Open Government Directive Brainstorm Midstream

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The White House announced last Thursday a three part process for developing the Open Government Directive, which was first announced back in January.

The first step in the three part process for developing this directive is a brainstorm session, taking place now at http://opengov.ideascale.com/ .

The brainstorm runs until this Thursday, May 28th, and has a broad suggestion of ideas submitted so far.

Currently the submission from Republican Leader Boehner has the most votes (572 versus 248 for the second rated comment, as of this writing) for his submission expressing support for a 72 hour requirement for public review of pending legislation. While the submission’s wording differs slightly from Sunlight’s ReadtheBill.org campaign, the effect is nearly identical in spirit, to bring real legislation to the public’s attention when can actually matter — before final consideration.

Many of the suggestions leading the rest of the pack are from organizations who have convened versions of their own Open Government dialogs, including Sunlight, OMBWatch, and AmericaSpeaks, among others.

The Open Government Dialog isn’t just a redux of already-prepared recommendations, though. For example, a former Hill staffer has suggested a centralized government petitions site, this user has suggested a “one-stop” site for budgetary data, and this government employee weighs in on protecting scientific integrity through public dialog.

If you’ve got an issue that you’d like to see considered, add it to the dialog! Read through the submissions, and offer feedback. It isn’t often that you can be sure that top officials will see what you write.