In the News

Open-government advocate Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, thinks feds won't have to pull the plug on websites such as Data.gov, USASpending.gov, the IT Dashboard and other federal programs that promote transparency, reports Federal News Radio.

In his inaugural speech, President Barack Obama pledged support for open government initiatives, including the creation of websites that provide access to valuable but not sensitive government data. This initiative promoted transparency, accountability, collaboration and citizen participation by putting government data online. Data.gov was launched in May 2009 as a result, and this incredible site provides nearly 300,000 data sets and almost 1,000 applications developed by government and private enterprise.

“There’s an app for that.” How many times have you heard that line? If you have a smart phone or a computer, there’s almost no limit to the software applications you can get for it. An app called Shazam will identify a song you play or hum. Dropbox allows you to share photos, videos and other files easily. Let’s not even get started on Google translate, Google scholar and the rest of that universe.

A senior administration official told senators at a hearing May 10 that the government will launch an early version of a new website, Performance.gov, in the next few weeks to publicly track the performance of federal agency programs.

Jeffrey Zients, the chief performance officer and the deputy director for management at the Office of Management and Budget, described the planned site to the panel, and also described other initiatives the administration has undertaken to improve the government’s performance.