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Open Government: Collaboration, Transparency, and Participation in Practice--New from O'Reilly Media If government is a platform, and Gov 2.0 is the next release, how can we make it one that shakes up--and reshapes--the world? A timely new book from O'Reilly, "Open Government" (O'Reilly Media, $44.99 USD), answers that question. (I-Newswire) February 22, 2010 - For Immediate Release For more information, please contact: Sara Peyton (707) 827-7118 or [email protected] Open Government: Collaboration, Transparency, and Participation in Practice--New from O'Reilly Opening Up Government and Making It Work Sebastopol, CA--The Obama presidential campaign was historic for many reasons, including its unprecedented use of the Internet and Web 2.0 technologies. Transparency and open government are two primary issues of this administration and we see technology playing an integral part of it, especially with the appointment of the country's very first CIO and CTO. The concept of open government has been influenced--for the better--by the open source software movement. Indeed, if government is a platform, and Gov 2.0 is the next release, how can we make it one that shakes up--and reshapes--the world? Fortunately, in a timely new book from O'Reilly, "Open Government" (O'Reilly Media, $44.99 USD), Beth Simone Noveck, U.S. Deputy Chief Technology Officer for open government, and Tim O'Reilly, founder and CEO of O'Reilly Media, along with dozens of leading visionaries and practitioners both inside and outside of government attempt to answer that question. In the new book, they share their ideas on how to achieve and direct this emerging world of online collaboration, transparency, and participation. "Government 2.0 is the use of technology--especially the collaborative technologies at the heart of Web 2.0--to better solve collective problems at a city, state, national, and international level," writes O'Reilly in his essay, "Defining Government 2.0: Lessons Learned from the Success of Computer Platforms." "The hope is that Internet technologies will allow us to rebuild the kind of participatory government envisioned by our nation's founders, in which, as Thomas Jefferson wrote in a letter to Joseph Cabell, 'every man…feels that he is a participator in the government of affairs, not merely at an election one day in the year, but every day.'" All these contributors and more offer practical solutions as we step into the future: - Beth Simone Noveck, U.S. Deputy Chief Technology Officer for open government, "The Single Point of Failure" - Jerry Brito, senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, "All Your Data Are Belong to Us: Liberating Government Data" - Aaron Swartz, cofounder of reddit.com, OpenLibrary.org, and BoldProgressives.org, "When Is Transparency Useful?" - Ellen S. Miller, executive director of the Sunlight Foundation, "Disrupting Washington's Golden Rule" - Carl Malamud, founder of Public.Resource.Org, "By the People" - Douglas Schuler, president of the Public Sphere Project, "Online Deliberation and Civic Intelligence" - Howard Dierking, program manager on Microsoft's MSDN and TechNet Web platform team, "Engineering Good Government" - Matthew Burton, Web entrepreneur and former intelligence analyst at the Defense Intelligence Agency, "A Peace Corps for Programmers" - Gary D. Bass and Sean Moulton, OMB Watch, "Bringing the Web 2.0 Revolution to Government" - Tim O'Reilly, founder and CEO of O'Reilly Media, "Defining Government 2.0: Lessons Learned from the Success of Computer Platforms" [READ MORE] WHTM ABC27 Harrisburg (PA) Critics Maintain Thompson Isn't Transparent 02/22/10 7:00 pm | reporter: Dennis Owens producer: Myles Snyder Harrisburg, Pa. - President Barack Obama (web | news | bio) is promising transparency in the federal health care debate. State lawmakers gave us the Right-to-Know Law to access more information than ever before. And during her candidacy, Mayor Linda Thompson promised transparency in city government. Some complain she's not delivering Transparency means to make visible by allowing light. Lots of politicians these days promise transparency. Harrisburg City Controller Dan Miller promises to deliver it this week when he unveils a Web site that will show taxpayers where every one of their tax dollars is going. "For example, if we paid Dennis Owens any money last year, you could look it up and see if Dennis Owens got paid from the city," said Miller. "You didn't. I don't know that, but you could find that out." Miller calls transparency an important check and balance. "It's the people's business, and the people have a right to know," he said. But critics of Mayor Thompson insist her administration is not transparent. And they cite a few examples: - A deal to appraise city assets was given to RSR Realty, whose owner sat on the board of Thompson's non-profit organization Loveship and contributed to her campaign. Though the financial terms for the appraisal work haven't been finalized or approved by city council, RSR has started the work. - abc27 sources tell us that Rhoads & Sinon law firm will get school district business. Rhoads & Sinon is the law firm of James Ellison, Thompson's campaign manager and head of the Harrisburg Authority. - A directive to school district Superintendent Gerald Kohn not to talk to anyone, especially the press, about school district business. This could hinder the district's fund raising. [READ MORE]If you show more about what you're doing, people trust you more. Maybe that's obvious, but now we have some results along those lines for Federal sites. The deal is that we now have an Administration... KTUL News Channel 8 Oklahoma City (OK) Committee Approves Bills To Streamline Operations Oklahoma City - A pair of bills designed to streamline government operations and provide more transparency on state spending have cleared a House panel. The bills passed unanimously Monday through the House Government Modernization Committee. One bill by Rep. Ken Miller would require the state to post more information on state expenditures to a state Web site, including all purchases and individual expenses. Another bill by Rep. Jason Murphey directs the Office of State Finance to develop a plan to consolidate the financial services of all state agencies. Under the bill, payroll, purchasing, accounts payable and accounts receivable functions ultimately would be transferred to the Office of State Finance. The agency projects more than $2 million in potential savings under the plan. Saint Petersburg Times (FL) John Thrasher works to shield party credit cards from public view So before a conflict of interest could arise, St. Augustine Sen. John Thrasher stepped down from chairman of the Senate Ethics and Elections Committee when he was chosen as the head of the Republican Party of Florida this Saturday. But three days before he left the Senate post, Thrasher presided over the committee when it gave RPOF (and anyone else with a political credit card) a nice fat gift: A clear exemption from having to report "a copy of each credit card statement which shall be included in the next [campaign finance]report..." [paren mine]. That language actually exists in statute. Thrasher's committee bill strikes it out. But it was already nullified by a curious 2005 Division of Elections opinion that essentially said "each credit card statement" didn't need to be "included" because it would be too difficult to include the statements via the state's electronic campaign-finance filing system. Apparently, the government system didn't have a function to accept PDFs. Yeah, PDFs are so hard to post. Like this one: Download De0507. [READ MORE] The Illinois Review (IL) Andrzejewski to Spearhead Forensic Audit at Illinois Secretary of State from the Enriquez campaign February 21, 2010, AURORA - Robert Enriquez, Republican candidate for Illinois Secretary of State, announced today that Adam Andrzejewski would lead the forensic audit of the Illinois Secretary of State’s office after victory in the November general election. [READ MORE] The Statesman Journal (OR) Open government vital for accountability Plan to boost transparency will benefit all Oregonians February 23, 2010 Previous Page Mention the topic of open meetings and open records to some folks, and you'll be greeted with a yawn at best and a snore at worst. But it's a topic that gives journalists goosebumps. And frankly, it's a subject that should stir every Oregonian: We are a people committed to public debate and dialogue. So why do we allow so much of government to take place behind closed doors? Oregon Attorney General John Kroger wants to change that. He has launched a statewide initiative to improve government transparency. Kroger and the Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association are hosting six public meetings to identify weaknesses in Oregon's open-government practices. The first forum is Wednesday evening at the Salem Public Library. Journalists are passionate about open government. In recent months, public-records laws have enabled the Statesman Journal to get information relating to investigations of state officials and agencies. Public meetings and records have enabled reporters and editorial writers to witness the scandal at the Willamette Education Service District as it unfolded. [READ MORE] -- Jonathan Gray Community Coordinator The Open Knowledge Foundation http://blog.okfn.org http://twitter.com/jwyg http://identi.ca/jwyg _______________________________________________ okfn-discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lists.okfn.org/mailman/listinfo/okfn-discuss
