Week 10 Blog #4: Beth Noveck and "Opening" Up the Government

Beth Noveck's Ted Talk concerned her work as the White House Chief Technology Officer and leading the Obama administration's movement for an "open source" government. I found it quite amazing that when she arrived to the White House, how secretive the government was at the time and how the Obama administration attempted to open up the dialogue the government had with the general public. I found it especially reassuring that she made the claim that this "open government revolution is not about privatizing government, because many cases what it can do when we have the will to do so is to deliver more progressive and better policy than the regulations and the legislation and litigation-oriented strategies by which we make policy today".

I think this is a fabulous effort made by the American government to open up about the rationale and decision-making about executive decisions that will be made concerning not just the average citizen, but by the country as a whole. I especially appreciate how the government has divided this into two separate phases: one in which gathering information is imperative and the second is to continue the search for data through the mining of information through hackathons to allow for people to engage and participate. I thought Ms. Noveck's argument was progressive in the sense that it allows for us citizens to understand the rationale behind the decisions that the government makes and why it feels to go that way.

In a world where data has become increasingly accessible to everyone, I think Ms. Noveck highlights the role the government is playing to reinforce the ideal that the federal government is looking out for our best interests. We need to continue this open-source policy to allow for a direct and clear line of communication between the public and those serving the interests of the public. I strongly support the measures that the federal government has taken under Ms. Noveck and I hope they continue to publicize their effort in attempting to pass through policy that the general American public understands.