Tweet

FOIA Court Challenges Up 27% in FY 2011 (on Federal Level)

• “The recently completed 2011 fiscal year saw 378 court challenges to the withholding of information by the federal government, up 27% from the previous fiscal year, according to district court information compiled as part of the FOIA Project (http://www.foiaproject.org).”

State and Local Cloud Commission Has First Meeting

• “Nine public-sector IT executives were named Thursday, Oct. 6, as advisers to a commission of industry heavyweights that [plan to] develop recommendations for implementation of cloud computing in state and local government.” (govtech.com)

This week is National Newspaper Week.

• We’d provide you a better link but ironically, there doesn’t seem to be a more official (and updated/accurate) one to link to. So if the provided link doesn’t suffice, we’ll kindly just leave it up to you to look it up on your favorite search engine. (HT to a Daily Press article in an email blast from the Virginia Coalition for Open Government)

iPads help suburban governments go paperless, at a cost

• “Mundelein High School District 120 board members no longer wade through thick packets of memos, contracts and reports at their semimonthly meetings”
• Find out more in the article…

Tweet

Open Gov Links of the Week

communication, FOIA, freedom of information, gov 2.0, government transparency, local government, meeting productivity, newspapers, open gov, open government, transparency

Tweet

Wednesday was International Right to Know Day

• Here are some remarks from the State Department’s Maria Otero who is the Under Secretary for Democracy and Global Affairs.
• The Reporters Committee marks International Right to Know Day.

For Local News, TV Is Dominant But the Internet is Our Digital Future

• “The days of relying on a print newspaper and a television anchor telling us “the way it is” are long gone. In 2011, Americans and citizens the world over consume news on multiple screens and platforms. Increasingly, we all contribute reports ourselves, using Internet-connected smartphones.”

Community Foundations Support Public Access TV

• I have a guest post on The American Society for Public Administration’s blog.
• “From the recent earthquake to hurricanes and wildfires there certainly has been the need for residents to find out timely and useful information from their local government.”
  

Tweet

Open Gov Links of the Week

budget data, communication, FOIA, gov 2.0, government transparency, local government, local news, Open Data, open government, public access TV, public communication, public information, public relations, right to know, social media, transparency

Tweet

Transparency Advocates React to U.S. Open Government Action Plan (by techPresident)

• “President Barack Obama on Tuesday led the public unveiling of national open government action plans from the eight countries participating in the Open Government Partnership, a multilateral coalition on openness and transparency.”
• Find out what some advocates have said about it.

September 2011 Municipal Cost Index Released (by American City & County)

• Find out if the costs of goods and services purchased by local governments went up or down since last month.
  

August 2011 U.S. Online Video Rankings (by comScore)

• “comScore, Inc. … released data from the comScore Video Metrix service showing that 180 million U.S. Internet users watched online video content in August for an average of 18 hours per viewer. The total U.S. Internet audience engaged in a record 6.9 billion viewing sessions.”
• More data here…

NY Governor launches transparency website (by CivSource)

• Find out how the Governor is trying to interact more with citizens.

Tweet

Open Gov Links of the Week

citizen participation, communication, engagement, gov 2.0, government transparency, local government, online video stats, open government, public information, public relations, stats, transparency, video, video stats

Tweet

6th edition of state-by-state Open Government Guide (HT NFOIC)

• How’d your state do? How do you think it could be improved?

Social Media as a Credible News Source?

• “Still a little ooky about social media? Well, believe it or not, social media is a major element of news nowadays.”
• This talks specifically about social media, the news, and recent weather.

Perspective: 5 Tech Trends in the Elections Industry

• “Technology is dramatically transforming the election process. Election offices are challenged to keep pace through leveraging technology to increase transparency and improve communication with the public. Here are five technology trends being adopted by election offices across the country to better serve voters, candidates and the media.”

Census: State and local governments employed fewer in 2010

• “The Annual Survey of Public Employment and Payroll shows totals for state and local government full-time and part-time employment, and it details employment by government function at the national and state level.”

Survey shows people prefer using PCs, Web portals to contact agencies

Obama administration releases open government status report

• This came in after the original post. Thanks to Alex Howard for the heads up on this!

Tweet

Open Gov Links of the Week

Census, citizen participation, communication, elections, gov 2.0, government transparency, IT, open government, social media, technology, transparency

Tweet

“As Citizens Look for Hurricane Information Online, Governments Scramble to Deliver”

“3 Earthquake Takeaways for Government & Social Media”

• So what can government communications learn from the east-coast earthquake that happened on Tuesday?
• Here’s three things:
  • be where they are, be official, be fast.

“New reports on citizen participation and rulemaking offer open government guidance”

• “AmericaSpeaks released a new report, ‘Assessing Public Participation in an Open Government Era: A Review of Federal Agency Plans.’ This represents the most comprehensive review of the public participation aspects of the federal open government initiative to date.” (link in original)

“Court rules White House visitor logs subject to FOIA”

• A bunch of info in the story by The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.

“comScore Releases July 2011 U.S. Online Video Rankings”

• “comScore released data from the comScore Video Metrix service showing that 180 million U.S. Internet users watched online video content in July for an average of 18.5 hours per viewer. The total U.S. Internet audience engaged in a record 6.9 billion viewing sessions.” (emphasis added)

Which way did the August 2011 Municipal Cost Index go? Find out here!

“Working Together Towards Transparency in Local Government”

• The author “shares with us his organization’s venture at creating metrics for government websites that officials and citizens can agree on.”

Tweet

Open Gov Links of the Week

accessibility, citizen participation, collaboration, communication, engagement, FOIA, gov 2.0, government transparency, local government, online video stats, open government, public comment, public information, social media, stats, transparency, video stats