White House Open Gov Initiative Launches Final Phase

The Open Government Team, in the Office of Science and Technology Policy at the White House has announce the opening of Phase 3 to accept draft recommendations.  The final phase of the initiative was launched yesterday and runs through this Sunday, June 28.  Phase 1, Brainstorming, encouraged the sharing of idea recommendations on how to make government more open. Citizens could vote on proposed ideas or their own.  The next phase, Discussion,  encouraged participants to dig deeper on the ideas and challenges identified during the Brainstorm phase.  The goal of Phase 3, Draft, is to encourage collaboration on crafting constructive proposals to address challenges from the Discussion phase.  This is your chance to participate in drafting policies that will promote greater transparency, participation, and collaboration across government.   Federal employees as well as the general public are highly encouraged to participate in this final phase.  An informational teleconference will be held today, June 23rd,  at noon eastern to explain more about the drafting phase.

Call-in #: (800) 553-0272
Call Name: “Open Government Call”

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Dear All,

Today the Drafting Phase (Phase III) of the Open Government public consultation process begins at www.whitehouse.gov/open (click on Participate). This Drafting Phase invites you to collaborate on creating recommendations for open government policy using a web-based wiki tool. You are invited to a teleconference on Tuesday, June 23rd at noon eastern to learn more about the Drafting Phase and how it will work.

The first phase invited you to brainstorm topics for the Open Government recommendations and the second phase explored those topics in greater depth through on-line discussion. This third phase is intended to translate good ideas into specific, concrete, actionable policy. We are asking you to craft recommendations on each of the topics you identified as being of greatest importance.

The Drafting Phase begins today and runs through Sunday June 28th (at midnight). We suggest that you review the submissions from the earlier phases of this process, such as the Discussion blog, the public brainstorm, the government employee brainstorm, and From the Inbox. Incorporating earlier input, you can write your own draft recommendations, or combine and edit those of others to create a new recommendations. You can then vote on the best draft under each topic through June 30th.

We encourage you to contribute early, so other participants can build on your proposed text. Complete directions and a video tour are available on the wiki website.

Also - don’t forget to add any final comments to the weblog, where new postings on collaboration have recently gone up.

• Enhancing Online Citizen Participation Through Policy (http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/Enhancing-Online-Citizen-Participation-Through-Policy/)

• Collaboration - Achieving Better Results by Working Together (http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/Collaboration-Achieving-Better-Results-by-Working-Together/)
• Prizes as Incentives for Public-Private Partnerships (http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/Prices-as-Incentives-for-Public-Private-Partnerships/)

• Collaborative Problem Solving and Alternative Dispute Resolution (Coming soon!)

Many thanks in advance for sharing your time and thoughts with us.  Your participation is critical to this effort’s success.

The Open Government Team

www.whitehouse.gov/open

For questions, please contact Robynn Sturm at:  Robynn_K._Sturm@ostp.eop.gov