obama

Last week, The White House published an Executive Order by which the default method for government data collection and dissemination must now be: » Read more

The term "Open Government" (OG, hereafter) has been used since the 70s to refer to the effort to reduce bureaucratic opacity and open up governments to public scrutiny. Current notions of OG are thus the result of more than four decades of endeavours to increase the transparency of government actions. These efforts materialized mainly in the enactment of legislation on access to information, privacy, data protection and administrative procedures, and by creating ombudsman offices and supreme audit institutions.

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One of the ways Obama won the 2012 election was with technology. It wasn’t the only way, but technology offered one thing that feet on the street couldn’t: a force multiplier effect. The technology used during the campaign to accept donations and manage volunteers was based on open source and open standards. Open source helped the campaign accomplish several things. It enabled the team building the technology to create a culture of code, innovate faster, and solve problems the open source way. » Read more

The petitions for Texas and other states to secede from the U.S. on the White House’s "We the People" site have drawn a great deal of attention in the past couple of days. I find it highly ironic that people are protesting following the re-election of the Administration by using the very platform set up by said Administration for grassroots advocacy. That being said, it’s also a testament to the idea that open government works—even for those who believe it doesn’t.

Let’s recap.   » Read more

This afternoon, First Lady Michelle Obama spoke at a White House event about the importance of supporting and retaining women and girls in STEM careers. 

“If we’re going to out-innovate and out-educate the rest of the world, we’ve got to open doors for everyone,” said Obama.  “We need all hands on deck, and that means clearing hurdles for women and girls as they navigate careers in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM).” » Read more

The date on the tombstone - September 15. Open gov that was shouted from the rooftops on Obama’s first day died last week with barely a whisper - far from the headlines. The Senate approps subcommittee slashed $11 million from the House allocation, already $15 million under FY2010 funding. Transparency advocates like Sunlight are openly mourning the passing. But, the real question here is, does anybody really care? » Read more

Gene Quinn's recent post titled "What Happened to the Obama Open Source Initiative?" criticizes, in turns, open source software, Scott McNealy, the Obama administration, and "business newbies" who want to use the open source software model. » Read more

I loved this year's State of the Union address for the collaborative tone of both the President and the members of Congress.  While many were skeptical of the idea, I was especially pleased to see the effect of the mixed-party seating at the State of the Union, proposed by Sen. Mark Udall of Colorado. » Read more

Yesterday, U.S. President Barack Obama addressed members of the Indian parliament and announced a U.S.-India Open  Government Dialogue. Addressing a rare joint session of the Indian Parliament that brought together the two different houses -- the Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha -- Obama said that as the world's largest democracy and the world's oldest one, India and the U.S. will work together on the initiative.
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