2Day in #OpenGov 8/30/2011

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Here is Tuesday’s look at transparency-related news items, congressional committee hearings, transparency-related bills introduced in Congress, and transparency-related events.

News Roundup:

Government

  • Defense spending needs more oversight to prevent wasteful expenditures, according to House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-MD). (Washington Post)(The Hill)
  • Federal government customer service has improved but is still less than satisfactory, according to a new study. (Gov Tech)
  • The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) took 23 months to respond to a FOIA request submitted by The Daily News. (The Daily News)

Campaign Finance

  • The Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) will hold a meeting post-Labor Day to discuss the draft text message contribution regulation, which would permit candidates and committees to accept small donations via text. (Lobby Comply Blog)

Technology

  • A new commission (CLOUD2/SLG) was launched Monday to advise state and local governments on how to move to the cloud. (Gov Tech)
  • More Americans would prefer to communicate with government agencies through mobile apps rather than through social media or texting, according to a new survey. (Next Gov)
  • mySociety’s Tom Steinberg shares his thoughts on what it takes to build “meaningful, impactful civic and democratic web apps” that last more than a few months. (O’Reilly Radar)
  • The army now includes social media as an important component of both its daily and crisis communication strategies. (Fierce Government)

State and Local

  • The Nebraska Accountability and Disclosure Commission voted to stop enforcement of a 1992 law that provided candidates with “fair fight” money from the state if they agreed to voluntary spending limits, which their opponent exceeded. (Lobby Comply Blog)
  • The Washington State Supreme Court ruled that the public has the right to access investigative police reports. (My Fox Spokane)
International
  • Poland is hosting Open Government Data Camp 2011, the second edition of an event coordinated by the Open Knowledge Foundation and previously held in London. According to techPresident, this event “could turn out to be the biggest conference around open government data to ever take place.” (techPresident)
  • China may be tightening online censorship in an attempt to eradicate “toxic rumors,” (Yahoo!) and appears to have removed a military documentary chronicling a cyberattack against an American university from Chinese websites. (Yahoo!)

Relevant committee hearings scheduled for 8/30:

  • None

Relevant bills introduced:

  • None

Transparency events scheduled for 8/30:

  • None

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