As part of engagement in the Open Government Partnership, the US government is required to develop an OGP country plan with concrete commitments on open government. The government makes public commitments to both domestic and international audiences and accountability for those commitments is built into the OGP process.
To set high standards for the US government's third plan, civil society groups created a model National Action Plan. OpenTheGovernment.org invited civil society groups and members of the public to submit their own model commitments through a Google site, and break down the big goals of openness into concrete steps that could be reasonably taken over a year's time. Several issues included in civil society's first model National Action Plan were incorporated in the government's second NAP.