The US Open Government Action Plan has new civic engagement tools and Administration openness improvements

AmericaSpeaks
From: US National Open Government Plan is a Major Step for Participation & Open Government | By Carolyn Lukensmeyer, AmericaSpeaks | Comments are allowed

• President Obama formally unveils the US Open Government Action Plan in a speech today to the General Assembly of the United Nations, demonstrating the United States’ commitment to the newly created International Open Government Partnership.
• This is the biggest step forward for the cause of participatory government in the United States since the launch of the Open Government Initiative itself when the President first took office.
• First, the White House is launching WeThePeople, a new e-petition platform that will enable anyone to create a petition articulating a specific policy priority, mobilize their community to sign the petition, and find support from others on the site.  The White House will direct popular petitions to the appropriate policymakers, provide an official, public response, and act on some of these most popular proposals.
• The President is also committing to make it far easier for the public to participate in the rulemaking process online through www.regulations.gov.
• This document includes the White House’s commitment to play a much more active role in advising, supporting, and monitoring agencies’ implementation of the Open Government Plans.  The administration has pledged to develop a shared set of best practices and metrics for public participation:
• Another potentially significant action step is the creation of ExpertNet, a platform and community where citizen-experts can offer ideas and solutions to key challenges faced by government officials.  This concept remains vaguely defined, and but if the platform is implemented well, it could become a meaningful channel for public participation in government problem-solving and decision-making.
• Finally, The Administration is pledging to make significant and needed improvements to government websites.  The thousands of government websites are incredibly diverse in terms of the stakeholders and users they are aimed at, not to mention their purposes and functionality.  We would recommend that the administration convene web managers, users, and stakeholders in a live online dialogue in a virtual summit where they can understand the key issues at hand, discuss them with others coming from different perspectives, and vote to identify priority action steps to enhance the value of federal websites.
• In short, today marks a very important milestone for those of us who believe that government should be more open and that the public can and should play a significant role in shaping policy beyond merely voting every few years.
• Please share this post with those in your networks who care about open government and about citizens’ role in our democracy!