention to the White House’s Open Government Initiative. This process, which included three months on public discussions, concluded yesterday with this Open Government Directive issued by Peter Orzag, Director of the Office of Management and Budget.
In the memorandum he outlines specific steps that all federal agencies must take to create a more open government.
- Publish government information online;
- Improve the quality of government information;
- Create and institutionalize a culture of open government; and
- Create an enabling framework for open government.
Each federal agency will develop an Open Government Plan. Those plans will be published on the agency’s Open Government Web page.
I spoke at Personal Democracy Forum 2009 held in New York in June. Vivek Kundra, White House Chief Information Officer, was also there, and he gave a thorough briefing of how the process would unfold. It’s very exciting to see this process come to fruition.