So I've decided that Open Government is the aspect of digital civilization that I'm going to focus on--that is at least until we decide as a class what we're going to do our final project on.
As I began researching open government I noticed quickly that there seem to be two independent trends going on in the movement.
1) Different government agencies reaching out with openness initiatives, even as high up as the White House
2) People not affiliated with government theorizing about how to change our gov't system to make it more citizen oriented.
Essentially this is the question: If open government happens, is the change going to come from government employees, or will the public set the terms?
President Obama's administration seems to have done an admirable job building an openness movement within government. (Take the Open Government Initiative as an example.) After the deliberate misinformation campaigns of the previous administration I have to say that Pres. Obama's efforts so far are a breath of fresh air and in keeping with the populist theme of his 2008 campaign.
My question is whether the government will, of its own accord, go far enough?
Maybe they will. Austin Baughn helped me find this article about government and e-participation. It argues that 500,000 federal employees will reach retirement age in the near future and to the extent that they are replaced, they will be replaced with bright-eyed, social media savvy recent grads--not only of college, but of the new school of digital connectivity. A government in financial trouble needs to find creative cost cutting, but effective solutions. Perhaps this new wave of federal employees will be the link the public (and some in the government) have been waiting for.
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