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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.

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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

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“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.”

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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

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“Open data: top tips on transparency for local authorities”

• This includes 6 tips…
• The 1st of which is: “Make a start… accept that it’s not as complicated as you might think. Even on a very limited budget you’ll be surprised at what can be achieved and the difference it could make to the people in your community”

“Guide: Wiki’s for Government”

“Beta: The future of government websites”

• “Launching a website in “beta” used to be a way to test functionality before releasing a more polished product for public consumption, but according to some federal technologists…”
  

“City commission adopts phone attendance provision”

• What would be beneficial about this (or would it possibly be a negative step)? Hear what some have to say…

“White House Establishes Government Accountability and Transparency Board”

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“The Network Effect: Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter & Tumblr Reach New Heights in May” (comScore)

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Open Gov Links of the Week

citizen participation, city government, collaboration, communication, engagement, government websites, improving efficiency, local government, meeting technology, Open Data, open meetings, social media, social networking, stats, transparency, wiki

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The U.S. Census Bureau recently announced the “Center of Population” for the 2010 Census.

What is the “Center of Population”? According to the Census Bureau,

The mean center of population is determined as the place where an imaginary, flat, weightless and rigid map of the United States would balance perfectly if all residents were of identical weight.

So, onto what you’re really wanting to see. Drum-roll please…

The 2010 Center of Population for the U.S. is in Texas County, Missouri (2.9 miles from Plato, MO).

Here’s the official press release about it. Click here for an interactive timeline map of previous centers of population.

Some more information about the history of the Center of Population for the U.S.:

Historically, the center of population has followed a trail that reflects the sweep of the nation’s brush stroke across America’s population canvas. The sweep reflects the settling of the frontier, waves of immigration and the migration west and south. Since 1790, the location has moved in a westerly, then a more southerly pattern. In 2000, the new center of population in Edgar Springs, Mo., was more than 1,000 miles from the first center in 1790, which was near Chestertown, Md.

Here’s the center of population for each state (the black dots on the map below). The map uses data from Census.gov from here.

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Local Government, Miscellaneous

Census, cities, counties, map, Open Data, stats

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This week’s version isn’t the shortest ever, that’s for sure. Feel free to add more links in the comments section!

• “New York Releases ‘Road Map for the Digital City’” (HT Alex Howard’s Tweet on Twitter)
  • Also see: “With a new road map, New York City aims to be the nation’s premier digital city”

• Report: “Using Online Tools to Engage – and be Engaged by –The Public” (PDF, from IBM)
  • “Deciding how best to use online tools to engage the public may be the ultimate moving target for public managers. This is not just because of the rapid development of new tools, or ‘apps,’ for engagement. The main challenges now facing government managers are understanding:
    • The increasing complexity of how people organize themselves online
    • Citizens’ evolving expectations of government”

• “3 Ways Government Could Save Time & Money if They Used Social Media”
  • “You hear it all the time: Facebook this, Twitter that, social media… blah, blah, blah. But why should government care? … Well for starters, two words: Time & money…”

• Where does the federal gov’t rank for the top choice of employers among new information technology graduates?

• “Philadelphia Must Catch Up on Open Government, Councilman Says” (GovTech.com)
  • “Philadelphia Councilman Bill Green wants the City of Brotherly Love to take a liking to open government.”

• “comScore Releases April 2011 U.S. Online Video Rankings”
  • “comScore, Inc. released data from the comScore Video Metrix service showing that 172 million U.S. Internet users watched online video content in April”
  • “81.9 percent of the U.S. Internet audience viewed online video.”
  • More data in the Press Release…

• “A Bucketful of Transparency Papers”
  • This has also been added to our Open Government Resources page.

• “Newspapers + Government: 2.0”

• “High-speed internet prices drop by 50% around the globe”




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Open Gov Links of the Week

broadband, engagement, gov 2.0, government transparency, online video stats, open government, social media, stats, transparency, video, video stats