Category:Guidebook This is also being drafted with a google doc on the Open Government Initiative group.
Summary: Ensure vital government information is available in a consistent, complete, and easily discoverable form. Establish a process to make all public information online by default (See POIA). Help bootstrap this with Open FOIA (aka Public Records Act) - online postings of all FOIA requests & responses.
Provide interfaces for vital information
Budget, spending, performance, and citizen input dashboards - to track efficiency, accountability, and participation. This should also include a dashboard for implementation status of each module of opengov initiative itself - likely a separate module
A public directory of all civil servants (or senior staff + political appointees) and offices with links for engagement (eg social media accounts). This will also include an organization chart. Ideally this is also interfaced with representatives and a means for citizens to lookup their specific representative, but with coordination and consideration of the separation of powers.
Open information on representatives, candidates, voting history, ballots, and other election information. (Linked with Open Directory above)
Government calendar of schedules for public officials and public events with video streams and participation information. Ideally applies to all branches of government and relates to existing public meetings policy - maybe a separate module - at least as it relates to public meetings law.
All Public Information
Expand access to all public information
A system by which the public can see which FOIA requests have been made and their status as well as access completed FOIA requests. OpenFOIA prioritizes and streamlines data for an open data catalog and is ultimately intended to make reactive FOIA obsolete.
Open Data Catalog
A catalog by which people can search through all public data, rate it and use it. Privacy/qualification/prioritization rubric as separate module. Quality rating system disclosed so quality/completeness should not prevent release. Census geo data as good example of well disclosed limited quality not hindering huge value.
Web Services/APIs. Accessibility, timeliness, read/writeness
Access to the source code of gov: the laws! Coordinated with consideration of the separation of powers:
A consolidated listing of established legal codes and other laws or legal proceedings.
Provide an interface to see current legislation and activities of legislative committees.
These government bodies should also be applicable under participation to help connect constituents with opportunities to engage with issues & legislation in development.
Participation & Collaboration
Summary: Foster public participation and collaborative problem solving
A public process to inform the creation, implementation and improvement of the OpenGov initiative itself
Collaborative platforms for ideation, issue reporting, and Q&A. Also consideration of which components of Open Information should be read/write versus read-only. This should also have many features which plug into established democratic processes and components of OpenStat (eg 311)
Initial phase and continuous foundation:
General purpose structured feedback for citizens, eg prioritize information release + set flagship (a.) below
General purpose internal + set flagship (b.) below
These lay framework for setting flagship initiatives:
High demand area from citizens. What do citizens most want to engage with the agency on
High demand area from public servants. What does agency most want to engage with public on
Social Media Policy
Up-to-date policy that encourages appropriate use of 3rd party social media tools by public servants - separate module
Challenges & Partnerships
Ways to engage the public in directly developing government solutions. see White House policy on challenges
Code for Gov
For involving citizens in the development of apps for internal and external use and leveraging read/write apis
Communities of Practice
Coordinated effort to establish or identify & interface with thematic venues for dialog which connect disparate agencies, organizations, and levels of government around shared issues (eg dialog and collaboration between local, state, federal gov + practitioners for specific healthcare policies) - usually this already exists, but important to ensure it’s well organized and actually acted upon.
Accessibility and Efficiency
Summary: Information technology guidelines to provide maximal accessibility to government information and maximal inclusion for both citizens and public servants while simultaneously producing cost savings and performance gains.
Civic Accessibility Toolkit
For (offline forums, outreach, broadband & net access, libraries, schools, universities, 508, digital divide mitigation) - separate module
Open Source Software
For procurement and contributing back to communities. -separate module
Open Standards and interoperability
Civic App Store
(both internal and external)
And Software as a Service (SaaS)