The Energy Department is continuing to spearhead Open Government with six new initiatives outlined in this plan. These new initiatives focus on the third pillar of Open Government: collaboration. From incentivizing developers to use utility data to build apps that help consumers better understand their electricity bills to tapping into the ingenuity of its users to build a better EIA.gov, the Energy Department seeks to use stakeholder input to improve how government works.
For many of the Department’s Open Government initiatives, the work is never truly complete. Many of our projects are ongoing efforts to improve transparency, participation, and collaboration. As soon as we think we’re done and we can check the proverbial ‘open gov’ box, that is when we stop moving forward. To that end, many of our Open Government projects are designed for iterative innovation with measurable benchmarks, but without a final completion date. It is through this iterative innovation process that Open Government will be most successful as the Department seeks to incorporate it’s principles into the culture, making it part of the way we do business.
