Spotlight on Digital Media And Learning

5.25.09 | The Obama administration continues its commitment to open government through digital media via in its “historic call to action” of citizens to take part in “an unprecedented process for public engagement in policymaking,” according to a White House press release.

As he did during his campaign, Obama and his administration are delivering online content in new ways, recognizing that technology changes how and where people consume information. In this newest effort, they are using digital media to ensure that government remains transparent, participatory, and collaborative (sounds surprisingly similar to key elements of new media literacies).

“In a sea change from conventional practice,” the White House announced, “we are not asking for comments on already-finished set of draft recommendations, but are seeking fresh ideas from you early in the process of creating recommendations.”

An online, collaborative brainstorming session kicked off May 21, 2009, for suggesting ideas on open government. The session closes May 28.

Some sample questions for the brainstorming session include:

• What strategies might be employed to adopt greater use of Web 2.0 in agencies?
• What is the best way to change the culture of government to embrace collaboration?
• What performance measures are necessary to determine the effectiveness of open government policies?
• What alternative models exist to improve the quality of decision-making and increase opportunities for citizen participation?

June 3, the most compelling ideas will be fleshed out on a weblog in an open discussion. June 15, participants can contribute to a wiki to collaboratively draft recommendations. DEMOCRATIZING DATA In addition to these efforts, the federal CIO Council is creating data.gov, which will open up the workings of government by making economic, health care, environmental, and other government information available on a single website, allowing the public to access raw data and transform it in innovative ways. Data sets collected by government, such as the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP), are available in easily accessible formats for download and analysis. The site also provides rich supplemental information on the data set, such as its statistical details (sample size, methodology, nonresponse adjustment, weighting, etc.), frequency of collection, instruments, unit of analysis, and much more.  The site provides data extraction tools and various widgets to make managing the data easier. As the press release says, “The Data.gov catalog will allow the American people to find, use, and repackage data held and generated by the government, which we hope will result in citizen feedback and new ideas.” The site is unveiling a limited number of data sets but is asking for votes on which other sets it should make available.