The Final State of the Union
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President Obama issued a Memorandum on Transparency and Open Government in which he called for recommendations on making the government more transparent, participatory, and collaborative.
From the start, the White House Open Government Initiative has approached the crafting of these recommendations in an open fashion. An initial Brainstorming phase in late May asked you to identify topics for the recommendations. In the Discussion phase in early June, you explored those topics in greater depth.
Today, we ask you to work together to draft recommendations that translate good ideas and lofty principles into specific actions that can be taken to achieve open government. This Drafting Phase invites you to collaborate on creating recommendations for open government policy using a web-based wiki tool.
The collaborative drafting process is hosted by MixedInk here. We suggest that you review the submissions from the earlier phases of this process, such as the Discussion blog, the public brainstorm, the government employee brainstorm, and From the Inbox. Incorporating earlier input, you can write your own draft recommendations, or combine and edit those of others to create new recommendations. You can then vote on the best draft under each topic. Drafting will continue through June 28th, while voting will stay open through June 30th.
Recommendations should be concise, specific, and actionable, addressing:
Who? – Who is being directed to do what?
What? – What is the recommendation designed to achieve?
Why? – Why is it important?
How? – How will success be measured?
These recommendations will inform the drafting of an "Open Government Directive" to Executive Branch agencies.
For the full list of topics and to get started writing and rating recommendations, visit MixedInk’s Open Government page.
If you have any comments or questions about the Phase III drafting process, please feel free to share your thoughts in response to this blog post.
We look forward to your continued participation over at the OSTP blog.
Beth Noveck is Deputy Chief Technology Officer for Open Government.
