Government

Thanks to everyone who voted for a People's Choice Award winner last week! Looking at the votes took some time due to a few folks who appear to have been dedicated enough to set up vote-bots. We appreciate your enthusiasm, but our authors are champs on their own, no additional help needed. But now that the votes are all in, we're pleased to announce that this year's winner is David Doria, who wrote several stories for our Education channel last year. » Read more

Selling the idea of open data seems straightforward. If taxpayers paid for it, a government should share it. But there have to be exceptions for National Security and privacy. » Read more

Open Government Partnership is a global effort initialized by the government of United States to make worldwide governments better. To this date, 46 countries have committed to take steps to change their government to more open, more transparent, and more valuable for the citizens.

Individual countries are now working on their commitments for year 2012, and they will present them at an annual OGP conference in Brazil. This is a perfect time to join the process and clearly express what you as a citizen want from your government. » Read more

How does someone new to the open government movement know where to start? Where can they can get involved and align their interests and passions with a community already hard at work?

There are myriad open government communities, ranging from Code for America to The Sunlight Foundation, GovLoop to CityCamp, and everything in between. Where is the list of organizations that are working specifically on government transparency, collaboration, participation, and open data? Until recently, I'm not sure one existed. » Read more