Open Government Team
Joey Hutcherson
Deputy Director for Open Government
President's Obama's first executive action was to sign the Memorandum on Transparency and Open Government, which sought to bridge the gap between the American people and their government.
This website, launched in response to the subsequent Open Government Directive, aims to document the U.S. Department of Commerce's efforts to become more open, participatory and collaborative.
The value of an Open Government is that it will show its ongoing work while still protecting the privacy of its people and security of the nation. This openness is the cornerstone of a great society. Open Government creates a two-way conversation with the public it serves. The conversation is the basis of information collaboration. This collaboration helps the government to visualize, address and solve problems and issues from a boarder perspective than was previously available. The first government wide effort to be open and make more information available to the public was the Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA). Throughout the years all federal government agencies have looked for methods to achieve the most efficient and cost effective delivery of this FOIA information.
You can read the white paper covering the subject of Government-wide Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Workflow Utilizing a Centralized Repository in PDF file listed below.
In response to the White House's Open Government Directive, Commerce created and released a Department-wide plan for Open Government on April 7, 2010. Commerce has previously published two versions, 1.0 and 1.5 of the plan that can be found in the plan archive. Commerce is continually working to improve transparency, participation and collaboration. Many of these efforts are identified in the Commerce Open Government Plan Version 2.0 released April 5, 2012.
As outlined in the Directive itself, our Open Government Plan will serve as a "public roadmap that details how [Commerce] will incorporate the principles of the president’s January 21, 2009, Memorandum on Transparency and Open Government into the core mission objectives of [the Department]."
In version 2.0 Commerce talks about 43 programs and initiatives. Previously these programs and initiatives were listed in a single table with the descriptions following laid out under the operating unit responsible for completion. In the new plan, the single table has been separated into tables of initiatives by operating unit with status and estimate/actual completion dates. The operating units have also been added into the table of contents so you can link directly to an operating unit to find its initiatives.
Comments Encouraged
Throughout the process, Commerce's Open Government Team has taken ideas and suggestions from employees and the public. Many of the changes in Commerce initiatives and programs have been generated through this open partnership. As Commerce moves forward in the support of American businesses, it is vital that this communication of ideas continues to grow. To help Commerce keep the conversation fluid, email your ideas and suggestion to open@doc.gov.
The White House's Open Government Directive requires Cabinet-level agencies, such as the Department of Commerce, to pass certain milestones as part of our efforts to be more open and transparent. The timeline below details the specific benchmarks we're moving toward, and shows the Department's progress in achieving them.
2 of 2 |
45 days—January 22, 2010
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3 of 3 |
60 days—February 6, 2010
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5 of 5 |
120 days—April 7, 2010
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