This public comment was transmitted to the White House Working Group on Open Government on December 20th, 2022. As the U.S. government has still not published the public comments it received since May 2022 during the delayed co-creation process for the 5th National Action Plan for Open Government for the Open Government Partnership, we are …
Continue reading “The White House’s “reasoned response” omitted key civil society priorities”
Last week, the U.S. government posted a summary of the feedback they have heard on making government more inclusive and responsive and invited the American public to read and share these summaries, and let the White House know what we thought of them by December 9, 2022 by emailing opengov@ostp.eop.gov. The following is the response …
Today, our director provided brief remarks in response to the White House’s request for feedback from the public about proposed federal commitments to improve public access to data. The following written recommendations are the (longer) version of that public comment, with specific tactical and strategic recommendations for improving administration of the Freedom of Information Act …
In August, our director was appointed by the acting Archivist of the USA (AOTUS) to the U.S. Freedom of Information Act Advisory Committee as one of the non-governmental members who advocates for better access on behalf of the public, press, and good government watchdogs. For those unfamiliar, this federal advisory committee was established in 2014 …
This coalition letter from good governance groups and individuals devoted to ethics asks the Biden administration to detail its plans for restoring government transparency and accountability, with dozens of specific questions and requests for information regarding specific commitments necessary to continue that process. The letter may be downloaded as a PDF with footnotes instead of …
Continue reading “Open questions on open government in the USA”
Democracy depends on informed publics to function, but around the world, authoritarianism and populism are on the rise, increasingly using new technologies to censor, repress, surveil, and disinform the public. This phenomenon is muddying the capacity of the public to be accurately informed and engage in collective action based upon shared, trustworthy facts, putting a …
Governing Digital 