Open government plans week arrives

Agency open government plans will be unveiled this week.

In a Dec 8, 2009 memo, Office of Management and Budget director Peter Orszag directed agencies to prepare and post online, by April 7, plans on how they will be more transparent, open to public participation and collaborative with other official and non-official entities, as well as the public. It also requires agencies to identify at least one "flagship initiative" and includes an exhortation to
respond to public feedback on a regular basis.

Already many agencies have created "open government" websites, findable by adding "/open" to the end of their .gov URL.

The Agriculture Department already has posted an online draft of its report, which proposes two flagship initiatives. It will enhance the collaborative development of the New Forest Planning Rule by expanding "the use of the latest technologies and build[ing] on the collaborative rules already in place," the report states.

It also highlights an multi-phased online contest called Innovations for Health. Future contests will include a challenge to produce a motivating public service announcement and creating healthful recipes for use in schools.

Other transparency efforts due to be unveiled this week include an OMB ban on cookies on federal websites, online rule-making guidelines and new guidance for agencies to report details on subawards to USAspending.gov, Nextgov reports. OMB Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra recently came under criticism from Senator Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) for failing to make that data available.

For more:
- check out the draft USDA open government plan (.pdf)
- read the OMB's open government directive
- see this Nextgov story

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