The White House Blog: Ethics

Over 1.25 Million White House Visitor Records Online

In September 2009, the President announced that – for the first time in history – the White House would routinely release visitor records. Today, the White House releases visitor records that were generated in January 2011. Today’s release also includes several visitor records generated prior to September 16, 2009 that were requested by members of the public in March 2011 pursuant to the White House voluntary disclosure policy. This release brings the grand total of records that this White House has released to over 1.25 million records. You can view them all in our Disclosures section.

Putting it Plainly

Every day, the Federal Government is engaged in communication with the American public. When Federal agencies are explaining how businesses can comply with legal requirements, or informing people about Federal services and benefits, they should write clearly and avoid jargon. But far too often, agencies use confusing, technical, and acronym-filled language.  Such language can cost consumers and small business owners precious time in their efforts to play by the rules.

The good news is that relatively small efforts to communicate more clearly can minimize that burden. Take this example: the Federal Communications Commission used to receive so many questions from the public about its requirements for ham radio operations that five full-time employees were needed to provide answers. After the requirements were written in plain language, questions dropped off so dramatically that all five of those employees could be reassigned to more pressing activity at the Commission.

In short, writing in plain language can make a huge difference. That is why President Obama signed the Plain Writing Act of 2010 into law last October. By improving government communications, the Act will not only save money but also facilitate two-way communication between agencies and the public and make it is far easier for people to understand what they are being asked to do.

Open Sourcing the IT Dashboard & the TechStat Process

We launched the IT Dashboard and the TechStat Accountability Sessions to improve IT transparency and accountability across the Federal Government. The Dashboard has helped us shine a light on IT projects, providing performance data to fuel TechStat reviews, which have led to over $3 billion in cost reductions.

Today we are releasing the software code of the IT Dashboard and the TechStat toolkit to the public for two reasons.  First, to take the platform to the next level, we want to tap into the collective talents and ingenuity of the American people, to enhance functionality, improve the code and address existing challenges such as those identified by David Powner and his team at GAO.  Second, CIOs from across the country and around the world such as Maarten Hillenaar of the Netherlands, Kyle Schafer in West Virginia  and Jason DeHaan of the City of Chicago are all interested in implementing these platforms in their respective organizations.

The IT Dashboard has helped the Federal Government to better manage its IT investments, and now that its code is freely available— through a format known as ‘open source’— it can help any organization do the same. Software developers will be able to collaborate, identify errors, develop enhancements, and recommend improvements to the Dashboard, and find new uses for it that we have not even imagined.  The TechStat Toolkit provides a comprehensive guide for organizations to establish their own TechStats to improve line-of-sight between project teams and senior executives, increase the precision of ongoing measurement of IT program health, and boost the quality and timing of interventions to keep projects on track.

Opening up the inner workings of the Dashboard by releasing the code and the TechStat toolkit is only a first step. We recognize that the Federal Government does not have a monopoly on the best ideas, which is why we are working with organizations such as Civic Commons to help share technology for the public good and are asking the public for continuous input to help us improve how we manage taxpayer dollars.
 
If you have ideas, recommendations or other contributions to the IT Dashboard, we urge you to join the discussion here. To access and download source code for the IT Dashboard and the TechStat toolkit, please visit www.cio.gov/tools.

Vivek Kundra is the U.S. Chief Information Officer

Transparency Gone Global

Ed. Note: Last week, we celebrated Sunshine Week here in America. It goes without saying that technology has fundamentally impacted how government works around the world. Samantha Power, Senior Director and Special Assistant for Multilateral Affairs and Human Rights, highlights similar good government efforts underway in countries around the world.

While “Sunshine Week” may be an American invention, the momentum for greater transparency and accountability in government is a global phenomenon.  In countries around the world, governments and civil society groups are taking new and creative steps to ensure that government delivers for citizens and to strengthen democratic accountability.

President Obama witnessed this extraordinary innovation first-hand during his trip to India in November.  He attended the first-ever “Expo on Democracy and Open Government” and sampled the ways in which technology was being used by Indian citizens and civil society groups to expose corruption. One group showed him the way Indians could use a simple SMS code to obtain background knowledge on political candidates – their financial assets, any criminal backgrounds, etc. He also saw a ground-breaking website, www.ipaidabribe.com, where Indians posted their tales of having been forced to pay a bribe, in refusing to pay a bribe, and in “not having to pay a bribe” –  stories celebrating Indian public servants’ refusal to succumb to corruption.