The first step to getting started is to build consensus . After you read the primer please comment at the bottom with edits you’d like to see etc.

Recommendations

1. A “Hawaii County Data Policy Statement” which includes the following (derived from the data.gov data policy statement);

Proposed Hawaii County Data Policy – draft

Public Information

All datasets accessed through http://co.hawaii.state.gov are confined to public information and must not contain National Security information as defined by statute and/or Executive Order, or other information/data that is protected by other statute, practice, or legal precedent. The supplying Department/Agency is required to maintain currency with public disclosure requirements.

Security

All information accessed through http://co.hawaii.state.gov is in compliance with the required confidentiality, integrity, and availability controls mandated by Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 199 as promulgated by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the associated NIST publications supporting the Certification and Accreditation (C&A) process. Submitting Agencies are required to follow NIST guidelines and OMB guidance (including C&A requirements).

Privacy

All information accessed through http://co.hawaii.state.gov must be in compliance with current privacy requirements including OMB guidance. In particular, Agencies are responsible for ensuring that the datasets accessed through http://co.hawaii.state.gov have any required Privacy Impact Assessments or System of Records Notices (SORN) easily available on their websites.

Data Quality and Retention

All information accessed through http://co.hawaii.state.gov is subject to the Information Quality Act (P.L. 106-554). For all data accessed through http://co.hawaii.state.gov, each Department/Agency has confirmed that the data being provided through this site meets the Department/Agency’s Information Quality Guidelines. As the authoritative source of the information, submitting Departments/Agencies retain version control of datasets accessed through http://co.hawaii.state.gov in compliance with record retention requirements outlined by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).

Secondary Use

Data accessed through http://co.hawaii.state.gov do not, and should not, include controls over its end use. However, as the data owner or authoritative source for the data, the submitting Department or Agency must retain version control of datasets accessed. Once the data have been downloaded from the agency’s site, Hawaii County cannot vouch for their quality and timeliness. Furthermore, the County of Hawaii cannot vouch for any analyses conducted with data retrieved from http://co.hawaii.state.gov.

Citing

Data The agency’s preferred citation for each dataset is included in its metadata. Users should also cite the date that data were accessed or retrieved from http://co.hawaii.state.gov. Finally, users must clearly state that “http://co.hawaii.state.gov and the County of Hawaii cannot vouch for the data or analyses derived from these data after the data have been retrieved from http://co.hawaii.state.gov.”

Public Participation

In support of the Transparency and Open Government Initiative, recommendations from individuals, groups and organizations regarding the presentation of data, data types, and metadata will contribute to the evolution of http://co.hawaii.state.gov.

Applicability of this Data Policy

Nothing in this Data Policy alters, or impedes the ability to carry out, the authorities of Hawaii County Departments and Agencies to perform their responsibilities under law and consistent with applicable legal authorities, appropriations, and presidential guidance, nor does this Data Policy limit the protection afforded any information by other provisions of law.

This Data Policy is intended only to improve the internal management of information controlled by the County of Hawaii and it is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity, by a party against the County of Hawaii, its Departments, Agencies, or other entities, its officers, officials, employees, or agents.

2. Access to the data contained in all government records.

• Prioritized by a committee of government and citizens focused first on sustainability for residents.
• Example data access point at USGS : http://waterservices.usgs.gov/rest/WaterML-Interim-REST-Service.html

3. Data should be provided in standards-based formats eg; XML. Human readable formats should be the province of private business as this is the point where usability, accessibility, information and interaction design and other interpretive uses are defined to create value added products and services by private enterprise.

4. Reduce the number of websites built and maintained by the County of Hawaii. Any required informational sites should be developed by private enterprise in a competitive bidding process. Whenever possible, the County of Hawaii’s role in information technology should focus on providing data, not information as defined above.

Hawaii County Council Resolution 265 – available for review.

When most folks hear of County Council resolutions to help food, water, energy or air quality they think, gee it’s about time. Or yay, we’re finally getting help from local government. This may be especially when you consider the battles against Genetically Modified Organisms. No doubt, our local food supply is at serious risk from companies like Monsanto who could easily turn our entire island into a giant test bed for their GMO crops.

However, more legislation from the government is not always the answer. I pause when reading the recent draft resolution 265 and especially the following statement :

“our future food supply will depend on educated policy-making at County level”

Is there a better way to keep GMO crops out of the local food supply and off the land? Legislation to fight legislation seems expensive. Certainly I’m wrong for even asking these sorts of questions.

After all, the folks that worked on the Hawaii County Resolution 265 and similar legislation around the state are beyond reproach. They really know what they’re doing and have been working on these efforts for a long time. This particular resolution is most likely the best start possible.

Farmers haven’t always been big friends to big government although they have had their share of government subsidies. I’m interested in learning how our freedoms can be preserved to form this more perfect union between our natural resources and us. To the untrained eye, the current legislation reads like a government land grab for natural resources. Even if it doesn’t specifically state, “families and family farms should determine our future food supply, not local, state or federal governments.”

So just how much government do we need in our food supply? Can we find anything in this legislation that removes burdens already placed on our farmers? How will the government continue to help us at the grocery store or the Farmer’s Market?  How will the government keep GMO food or GMO seeds out of our stores?

Please shop at Island Naturals! Russell keeps it local! Okay, back to the program…

Please consider reading the original resolution and testify. Consider letting the county council know that we know, they would be taking big steps towards controlling more of the land.

Original Hawaii County Food Legislation downloads available at Green Collar Technologies website.

Related:

Open Government, Open Policy Making Presentation

TECHNOLOGY

“To help build a new foundation for the 21st century, we need to reform our government so that it is more efficient, more transparent, and more creative.”

-President Obama, April 25, 2009

Guiding Principles

Innovation in the Economy: Drive Economic Growth and Solve National Problems By Deploying a 21st Century Information Infrastructure

The President believes that modernized infrastructure is a necessary part of the foundation for long term economic stability and prosperity. That includes everything from a comprehensive national broadband plan, to new health care information technology, to a modernized electrical grid.

The President has also directed the National Security and Homeland Security Advisors to conduct an immediate review of the plan, programs, and activities underway throughout the government dedicated to cyber security. This 60-day interagency review will develop a strategic framework to ensure that U.S. Government cyber security initiatives are appropriately integrated, resourced and coordinated with Congress and the private sector.

Innovation in Science: Invest in Science and Science Education

The President has named Dr. John Holdren, a nationally recognized expert on climate change and nuclear disarmament, as an Assistant to the President and the nation’s Science Advisor, and Dr. Steven Chu, Nobel-prize winner as the Secretary of Energy. These are just two of the many leading science experts who are serving in an Administration committed to science.

Innovation in Public Administration: Creating an Open and Secure Government

Strategic federal IT investments will make Government more transparent and accountable. At the same time, Americans will know that these investments by their Government are being leveraged to produce maximum value, and that the security of information systems nationally, and the privacy of Americans, are being protected. Strategic investments in IT are at the heart of the efforts to make Government services more effective, accessible, and transparent.

Restoring a Culture of Accountability through Openness and Transparency of Government Operations and Information

Moving Toward Unprecedented Openness: Change the presumption under the Freedom of Information Act to favor voluntary disclosure of government information to the public.

Making Critical Government Information Available: Working to provide public access to information of public import and concern, such as the Department of Justice “torture” memos, the President’s and Vice-President’s tax returns, the public financial disclosure reports for White House personnel, and presidential records.

Read Technology Issues Progress Report at Whitehouse.gov

Related Quotes

“Information is the currency of democracy.”
-Thomas Jefferson

“A popular government without popular information or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a farce, or a tragedy, or perhaps both.”
-James Madison

Interested in anything you have to say about this:

Growing list of resources to help you get involved in government transparency and ethics issues. Green economies require strong leadership. Strong leadership needs to be promoted at all levels to reach our sustainability goals.

The Collaboration Project

The Collaboration Project is an independent forum of leaders who share a commitment to the adoption and use of collaborative technologies to solve the complex problems of public management. Powered by the National Academy of Public Administration, this “wikified” space is designed to share ideas, examples and insights on the adoption of Web 2.0 technologies in the field of public governance. Visit the Collaboration Project

Social Media Council

If you thought the social media subcouncil wiki, Web 2 0 Governance Policies and Best Practices resources were good, you gotta check out the delicious bookmarks here.

Social Government

Social Government was created in January 2009 by Ethan Klapper. The goal of this blog is to keep tabs on what various U.S. government agencies are doing with their Web and Web 2.0 initiatives. Posts will feature analysis, interviews and links to articles of interest. This blog is not affiliated with any government agency and does not have a partisan slant, though developments with campaigns might be covered. Help turn government into government 2.0.

Bright Side of Government

The mission of this blog is to offer insight into the technology trends and issues that impact State and Local government.  We will have guest posts from the best and the brightest.  We also encourage our readers to offer their own best practices and discuss issues that they are facing. Visit the Bright Side of Government

Governing People.com

An online community for advocates of smarter government. Visit GoverningPeople.com

and the release of data.gov

Got a local resouce? Add it to the comments…

Here are some examples of specific submissions, grouped by issue. We’ve attached a “mindmap” of the redacted transparency proposals so you can see a summary and overview of the themes that are emerging. We have also attached the National Academy of Public Administration’s analysis of the Brainstorm (pdf).

1) Transparency Principles: How do we define transparency so that we can prioritize our policymaking?

Adopt 8 Open Government Data Principles (complete, primary, timely, accessible, machine processable, non-discriminatory, non-proprietary, license-free);
Adopt Carter Center Plan of Action for the Advancement of the Right of Access to Information;
Crowdsourcing should be adopted as a principle and best practices around the use of crowdsourcing to evaluate data should be established;
Agencies should explain all policy decisions and the rationales behind them in readable language;

2) Transparency Governance: How do we institutionalize transparency across all government agencies and establish structures to ensure thoughtful and considered progress toward transparency?

Replicate Florida’s model of an Office of Open Government;
Establish a Transparency Officer/Open Government Officer and interdisciplinary team in each agency whose job it is to inventory and proactively make data available to the public. Transparency officer must not be an information technology expert only but someone knowledgeable about legal frameworks, such as Privacy and Information Quality;
Create a data governance program/framework in each agency to evaluate data quality and priorities;
Seek public input on data to be made transparent;
Identify candidate agencies or programs as pilots for transparency;
Use Cooperative Research and Development Agreements (CRADAs) to bring together government and public researchers to collaborate on making data more accessible;
Confer transparency/open government awards.

3) Information Access: How do we improve the efficiency and effectiveness of access to government information? How do we improve the Government’s ability to disclose information pro-actively and bring down the cost and burden of compliance with the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)?

Impose penalties on agencies not following FOIA or tolerating excessive delays. Look at India’s approach, in which government officials become personally liable and must pay fines if they do not act in a timely fashion;
Use visualization tools to show timeliness of FOIA processing in real time and track which official has responsibility for the request at any given time, i.e. workflow management;
Post frequently requested categories of information;
Require agencies to accept FOIA and Mandatory Declassification (MDR) requests via email;
Simplify implementation of FOIA;
Implement requirement to post disclosed information in electronic reading rooms;
Paper duplication costs should be reasonable. Electronic duplication should be free.

4) Data and Metadata: What technological approaches might be used to improve access to Government data? What Government-wide approaches to data and metadata should we be undertaking? How can we improve the usefulness of Data.gov, the Government’s new platform for access to data?

Inventory and prioritize agency data for publication in open, downloadable formats;
Set agency targets: by a given date, X percent of non-sensitive agency data should be online;
Use Data.gov as a repository of newly declassified information;
Make contributed data subject to a waiver of copyright and database rights using the “CCO” scheme from Creative Commons;
Standardize discovery and method calls to data sets;
Offer a crawling program to identify data that agencies could make available;
Establish a monitoring program to ensure that sensitive data is not released;
Collaborate with private sector on conferences on visualization to design tools for Data.gov;
Adopt data dictionaries to ensure that terms have the same meaning across agencies;
Adopt better software for comparing relevance and meaning of documents to make government information more searchable;
More RSS data feeds and other points of access to government information;
Government should create permalinks on the paragraph level to make documents easier to cite;
Maintain a transparency dashboard to show progress toward transparency, e.g. the number of documents released;
Bring government services online and make them reusable by the private sector; if citizens own the services they should be able to build on top of them. This requires a “Services Oriented Architecture” approach (see: VA Loan Guaranty example);
Digitize all government research reports and make them available free via NTIS (the National Technical Information Service);
Convert Depository Libraries around the country into Regional Data Centers;
Make the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) the off-site electronic backup data center for all agency e-record systems.

5) Open Government Operations: What are the strategies for making the workings of government more open and accountable? How do we balance openness and other constraints, like privacy and efficiency?

Create a “MyGov.gov” customized data feed/alert system that reaches across all federal agencies; i.e. create a “Citizens Portal”;
Publish a directory of who works in government. Agencies state there are legal issues and policies in place that prohibit them from posting their organization charts. Changing this might help increase transparency;
Publish a list of everyone who meets with the President;
Allow government employees to speak to journalists more freely to foster news-gathering;
Electronic voting machine hardware and software, from the machine in the polling booth to the collection systems used to collate results, should be subject to publication and verification;
Executive branch documents, such as the Federal Register and the Compilation of Presidential Documents, should be made available in downloadable and accessible formats;
Use innovative, new technology to create more transparent, effective, and efficient procurement strategies;
Require that all public agency meetings be webcast. Require that all Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA) meetings be webcast;
Create weekly progress reports in which government employees rate and rank each other’s announcements as a mechanism to select the best ideas to report to the Secretary;
Every agency should develop a “Web 2.0″ communications strategy to set forth how it will use new media to accomplish its mission;
Identify common innovation platforms — the basic frameworks needed across agencies for open government — and invest in building those.

While Phase I focused on idea gathering, Phase II focuses on defining the challenges in greater depth. We will be asking for your help with fleshing out the issues, potential solutions, and the pros and cons of proposed approaches.
Tomorrow, June 3rd, we will invite your comments on the first blog post of the Discussion Phase. The first set of posts will focus on each of the five transparency themes (principles, governance, access, data, operations) listed above, followed by a series of posts on participation and collaboration.
The goal of Phase II is to explore proposals for a Government-wide framework to achieve transparency, participation and collaboration. We want your help with translating good ideas into concrete, measurable and cost-effective solutions.

by Beth Noveck is Deputy Chief Technology Officer for Open Government.