Engaging Citizens through New Technologies and Open Government
August 26, 2010 :: Posted by: Jose Briceno
There is little doubt that the global financial crisis has shaken people’s confidence in government, and not just in the U.S. but all over the world. As antidote to the public unease and skepticism, many governments are recurring to e-Government initiatives to promote more transparency, efficiency, and citizen participation.
According to the 2010 United Nations E–Government Survey, an increasing number of studies find a positive relationship between e-government initiatives and an improvement in citizens’ attitudes toward government. Research in Canada and the United States suggests that using the Internet to interact with government has “a positive impact on trust as well as public perceptions of government responsiveness.” The UN Survey also finds that the government use of the Internet to solicit ideas from the public has the dual benefits of increasing public awareness and satisfaction with government policy.
With many of these benefits in mind, in the past few years we have seen the launch of www.recovery.gov as the official site for citizens to track Recovery Act spending, www.USAspending.gov, to inform citizens how tax dollars are being spent, and the introduction of President Obama’s SAVE Award, which invites federal employees to suggest ways their agencies can work better or do the same job for less money.
All of these sites are in line with the Open Government Initiative, designed to bring about an unprecedented level of government disclosure that, in the President Obamas’s words, “will strengthen our democracy and promote efficiency and effectiveness in Government.” As part of the initiative, the White House issued the Open Government Directive that requires federal agencies to release high value data and documents as well as establish mechanisms to both receive and respond to feedback given by the public.
Even though much still remains to be done, over the course of the last year, there has been substantial progress—from the Millennium Challenge Corporation making public the evaluation and performance of U.S. foreign aid programs to the creation of the IT Dashboard, where the public can analyze and evaluate the U.S. governments portfolio of over 7,000 Federal information technology investments.
Of course, the job of building a more accountable government can’t rely on government efforts alone and depends also the hard work of watchdogs, non-profits and think tanks like the Sunlight Foundation. The Sunlight Foundation is non-profit, non-partisan organization that develops and encourages new open government policies as well as new web tools and resources such as Sunlight Live, a site that broadcasts live government hearings and meetings while providing contextual information in real time.
These are all exciting programs for Bixal, as we believe that the power of new ICT technologies can be leveraged to do more than share a photo or status update, but can engage the citizenry, enhance public trust, and strengthen democracy at both the local and national level.