Information Today, Inc. Corporate Site KMWorld CRM Media Streaming Media Faulkner Speech Technology Unisphere/DBTA
PRIVACY/COOKIES POLICY
Other ITI Websites
American Library Directory Boardwalk Empire Database Trends and Applications DestinationCRM Faulkner Information Services Fulltext Sources Online InfoToday Europe KMWorld Literary Market Place Plexus Publishing Smart Customer Service Speech Technology Streaming Media Streaming Media Europe Streaming Media Producer Unisphere Research



News & Events > NewsBreaks
Back Index Forward
Twitter RSS Feed
 



Spring Open: Events Celebrate Transparency in Government
by
Posted On July 25, 2017
PAGE: 1 2


Several months into the new administration, Washington, D.C., was treated to events to learn about efforts to increase openness and transparency in government. Some speakers focused on the current situation, highlighting resource challenges that are facing all three branches of government, while others looked to the future and the technology that would enable government to keep up with the expectations of citizens. Here are the highlights of each event.

Commerce Department Belatedly Celebrates Sunshine Week

Originally scheduled for March 15, 2017, during Sunshine Week, but postponed due to a snowstorm in D.C., Strengthening Transparency through Open Data and Access to Information was finally held on June 20 at the Commerce Research Library. It was then that individuals from seven Commerce Department bureaus received certificates of recognition for reducing the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) backlog by 10% or exceeding their bureau’s FOIA goals—for example, by closing their 10 oldest FOIA requests.

Melanie Pustay, director of the Department of Justice’s Office of Information Policy, presented a graphic to illustrate the steady increase in FOIA requests received and processed from 2010 to the present. It was thought that a change to a “release to one, release to all” policy would reduce the number of FOIA requests, but it appears that, as the documents are released via FOIA, they engender further probing and requests for “all backup material.” Pustay encourages FOIA officers to help respondents narrow their requests so that they can be put into the simple request track, guaranteeing a response within 20 days (as opposed to 100 days for complex requests).

Victor Goode, assistant general counsel and interim education director at the NAACP National Office, wished for meaningful engagement between those in the nonprofit and advocacy space and public officials. Forming a partnership could speed the release of information for analysis, increase the efficacy of program evaluation, and provide a pathway to better policy development.

Lisa Wolfisch, deputy director of the U.S. Census Bureau’s Center for New Media and Promotion, spoke about Census Bureau efforts to assess the usability of census data by engaging with developers at API events, such as the National Day of Civic Hacking. The big news concerned the launch of a beta site for the Census Bureau’s new data exploration platform, which will replace American FactFinder.

Reboot Congress 2017: Modernizing the First Branch of Government

On May 17, Lincoln Network and Democracy Fund hosted Reboot Congress 2017, an event that brought together civic technology innovators, engineers, designers, elected officials, senior staffers, and policy experts who are interested in how to modernize Congress. The day illuminated how ill-equipped leaders are in using technology to the benefit of their constituents and the future of American society. The key takeaways from the event are as follows:

  • Panelists noted that there is a considerable lack of respect in Congress for scientific facts, and while legislators may disagree on policy, all must have respect for the role of science in our lives.
  • The Congressional App Challenge is one example of efforts being made to inspire students to study STEM subjects.
  • Lifelong learning is the appropriate response to the quickening pace of change in today’s knowledge economy: Children should learn how to code in schools (and during summer holidays), as should unemployed/underemployed adults as they retrain for jobs that will be relevant in the future.
  • The federal government spends $85–$90 billion on IT—with 75% going to support legacy systems—but we clearly don’t have that much invested in federal IT infrastructure. It’s not that the technology isn’t available, it’s that the procurement process is complex and the skills to use the technology are absent among most members of government.
  • The small staff and budget for congressional offices (with a high turnover rate) make it difficult to sustain the implementation of technology. Those that have been successful have had a tech-savvy champion among senior staffers.
  • Congressional staffers would benefit from tools that allow them to be more responsive to constituents—including with regard to workflow issues related to constituent correspondence (e.g., approval process, tracking changes, and version control)—and that provide a one-to-many outreach, such as Facebook’s Town Hall feature for video live-streaming. The focus of the leadership should not be on technology for use by their party members—congressional committees would benefit if given assistance with using technology to make their work more open and transparent.
  • There is an urgent need to reduce the effort involved in citizen outreach, while improving the quality of each contact. Technology that could be helpful is available today, but it is not being used in Congress due to a variety of factors, including members not knowing about the tools, hurdles in the federal procurement process, security concerns, and a bureaucratic, competitive bidding process.

Several organizations and helpful tools were mentioned throughout the day, and their progress deserves watching. They include the following:

Legislative Data and Transparency Conference

The June 27 Legislative Data and Transparency Conference on Capitol Hill brought those who are responsible for building internal systems and public-facing legislative sites together with members of transparency groups and legislative data users for a frank conversation about the state of legislative data, challenges facing those who are tasked with modernizing parliamentary systems, and steps being taken to improve governance, policy, and lawmaking. Based on the premise that a more informed citizenry is better able to participate in democracy (with laws being the foundation of democracy), speakers spent the day demonstrating a range of efforts by the government, corporations, not-for-profit organizations, and individuals to help make laws more discoverable and understandable.


PAGE: 1 2


Barbie E. Keiser is an information resources management consultant located in the metropolitan Washington, D.C., area.

Email Barbie E. Keiser

Related Articles

2/28/2013Big Data, Open Government, and Sunlight
8/16/2016Conference Takes Deep Dive Into Legislative Data and Transparency
3/28/2017The First Sunshine Week of the New Administration
1/9/2018Highlights of the Upcoming Computers in Libraries Conference
1/30/2018FOIA Advisory Committee Recommends Updates in Federal Agencies
7/24/2018The Latest Legislative Data Initiatives
11/1/2018GPO Makes Statute Compilations Available
11/6/2018The Department of Justice Rolls Out Resources on Hate Crimes
11/27/2018The Failures of FOIA
1/22/2019The U.S. Government Shutdown's Effect on Data Science
5/21/2019The Transforming Research Conference Puts Out a Call for Presentations
8/27/2019Upcoming Events in the Civic Tech Space
1/16/2020PLOS Backs Early Peer Review With New Article Type
2/25/2020White House Controversy Over Access to Publicly Funded Research
4/7/2020Celebrating Sunshine Week During the COVID-19 Crisis
4/7/2020COVID-19 NEWS: Internet Archive Defends the Launch of Its National Emergency Library
4/7/2020COVID-19 NEWS: 'COVID-19 Information Overload Leads to Simple but Unhelpful Choices'
4/14/2020COVID-19 NEWS: IGI Global's 'What Is the Role of Libraries During the COVID-19 Pandemic?'
4/14/2020COVID-19 NEWS: 'Q&A: What Do People Ask a Librarian in a Pandemic? L.A. Library's InfoNow Has the Answer'
4/14/2020COVID-19 NEWS: 'Public Libraries Launch, Expand Services During COVID-19 Pandemic'
4/14/2020COVID-19 NEWS: 'How Effective Is Quarantine Alone or in Combination With Other Public Health Measures ... ?'
4/14/2020COVID-19 NEWS: CRP's 'The Psychological Fight of Our Lives'
4/16/2020COVID-19 NEWS: 'Most Libraries Are Closed. Some Librarians Still Have to Go In.'
4/16/2020COVID-19 NEWS: 'IMLS Announces New Stimulus Funding for Communities Across America'
4/16/2020COVID-19 NEWS: 'EveryLibrary Creates Fund to Help Library Workers in Need Because of COVID-19 Shutdowns'
4/16/2020COVID-19 NEWS: 'Library of Congress Cancels Public Events Until July 1'
4/21/2020COVID-19 NEWS: 'WHO COVID-19 Database Launches New Search Interface'
4/21/2020COVID-19 NEWS: 'Libraries Brace for Budget Cuts'
4/21/2020COVID-19 NEWS: 'Verizon Will Buy Video Conferencing Company BlueJeans'
4/23/2020COVID-19 NEWS: 'Stanford Law School Creates Free Database of COVID-19 Legal Memos'
4/23/2020COVID-19 NEWS: APA Announces More Free Resources
4/23/2020COVID-19 NEWS: 'Startling Digital Divides in Distance Learning Emerge'
4/23/2020COVID-19 NEWS: European 'Commission Launches Data Sharing Platform for Researchers'
4/30/2020COVID-19 NEWS: Library Resources From SLA and IFLA
4/30/2020COVID-19 NEWS: CCC Plans a May 5 Virtual Town Hall About Building Digital Resiliency
4/30/2020COVID-19 NEWS: ReadCube Implements COVID-19 Research Pass Program for Free Content Access
4/13/2021Open Government Under the Biden Administration
3/22/2022Celebrating Another Sunshine Week During the Pandemic


Comments Add A Comment

              Back to top