Friday, September 3, 2010
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.
Scott B. Quehl
Chief Financial Officer and Assistant Secretary for Administration,
Head of Open Government Working Group
open@doc.gov
Justin Ehrenwerth
Council, Office of the General Counsel
Joey Hutcherson
IT Infrastructure Managment, Office of the CIO
Data.gov Project Lead, Dept. of Commerce
Aveek Majumdar
Special Assistant to the Deputy Secretary
Dennis Sutch
IT Project Manager, Office of the CIO
Interact with Commerce on the social media sites you already use every day.
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whitehouse.gov/open - Learn more about the President's efforts to increase transparency, participation, and collaboration throughout government.
Recovery.gov - See open government in action by tracking the spending associated with the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009
Data.gov - Access and discover new uses for the range of data produced by the federal government from one central location.
The Commerce Open Government team was recently asked to assess just how well we answered the core questions of the Open Government Directive with the Open Government Plan we released earlier this month.
The table below establishes “grades” for each of the major components of our Open Government Plan and the overall result. These grades were decided by looking at the 30 distinct questions/requirements laid out in the Directive itself and determining whether our plan fully satisfied (Green), partially satisfied (Yellow) or failed to address (Red). You can see the full-evaluation by clicking the “Read More” link below.
Overall, we think the Commerce Department, like most other Federal Agencies tasked with responding, has partially satisfied the requirements for the Open Government plans and we're working quickly to address those parts that aren't quite there or could be better. You will notice that we have the previous and current versions on our Open Gov Web site. We are doing this to allow public viewing of where we started leading to where we are now. Our previous versions are under the Open Gov Plan history area. We'll continue to make changes, as soon as they're completed, we'll put them up on this site and make sure you know about them. Please use the feedback section to give us your comments on the plan.
While we would have liked to be green in all areas and fully satisfied every requirement for our Open Government Plan, we know the plan we publish is a living document this is version 1.1 release it has some updates to the previous version. As we move forward we are working with all of our partners in both internal Commerce Bureaus and external partners to ensure the Commerce Plan grows and meets the public needs for information sharing.
Overall Grades for Commerce Open Government Plan
Formulating the Plan in the Open |
Green |
Transparency Component |
Yellow |
Participation Component |
Green |
Collaboration Component |
Yellow |
Flagship Initiatives Component |
Yellow |
Overall Rating |
Yellow |
Click "Read More" below to see our complete evaluation.
One of the most troubling things I’ve noticed in politics over the last few years has been the American public's growing disconnect from its government.
It’s understandable. Too often, all they hear is the usual noise – who’s up, who’s down, who’s in, who’s out. That’s what gets covered. That’s what makes headlines.
For Americans, business as usual in Washington has reinforced the belief that the government benefits the special interests and the well-connected at the expense of the American people. They seek information that can be difficult to find and see taxpayer dollars disappearing without a trace and lobbyists wielding undue influence.
Since the day he entered office, President Obama has been determined to change the old ways of Washington.
As part of that effort, he’s made an unprecedented commitment to opening the government to the people it serves. These initiatives will have a lasting impact, permanently breaking down barriers between the American people and the government they pay for.
Today, federal departments and agencies are putting forward concrete plans for making operations and data more transparent, and expanding opportunities for citizen participation, collaboration, and oversight. These steps will strengthen our democracy and promote efficiency and effectiveness across the government.
I’m tremendously proud of the work the Open Government Team has put into creating this first iteration of the Commerce Department’s Open Government Plan. It establishes clear goals and benchmarks for success, and lays the foundation for continued work on increasing openness, participation and collaboration at Commerce in the months and years to come.
But open government is not the work of any single office.
The entire Obama administration is moving forward to translate the values of openness into lasting improvements in the way government makes decisions, solves problems and addresses national challenges. It’s a commitment we all share, one that will deepen the American people’s understanding of how their institutions work and their tax dollars are spent.
Gary Locke is the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Commerce
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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