Obama Should Appoint a Government Transparency Officer
Last week, I attended a panel discussion hosted by the New America Foundation called "Wiki White House." The event was hosted by Google at the company's DC headquarters near the Verizon Center, and the panel members included Ellen Miller of the Sunlight Foundation and Craig Newmark of Craigslist fame.
The New America Foundation has a video of the whole discussion up; I'm going to use this post to discuss some of Miller's comments, and to provide a layman's answer to the first question asked of the panelists: how would you like to see the Obama administration use technology to improve governance?
When asked what would be on her "wishlist," Miller emphasized the need for a Chief Technology Officer, who would have the high-level access necessary to be a forceful advocate for new uses of technology. She added that this needed to happen in the first 100 days.
This struck me as something that will be a key indicator of how serious the administration is about changing government through technology. Given the size and scope of the federal bureaucracy, organizational structure is everything: if a policy area like technology does not get a specific place in that pecking order now, it will not get the attention it deserves during the rest of the term, regardless of good intentions at the White House level.
This blogger's wishlist would include not only the naming of a Chief Technology Officer, but also the creation of another post: Government Transparency Officer. The Government Transparency Officer would be a politically independent officer who would serve as an ombudsman of sorts for the American people. The position would be tasked with the following duties:
1) Operate a user-friendly website which would serve a portal for various forms of government information.
The GTO's site would provide links to major government reports, proposed laws and policies, and new Freedom of Information Act releases. Much of this information is already out there somewhere - but most citizens do not know where to look.
The "low-hanging fruit" part of this task would be creating a centralized portal, providing links directing interested citizens to the appropriate existing sources of information, like USASpending.gov (the Google-the-Government site Obama co-sponsored), or the Library of Congress' Thomas system, or the Government Printing Office. As it is now, citizens have to a) know about a site like USASpending.gov, and then b) find it online (and I would bet that even most fans of the "Google-the-Government" legislation do not know the domain name). With a centralized, heavily-publicized GTO site, every citizen would have a starting point from which to learn more about their government. Moreover, the GTO site would feature a user-friendly design geared towards helping citizens find information by topic/issue, instead of requiring that they know specific bill names/numbers or sponsors, as is the case with many government sites.
In addition to directing citizens to information which is already available on government sites, the GTO site would provide links to proposed laws and policies by issue. Take climate change, which will be one of the key issues before Congress this year. There are currently several different major proposals in Congress for fighting climate change, including the Boxer-Saunders bill, the McCain-Lieberman bill, and the Bingaman bill. But just trying to get a good idea of the key differences between the top proposals can be difficult, especially for anyone who isn't a seasoned researcher. For major issues before Congress, the GTO site would compile user-friendly charts providing the key differences between bills, and would provide links for further information the proposals.
Finally, the site would include a central registry of Freedom Of Information Act releases, ideally a searchable database which citizens could sort by agency, topic, or date. Some agencies, like the FBI, already have an electronic reading room which allows citizens to view its most-requested documents. What if there was a central electronic reading room where citizens could view recent FOIA releases from the entire federal government?
After the Wiki White House event, I mentioned this idea to Ellen Miller, and she replied that there had been a push from open government groups to get the federal government to release an ongoing list of FOIA releases by agency. If the government did not agree to release a registry, the GTO could just create its own - asking successful FOIA requesters to send in copies of the documents they receive, along with a notarized statement swearing to the documents' legitimacy, and the GTO would then contact the respective agency to confirm that the documents were indeed released.
2) Serve as an ombudsman who would advocate on behalf of citizens' access to information.
In addition to providing citizens with information, the Government Transparency Officer would serve as a representative of the American people on transparency issues. He or she would publicly weigh in on proposals which impact transparency, by testifying before Congress and/or making media appearances advocating new transparency laws along the lines of the Google-the-Government bill. And if the administration or Congress violated transparency laws, or conducted operations in an unduly secretive manner, the GTO would push back, privately and publicly. Citizens could contact the GTO with transparency questions, and potentially bring to his/her attention issues which warrant action by the officer.
In summary, appointing a Government Transparency Officer would send a strong signal that the Obama administration is serious about changing Washington. The GTO's information portal would bring Washington up to speed with the rest of the internet, giving citizens more access to government information, and just as importantly, easier access to government information, than ever before. As James Madison once wrote (emphasis added): "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."
The GTO's ombudsman role would help keep the rest of the federal government in compliance with transparency laws, and it would mean that there was always someone advocating for greater transparency when the administration and/or Congress make new policy. Moreover, giving citizens a transparency ombudsman to file complaints with would be a step towards restoring Americans' faith in government.
Finally, creating a visible, high-ranking Government Transparency Officer post would have a normative effect, reminding American citizens that our democratic system is supposed to be operated in an open, transparent manner. As I noted in a recent summary of the President-Elect's legislative record, improving transparency was arguably the unifying theme of his career in the Illinois State Senate. By creating a high-level post tasked with promoting and defending government transparency, President Obama would build on that record and make a lasting improvement to the operations of the federal government.
UPDATED 3/16/2009:
I meant to update this post back in January, but forgot to. Ellen Miller of the Sunlight Foundation mentioned my proposal in a post on the group's blog on January 21, 2009. Thanks to Ellen for the link/discussion of the GTO proposal, and more importantly, for all the great work with the Sunlight Foundation.
The New America Foundation has a video of the whole discussion up; I'm going to use this post to discuss some of Miller's comments, and to provide a layman's answer to the first question asked of the panelists: how would you like to see the Obama administration use technology to improve governance?
When asked what would be on her "wishlist," Miller emphasized the need for a Chief Technology Officer, who would have the high-level access necessary to be a forceful advocate for new uses of technology. She added that this needed to happen in the first 100 days.
This struck me as something that will be a key indicator of how serious the administration is about changing government through technology. Given the size and scope of the federal bureaucracy, organizational structure is everything: if a policy area like technology does not get a specific place in that pecking order now, it will not get the attention it deserves during the rest of the term, regardless of good intentions at the White House level.
This blogger's wishlist would include not only the naming of a Chief Technology Officer, but also the creation of another post: Government Transparency Officer. The Government Transparency Officer would be a politically independent officer who would serve as an ombudsman of sorts for the American people. The position would be tasked with the following duties:
1) Operate a user-friendly website which would serve a portal for various forms of government information.
The GTO's site would provide links to major government reports, proposed laws and policies, and new Freedom of Information Act releases. Much of this information is already out there somewhere - but most citizens do not know where to look.
The "low-hanging fruit" part of this task would be creating a centralized portal, providing links directing interested citizens to the appropriate existing sources of information, like USASpending.gov (the Google-the-Government site Obama co-sponsored), or the Library of Congress' Thomas system, or the Government Printing Office. As it is now, citizens have to a) know about a site like USASpending.gov, and then b) find it online (and I would bet that even most fans of the "Google-the-Government" legislation do not know the domain name). With a centralized, heavily-publicized GTO site, every citizen would have a starting point from which to learn more about their government. Moreover, the GTO site would feature a user-friendly design geared towards helping citizens find information by topic/issue, instead of requiring that they know specific bill names/numbers or sponsors, as is the case with many government sites.
In addition to directing citizens to information which is already available on government sites, the GTO site would provide links to proposed laws and policies by issue. Take climate change, which will be one of the key issues before Congress this year. There are currently several different major proposals in Congress for fighting climate change, including the Boxer-Saunders bill, the McCain-Lieberman bill, and the Bingaman bill. But just trying to get a good idea of the key differences between the top proposals can be difficult, especially for anyone who isn't a seasoned researcher. For major issues before Congress, the GTO site would compile user-friendly charts providing the key differences between bills, and would provide links for further information the proposals.
Finally, the site would include a central registry of Freedom Of Information Act releases, ideally a searchable database which citizens could sort by agency, topic, or date. Some agencies, like the FBI, already have an electronic reading room which allows citizens to view its most-requested documents. What if there was a central electronic reading room where citizens could view recent FOIA releases from the entire federal government?
After the Wiki White House event, I mentioned this idea to Ellen Miller, and she replied that there had been a push from open government groups to get the federal government to release an ongoing list of FOIA releases by agency. If the government did not agree to release a registry, the GTO could just create its own - asking successful FOIA requesters to send in copies of the documents they receive, along with a notarized statement swearing to the documents' legitimacy, and the GTO would then contact the respective agency to confirm that the documents were indeed released.
2) Serve as an ombudsman who would advocate on behalf of citizens' access to information.
In addition to providing citizens with information, the Government Transparency Officer would serve as a representative of the American people on transparency issues. He or she would publicly weigh in on proposals which impact transparency, by testifying before Congress and/or making media appearances advocating new transparency laws along the lines of the Google-the-Government bill. And if the administration or Congress violated transparency laws, or conducted operations in an unduly secretive manner, the GTO would push back, privately and publicly. Citizens could contact the GTO with transparency questions, and potentially bring to his/her attention issues which warrant action by the officer.
In summary, appointing a Government Transparency Officer would send a strong signal that the Obama administration is serious about changing Washington. The GTO's information portal would bring Washington up to speed with the rest of the internet, giving citizens more access to government information, and just as importantly, easier access to government information, than ever before. As James Madison once wrote (emphasis added): "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."
The GTO's ombudsman role would help keep the rest of the federal government in compliance with transparency laws, and it would mean that there was always someone advocating for greater transparency when the administration and/or Congress make new policy. Moreover, giving citizens a transparency ombudsman to file complaints with would be a step towards restoring Americans' faith in government.
Finally, creating a visible, high-ranking Government Transparency Officer post would have a normative effect, reminding American citizens that our democratic system is supposed to be operated in an open, transparent manner. As I noted in a recent summary of the President-Elect's legislative record, improving transparency was arguably the unifying theme of his career in the Illinois State Senate. By creating a high-level post tasked with promoting and defending government transparency, President Obama would build on that record and make a lasting improvement to the operations of the federal government.
UPDATED 3/16/2009:
I meant to update this post back in January, but forgot to. Ellen Miller of the Sunlight Foundation mentioned my proposal in a post on the group's blog on January 21, 2009. Thanks to Ellen for the link/discussion of the GTO proposal, and more importantly, for all the great work with the Sunlight Foundation.
posted at 12:22:00 PM | permalink
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