Possibly the coolest place to be talking about open government and transparency. I came across some rave reviews of a SXSW panel called “In Code We Trust: Open Government Awesomeness” featuring representatives of state and local governments in New York, San Francisco and DC to talk about how they are using technology and social media to bring citizens closer to elected officials to create meaningful interaction and conversation.
Some of the highlights:
- The New York Senate website has “open questions” where citizens can ask questions directly to elected officials, virtual townhalls and “making legislative materials available in every format known to the modern Internet.”
- Alissa Black from San Francisco talked about her city’s “open government directive,” the creation of tools to allow citizens and employees to track decision-making in government, and their use of open source software in creating more transparency and access.
- Dicussion about Washington, D.C.’s use of apps to help citizens not just access data sets, but know how to use them.
Read more at Tech Cocktail and the Center for Democracy and Technology.
The Minnesota Legislature’s website has long been considered one of the best with online access to live and archived hearings, numerous reports on the Legislative Reference libraries page (we admit to being very excited whenever the Just In alert shows up in our inbox) and lots of other resources to make it possible to follow what is happening online. What other tools would help? What about local governments around Minnesota?
As we we embrace technology as the answer to our open government concerns, we need to be mindful that there is still a digital divide, especially in Greater Minnesota. How can we better serve those on the other side of that divide?
Tags: Citizen access, democracy, Minnesota Legislature, state legislature, sxsw, Transparency