Introduction
What is “Open Government,” you may ask?
An Open Government is one that is “transparent.” In the words of President Barack Obama, it treats information maintained by the government as a “national asset” which should be disclosed rapidly, “in forms that the public can readily find and use,” while safeguarding privacy and national security. Government-supplied information can help citizens hold the public sector accountable by shining a light on government activity – whether it be detailed government spending information, the progress of key government projects, or White House visitor logs. Government data can help citizens hold the private sector accountable by providing information on private sector behavior -- such as emissions of harmful chemicals, which led to public scrutiny that drove companies to reduce these emissions by 40% over a 14-year period. Government data can spur the creation of new services that benefit the public, like new websites that enable people to track flight delays and restaurant health inspection scores – websites which sprung up rapidly after government data on these subjects was posted online. Government-supplied data can even spur the development of entire new sectors of activity, as happened with the release of government weather data (virtually all weather data comes from the government) and Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite navigation data.
An Open Government is one that is “participatory.” It is one that recognizes that a government that is disconnected from the people is one that will become increasingly ineffective over time at serving the needs of the people. It’s a government that seeks to tap into the experiences, ideas, and expertise of people across the country. In the words of the President, “Knowledge is widely dispersed in society, and public officials benefit from having access to that dispersed knowledge” – to help them stay abreast of issues facing citizens, formulate the right regulations and policies, and execute the work of government programs in a way that produces maximum benefit for the public.
An Open Government is one that is “collaborative.” It’s one that recognizes that in order to meet the challenges of the 21st century, teamwork is the order of the day. President Obama: “Collaboration actively engages Americans in the work of their government. Executive departments and agencies should use innovative tools, methods, and systems to cooperate among themselves, across all levels of government, and with nonprofit organizations, businesses, and individuals in the private sector.”
Above all, an Open Government is one that works better – a government that harnesses the principles of transparency, participatory democracy, and collaboration to produce the best possible results for the American people.
On his first day in office, President Obama issued a call for increased openness in government (http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Transparency_and_Open_Government). This led to the creation of the federal government’s Open Government Directive, issued by the White House on December 8, 2009 (http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/assets/memoranda_2010/m10-06.pdf), which, among other things, called upon each federal agency to formulate a plan for how it intended to increase and accelerate openness in its programs and operations.
This plan is the official response of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to the Open Government Directive. As you will see, we think that Open Government is a big deal – one that will be of decisive help to us and the public as we pursue our mission of advancing the health and well-being of the United States.
As you’ll see, we have proactively chosen to go significantly beyond the basic requirements of the Directive in our Open Government Plan. At the same time, we know that there is much more progress we can make on all Open Government fronts. In fact, we regard this plan merely as the beginning of a journey toward a more open HHS – and a more effective HHS. It’s a plan and course of action that we will continue to update over time as we seek to evolve how HHS operates for the better. Any and all input you can provide is more than welcome – it’s essential to our ability to advance openness at HHS and do the best job we can for the American people.
And in the spirit of Open Government and public input we’ve received on our new Open Government blog (www.hhs.gov/open), we have sought to write this document in plain English. We realize that government documents aren’t always the easiest to understand. We have therefore resolved to lead by example by attempting to make this plan a jargon-free zone. Let us know if we’ve succeeded. If you can’t understand a given section, let us know, and we’ll do our best to revise it to make it more comprehensible.
