Right now, we're focused on one thing: watching agencies put up their /Open page. We built a little tool that allows us to check in with each agency daily and notify us when it is up. When we put it up, agencies like the Department of Transportation, and the Department of Agriculture quickly put up placeholder pages to get a green check-box next to their name. Silly.
The point of the Open Tracker not to evaluate, it's to let us know when we can start evaluating and to encourage federal agencies to meet the deadline they're directed to meet.
Continue readingDon’t Give Grades Till the End of the Class
With notable exceptions, such as the White House visitor logs being released, the efforts we have seen towards openness are still almost entirely intentions, plans, and initiative rather than outcomes that have tangibly resulted in more actual transparency.
Continue readingFederal Agencies: How to Score an Easy Transparency Win by Monday.
Our "/Open" page watcher presently shows one agency, the "Department of Agriculture" having their OGD compliant /Open page launched. And while it is technically true that the Department of Agriculture has set up a /Open page and that it doesn't return a 404, the page is less than a placeholder. Someone there checked a box in the CMS that they probably shouldn't have. What's funny though is that with just a little more effort-- really just 5 minutes-- the Department of Agriculture could score itself a major transparency win. Let me explain.
Continue readingWhite House Asks for Help with Data.Gov and OGD Dashboard
The White House is soliciting feedback on Data.Gov and its Open Government Directive Dashboard. Here is the nub of their... View Article
Continue readingTreasury Imposing “Terms of Use” to Access TARP Data
In an astonishing move, the Treasury Department is requiring users to agree to “terms of use” before they can access... View Article
Continue readingA Watershed Moment in Transparency and Accountability
I was out of town earlier this week when the Open Government was released and so I am just now... View Article
Continue readingThree Misconceptions about the Open Government Directive
There are three common misconceptions about the Open Government Directive that I’d like to clear up. 1. “It was late.”... View Article
Continue readingNew Media Directors: What to Do
New media directors and web managers in agencies across the federal government got an additional responsibility earlier this week. Part... View Article
Continue readingWhat Data Do You Want? How Would You Use It?
Based on the Open Government Directive issued by the White House yesterday, American Public Media is asking its National Public... View Article
Continue readingThe Open Government Directive for Developers
This morning Aneesh Chopra, the Federal CTO and Vivek Kundra, the Federal CIO announced the Open Government Directive-- and while many have covered what's in it and what agencies must do over the next year to adhere to it, we wanted to talk about what it means to our core audience-- developers.
There are four things that you should know about:
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