Subscribe

Open Government Initiative Blog

  • CTO Forum: Meeting Held to Discuss Opportunities for Collaboration

    Posted by Aneesh Chopra on December 17, 2010 at 5:56 PM EDT

    Yesterday, I and a number of my colleagues engaged in the President’s Strategy for American Innovation had the pleasure of hosting a meeting with Chief Technology Officers from a dozen of the Nation’s most innovative technology firms.  Our intention was to explore collaboration opportunities that would foster more digital infrastructure investment, unleash a mobile broadband revolution, and encourage innovations in health, energy, and education powered by technology.

    We were particularly interested in feedback on how government might support such efforts acting as a convener—on open data, voluntary consensus standards, and prizes & challenges associated with R&D investment, for example.

    Participants included individuals engaged in the design and deployment of critical technology infrastructure that will serve as an important foundation for America’s long-term economic future. During our conversation, we surfaced a number of areas worthy of pursuit, including engagement in our recently announced Requests for Information on standards, the Networking & Information Technology R&D review published by the President’s Council of Advisors on Science & Technology, and the President’s Spectrum Initiative.

    The comments shared during this meeting will inform our ongoing efforts to execute on the President’s Innovation Strategy and I’m confident they will translate into tangible actions in the coming weeks and months.

    I would like to personally thank the incredibly busy and talented leaders who took the time to prepare and discuss these matters. Their commitment reinforced my faith in our ability to collaborate in the advancement of America’s technology-driven future.

    Technology CTO Roundtable Attendees:
    Vanu Bose, Vanu, Inc.
    John Donovan, AT&T
    Shaygan Kheradpir
    Dick Lynch, Verizon Communications
    Jeff Nick, EMC
    Roberto Padovani, Qualcomm
    Justin Rattner, Intel
    Geoff Roman, Motorola Mobility
    Pradeep Sindhu, Juniper Networks
    Scott Teissler, Turner Broadcasting
    Marcus Weldon, Alcatel-Lucent
    Tony Werner, Comcast
    Barry West, Coverage Company

    Learn more about Technology

  • Transparency for Global Development

    Posted by Phil Larson on December 16, 2010 at 1:13 PM EDT

    Today the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) launched Version 1.0 of the Foreign Assistance Dashboard, a new platform devoted to making it easier than ever for policymakers, civil society, and the public to understand U.S. investments and their impact around the globe. The Dashboard—the latest milestone in the Obama Administration’s commitment to create an unprecedented level of openness in Government—promises to advance U.S. goals for global development and broader prosperity by shining a light on how much foreign assistance is provided, for what purposes, and with what result. To find out more about it, check out today’s blog on the OSTP site.

    Learn more about Technology

  • Designing for Democracy

    Posted by Aneesh Chopra and Shelley Metzenbaum on December 9, 2010 at 12:11 AM EDT

    On his first full day in office, the President signed the Memorandum on Transparency and Open Government, which directed Executive departments and agencies to “offer Americans increased opportunities to participate in policymaking and to provide their Government with the benefits of their collective expertise and information.” President Obama is committed to tapping ideas from the American people to make government work smarter, better, and more efficiently. At its heart, open government is about changing the relationship between government and the American people.

    One vexing challenge to engaging Americans in governance has been finding new models and tools for the next generation of citizen consultation.  We want to take advantage of the latest technology to: 1) enable government officials to circulate notice of opportunities to participate in public consultations to members of the public with expertise on a topic; and 2) provide those citizen experts with a mechanism to provide useful, relevant, and manageable feedback to government officials.

    read the rest
    Learn more about Technology

  • Cost-Cutter Wins 2010 SAVE Award

    Posted by Robynn Sturm on November 15, 2010 at 7:52 PM EDT

    Through the SAVE Award (which stands for Securing American’s Value and Efficiency) the Office of Management and Budget challenged Federal employees to submit their ideas to streamline government and save tax dollars. The winner, announced today, is Trudy Givens of Portage, Wisconsin, a 19-year veteran of the U.S. Bureau of Prisons. Given the fast-growing number of people who access the Federal Register online, Trudy suggested that the Federal Register no longer be mailed by default to 8,000 Federal employees every workday. While statute requires that hard copies be available, allowing recipients to opt-in for hard copy delivery could yield savings associated with printing and postage. Trudy’s idea was selected as the winner from more than 18,000 submissions. As the 2010 winner, she will be invited to meet the President and discuss her idea with him in person.

    The SAVE Award is just the latest milestone in the Administration’s commitment to increase the use of prizes and challenges to tap the Nation’s top talent and best ideas. To learn more about the 2010 SAVE Award, check out Jeff Zients’ post “And the Top SAVER is….”  To learn more about Federal prizes and challenges, visit Challenge.gov.

    Learn more about Fiscal Responsibility

  • A US-India Partnership on Open Government

    Posted by Samantha Power on November 7, 2010 at 3:56 PM EDT

    Ed. Note: Read the fact sheet on the US-India Partnership on Open Government (pdf).

    Today in Mumbai, President Obama attended what is likely the first ever  Expo on Democracy and Open Government. India's dynamism in the technology sector is well known, as is Gandhi's legacy in India of civic action and bottom-up change, but today's expo highlighted something very fresh: Indian civil society's harnessing of innovation and technology to strengthen India's democracy -- by fighting corruption, holding government officials accountable, and empowering citizens to be the change they seek.

    read the rest
    Learn more about 2010 Asia Trip, Foreign Policy

  • “Social Security: Real Stories” Wins SSA Video Contest

    Posted by Frank Baitman on October 1, 2010 at 5:14 PM EDT

    In late July, we launched our first-ever video contest, “How Social Security Has Made a Difference in My Life.”  In part, we wanted to harness the energy and sentiment surrounding Social Security’s 75th anniversary by capturing personal stories of the program’s impact on people’s lives. But more importantly, we hoped that engaging the American public in this way would help others discover the myriad ways in which Social Security makes a difference and can help people at critical, life-changing junctures.  While Social Security is much more than a retirement program, many citizens do not realize it until they become disabled, lose a loved one, or encounter severe financial hardship.

    So, ideally, through the lens of our video contest, people would illustrate the many facets of Social Security, and then share with the world through our YouTube channel.  The winner would gain additional visibility on Social Security’s website, Facebook and Twitter feeds.  This would be only the start of our foray into the realm of challenges, contests and prizes, as we move to get citizens more actively involved in both the dialogue and the effort of solving some of the problems we face.

    We anticipated selecting the winner – or even several – from a sizeable collection of contest entries.  Well, we didn’t get as much participation as we’d hoped.  Fewer than ten solid entries came in.  We’re pleased with the winning selection, though:   Congratulations to winners Erica Solway, Lindsay Trapnell, Laura Hunt, Alex Butterwick, and Kate Schriver, on an excellent job producing "Social Security: Real Stories."

    We learned a lot in the process, from lessons about structure and content to new ideas and practices in outreach via social media.  We’ve also thought a lot recently about the dialogue between Social Security and the American people; after all, the point of this and subsequent challenges is to inspire and engage Americans in a conversation with their Government. Through this dialogue, we hope to make Social Security more responsive to the American People, and more effective in delivering services to them.

    We’re grappling with these and other questions as we design our next challenge.  Thank you to all who participated, enjoy the winning video, and stay tuned at Challenge.gov!  By the way, on a separate path, we invited the public to submit narrative stories on our website, describing how Social Security made a difference in their lives.  More than 600 people responded with vivid accounts of how disability and survivors benefits made a big difference when tragedy struck.  You can read these inspiring stories here.

    Frank Baitman is Chief Information Officer at the Social Security Administration

    Learn more about Technology