status of open government and transparency

From Open Government to Online Engagement: Lessons Learned

Andrew KrzmarzickGovLoop Director of Community Engagement

Our Time Together

1. Overview of GovLoop

2. Evolution of Open Government

3. Social Media Trends

4. Online Engagement: Lessons Learned

• 14 years raising money and awareness for non-profits, educational institutions and social businesses

• Generated over $100 million through proposals, fundraising and marketing

• Design and deliver presentations on social media, generational diversity, telework, and social learning

• Built first-of-its-kind, government-wide mentors program in the U.S.

• Manage a team of 15 full-time and part-time employees to deploy a comprehensive digital engagement strategy

Andrew KrzmarzickLinkedIn.com/in/

andrewkrzmarzick

@krazykriz

Online community of government colleagues

helping each other to do their jobs better.

Mission: “Connect government to improve government”

JAN 2009:Community

Leaders

JAN 2009:Community

Leaders

JUN 2009:10,000

Members

JUN 2009:10,000

Members

JUN 2008:GovLoop Launched

JUN 2008:GovLoop Launched

Passionate Federal

Employee

Passionate Federal

EmployeeCommitted VolunteersCommitted Volunteers

SEP 2009:20,000

Members

SEP 2009:20,000

Members

Full-Time Team = 4Full-Time Team = 4

Evolution

JUL 2010:Next Gen Gov Event

in DC

JUL 2010:Next Gen Gov Event

in DC

MAR 2011:

Mentors Program

MAR 2011:

Mentors Program

SEP 2011:50,000

Members

SEP 2011:50,000

Members

SEP 2010:40,000

Members

SEP 2010:40,000

Members

20+ Corporate Partners

20+ Corporate Partners

Jul 2012:Next Gen =

600+

Jul 2012:Next Gen =

600+

Team = 14

Team = 14

SEP 2012:60,000

Members

SEP 2012:60,000

Members

Sub-Communities, Podcast, Guides

Sub-Communities, Podcast, Guides

Member OverviewTop 10 Agencies on GovLoop1.Dept. of Defense2.Dept. of Health & Human Services3.Dept. of Agriculture4.Dept. of Veterans Affairs5.Dept. of Homeland Security6.General Services Admin.7.Dept. of Commerce8.Environmental Protection Agency9.Dept. of Transportation10. Dept. of Labor

Total # of Agencies: 37

Vehicles:Vehicles:• Blogs

• Forums

• Groups

• Events

• Guides

• Podcasts

• Webinars

Value:Value:•Share and find best practices

•Get questions answered quickly

•Solve problems faster

•Learn from peers and experts

“Knowledge Network”


1. Learn from each other online.


2. Learn from each other in person.


3. Learn from each other one-on-one.


4. Learn from experts via webinars.


5. Learn from experts via podcasts.


6. Learn from experts / each other via guides.

Partners Partners WithWith:


7. Teach citizens that government works.


Questions?

President Obama: Day 1

Historic Change?

"Liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the people, who have a right and a desire to know.”

"Liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the people, who have a right and a desire to know.”

President Obama: Day 2

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/TransparencyandOpenGovernment

January 21, 2009

http://www.justice.gov/ag/foia-memo-march2009.pdf

“Nondisclosure should never be based on an effort to protect the interest of Government officials at the expense of those they are supposed to serve.”

“All agencies should adopt a presumption in favor of disclosure….”Presume openness; disclose affirmatively; and modernize.

January 2010

March 2010March 2010

http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/assets/memoranda_2010/m10-11.pdf


300+ to date

September 2011September 2011


• disclosed more information under the Freedom of Information Act.

• devised ambitious Open Government Plans to increase opportunities for public engagement

• made voluminous information newly available on government websites.

• shined more light on federal spending.

• taken steps to provide more disclosure of sensitive government information.

• used technology in many innovative ways that make information useful to citizens in their everyday lives.

Freedom of Information


• Agencies made full disclosures—i.e., un-redacted disclosure of all requested information—for nearly 56% of all FOIA requests where responsive records were processed.

• constitutes more than a 6% increase over the previous year from October 2008 through September 2009.

• marks the first increase in full FOIA disclosures in the past ten years.

• Taking partial and full disclosures together, agencies made disclosures in 93-94%% of all processed FOIA requests over the last fiscal year.



• Over the past fiscal year, the ninety-seven agencies subject to the FOIA together invoked FOIA exemptions less than in the previous year. In fact, the invocation of FOIA exemptions dropped by nearly 54,000 over the past year, more than a 10% reduction.

• agencies overall processed more requests than they received this past fiscal year…also increased the number of FOIA requests they processed as compared with last fiscal year

• reduced their backlogs of pending FOIA requests over the past fiscal year. The ninety-seven agencies across the government that are subject to FOIA collectively reduced their backlogs by 10.1%.

Digital Government Strategy

http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/memoranda/2012/m-12-18.pdf

March 2012March 2012

Digital Government

http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/memoranda/2012/m-12-18.pdf

Digital Government

http://www.state.gov/digitalstrategy/

Digital Government

http://www.gsa.gov/portal/content/142785

Digital Government

http://www.howto.gov

Digital Government

http://www.apps.gov/

Open Innovation: Leading Practices

• compares different plans

• shows information that has never been made public

• Allows vets to access and download information from My HealtheVet into simple text file or PDF

• Gives control without special software

• Enables sharing with health care providers, caregivers, or people you trust.

Open Innovation: Leading Practices

8 Lessons from Open Gov in the U.S.1.Nail down policy first.

2.Remove legal hurdles.

3.Give clear directions and deadlines.

4.Assign agency champions.

5.Provide tools and resources.

6.Hold agencies accountable, report on progress.

7.Use peer pressure via comparison.

8.Highlight leading practices.

Open Government: Global Impact

http://www.opengovpartnership.org/

Sep 2011


• Launched on September 20, 2011, with 8 founding governments (Brazil, Indonesia, Mexico, Norway, Philippines, South Africa, UK, US)

• aims to secure concrete commitments from governments to promote transparency, empower citizens, fight corruption, and harness new technologies to strengthen governance.

• overseen by a steering committee of governments and civil society organizations.Participating countries must:

• embrace a high-level Open Government Declaration; • deliver a country action plan developed with public

consultation; and • commit to independent reporting on their progress.


Open Government: Israeli Impact


Dec 2010

Open Government: Local Impact

OpenGovernmentInitiative.org/


5 Mega Trendswith Social Media and Government*

*Source: http://www.businessesgrow.com/2011/04/04/five-mega-trends-how-social-media-is-transforming-government/ç

1. The cry for transparency

“This is a terrible time to be a control freak” – Hillary Clinton, U.S. Secretary of State

•broad recognition that government information belongs to the

people

•technology is enabling a new wave of sharing

•Best practice: U.S. Government Printing Office site o volumes of documents now available at visitor finger tips


2. Citizen engagement

“The opportunity of social media and government is not economic or technological.

It’s emotional.” — Aneesh Chopra, Former CTO of the U.S. Government

•Challenge.gov rewards citizens with cash prizes for solving

government problems

•Crowd-sourced budgeting processes

•NASA has a range of programs encouraging active participation

in agency project – customize your own NASA project page


3. Humanizing government


“Social media is not a second website, it’s a community.”

— Tristram Perry, U.S. State Department

•people are people, brands are building an emotional connection

•citizens are expecting government to do the same

•City of Reno poked fun with YouTube videos, crooked Christmas tree.

•U.S. Embassy, Jakarta = more Facebook fans than all embassies

combined:o Spark discussion and give people a reason to belong.o Customize your information for your audience.o Develop unique, engaging content.o Post regularly.o Set goals and reassess them periodically.

4. Crisis management


5. Real-time response (and mobile)


•in private sector, there are many case studies about companies

using social media as an effective tool to solve problems in real-time

•these practices are being adopted by state and city (and federal)

governments.

•with a tweet or text (or an app) — potholes, broken street lights and

other issues are being reported and fixed.

•311-Twitter service in San Franciso, for example, has answered

over 7 million calls and thousands of more requests online.

Why wouldn’t citizens expect national

governments to do the same?


Leading Practice: Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs


Anatomy of a Fantastic Facebook Page

1. Human voice

2. Effective use of photos

3. Relevant, local information

4. Diverse information

5. Blend of fun and serious

6. Frequent posting

7. Open forum

4 Lessons for Open Online Engagement

from

1. Engagement is Not Easy

• It’s REALLY hard, but…• There’s a methodology and rigor

Integration with traditional communication =

key to driving real results

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2. Email is Not Dead

Population: 140 millionIt would be bigger than Russia, Ukraine and

Kazakhstan

If Twitter was a country

Population: 1 billion active usersIt would be the world’s 3rd largest country

Bigger than North and South America combined

If Facebook was a country

It Covers ContinentsIt would be an empire: 2.9 Billion users

If Email Was a Country

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Anatomy of a “Social” Newsletter

3. Aim for an Integrated Approach

4. You Don’t Have to Do It All

Test => Learn => Iterate

http://www.slideshare.net/alexgrech/open-government-and-social-media

Recommended Resource

[email protected]

LinkedIn.com/in/AndrewKrzmarzick

202-352-1806

@krazykriz

status of open government and transparency

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