Rock Creek Roundup (February 19 Edition)

Posted by: Meagen Ryan, Director of Strategy Feb 19, 2010 0 Comments

ForeSee Results finds that transparency creates trust, three federal agencies launch new “open” websites, a small town in Texas takes a big step forward in innovation and collaboration, and Washington, DC, makes its agencies even more accessible, all in this week’s edition of the Rock Creek Roundup.

—On Tuesday, market research firm ForeSee Results released the results of a study they performed assessing the results of recent government efforts to achieve greater transparency and openness. Their survey of more than 36,000 people determined that Americans are more likely to trust, recommend, and return to government websites that do a good job of disclosing information and making it easy to access. Among the 14 federal agencies that took part in the research, websites run by the Department of Agriculture, Department of Health and Human Services, State Department, and GSA all scored very well on the transparency scale. Interested in checking out the whole report? Here it is.

—Speaking of openness and transparency, a handful of federal agencies this week launched new websites aimed at helping their agencies meet the transparency guidelines set forth by the Obama Administration’s Open Government Directive. The EPA’s new site offers a variety of data sets, including the Chesapeake Bay Program Water Quality Database, in addition to the MyEnvironment widget that allows citizens to search for information related to water and air quality in their own areas. The Interior Department and Department of Energy‘s new websites also include new datasets and information on what each agency is doing to comply with the directive.

—You may not have heard of Manor, Texas, but this small town of 6,500 is winning big when it comes to making strides in local government innovation. Earlier this week, the Center for Digital Government announced Manor as its top winner in their Best of Texas Awards. The small town won for its Manor Labs tool, a collaborative platform that gives citizens an incentive for submitting and voting on technology ideas. Citizens who submit or vote on ideas earn “Innobucks” that are good for real-life prizes, like a ride with the police chief or the honor of being named Manor’s Mayor for the Day. Larger cities may not be able to completely replicate something like this, but I applaud Manor for taking a very creative and personal approach to getting citizens involved.

—In larger city news, Washington, DC, government officials announced the launch this week of TrackDC, a website aimed at allowing citizens to better understand budget, spending, and other data for 50 of the District’s government agencies. On the TrackDC website, citizens can view key performance indicators, budget categories, customer service statistics, and performance plans and reports. The new site joins two existing DC sites, CapStat and Data.dc.gov in providing information to citizens in a way that makes government more open and accountable.

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Meagen Ryan

Director of Strategy

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