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Open Government[edit]

For the article of Open_government, I intend to contribute information from scholarly journals and published articles on the Content of Open Government. Sources that will be utilized in contributing to this article include: [1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6], [7], [8], [9], and [10].

Draft of the Contribution to the Open Government Article:

Content[edit]

(End of the 1st paragraph)

For good governance, transparency is a factor that can benefit governments towards greater improvement and efficient growth of their institutions and markets. Information is a necessity for a democracy to function and for citizens to have a basis of insight into what their government legislates. [1] Information is to how a democratic government and system functions, in which it is necessary for citizens to voice their opinions on matters regarding policies/bills and their political lawmakers and representatives. It enables for a sense of open government and transparency to which a government that functions for the people should be based on. Democracy being correlated with transparency presents a good governance system that employs itself for the nation and its people. [2] Democratic governments enable a sense of openness through transparency, what the people want, in order to attain greater knowledge of the inner mechanisms of a governing system and its legislative processes on specific matters that pertain to the people of the nation. With this transparent system, the citizens, especially the voters, will have a greater insight into what occurs, so they can voice their opinions more actively and effectively to gain a greater sense of value in the political realm. [3]

(End of the 3rd paragraph)

Other advocates include President Obama, who in 2009, sought out an Open Government Initiative in order to improve the trust within the United States government and " establish a system of transparency, public participation, and collaboration."[4] His strategy for transparency correlates with democratic values in how it allows for greater sight into the functions of the governmental institutions. Openness allows for more insight into the government, which gives the citizenry a greater sense to engage politically and collaborate to improve their own standing and the efficiency of the government's legislative processes. His platform of endorsing the accessibility of government data online to the public paves the way for increased transparency to governing systems and for an openness that allows the public to view and establish opinions on policies concerning themselves and their fellow voters. [5] His willingness for greater openness in governmental institutions demonstrates what we are thriving to achieve as a community: transparency for the benefit of the citizens and their concerns with the government and society as a whole. The initiative has goals of a transparent and collaborative government, in which to end secrecy in Washington, while improving effectiveness through increased communication between citizens and government officials. [6] Though there is confusion about the goals of the Open Government Initiative, there is certainty that it has been designed by the Obama administration in an effort to establish a more democratic and effective system of governing, a system that improves the openness for the sake of its citizens and their concerns with trusting the government and its secretive functions.

(End of the 5th paragraph)

The use of technology within the political realm has grown through Open Government Data (OGD), which provides for the data to be accessible in any format. Users of this data have several purposes in regards to government, technology, or other specific focuses. These include government focus, technology innovation focused, reward focused, digitizing government, problem solving, and social/public sector enterprise.[7] These focuses help expand the broad scope of Open Government Data toward furthering technological use within the government and towards more transparency within governmental institutions. Governments that enable public viewing of data can help citizens engage within the governmental sectors and "add value to that data." [5] Easily accessible data pertaining to governmental institutions and their information give way to citizens' engagement within political institutions that ensure just, democratic access for the benefit of the citizenry and the political system. "Open data can be a powerful force for public accountability—it can make existing information easier to analyze, process, and combine than ever before, allowing a new level of public scrutiny." [8] The openness of data that a governing system provides ensures a greater sense of transparency within the function of this system, to ensure that there is accountability for how this system runs.[9] Open data enables for greater openness in this government through providing information on government-related data pertaining to technology, politics, and social sectors. [10] This enables citizens to get a grasp on what the government is up to and what they are planning on implementing, opening up information to see how the government is taking account of their citizens and their concerns.

PEER REVIEW FOR OPEN GOVERNMENT:

Link Open Government Data to a source of a wiki page. I think your first paragraph should start a new section to the article on technology instead of putting it with the "Content" section. Also, use some examples from the articles we've read for our blogs to support the new technology section.

Provide a link to the Open Government strategy- what is it? It's very vague at the moment - you should expand on it.

Civic Technology[edit]

For the article of Civic_technology, I intend to contribute relevant information from reliable resources on material regarding the History of Civic Technology and on how this sector has grown tremendously over the past few years or so. Sources that will be utilized in contributing to this article include: [11], [12], [13], [14], [15], [16], [17], [18], [19], and [20].

Span of the civic technology space[edit]

(End of the 1st paragraph)

Within the Knight Foundation, they "care about ensuring that people have access to the news and information that they need to lead their lives in a democracy." [11] They seek to establish a precedent of accessibility to information and the sharing of these sources for the common benefit of the people. With this accessibility, they enable for a more transparent, open system of sharing information for the benefit of more insightful, informed users and citizens that can engage more often in political and social matters that pertain to their concerns and to their lives.

(End of the 2nd paragraph)

Social media is also becoming a growing aspect of government, towards furthering the communication between the government and its citizenry and towards greater transparency within the governmental sectors. [12] This innovation is facilitating a change towards a more progressive and open government, based on civic engagement and technology for the people. With social media as a communicating platform, it enables the government to provide information to the constituents and citizens on the legislative processes and what is occurring in the Congress, for the sake of the citizens' concerns with the government procedures.

(End of the 4th paragraph)

Microsoft's Civic Graph is guiding the developing network of civic innovators, expanding "its visualizations of funding, data usage, collaboration and even influence" [13] It is a new tool that is opening up the access to track the world of civic technology towards improving the credibility and progress of this sector. This graph will enable more opportunities for access by governmental institutions and corporations to discover these innovators and use them for progressing society towards the future of technology and civic engagement. To create an informed and insightful community, there needs to be a sense of civic engagement in this community, where there is the sharing of information through civic technology platforms and applications. [14] "Community engagement applied to public-interest technology requires that members of a community participate." [14] With communal participation in civic tech platforms, this enables more informed residents to convene in a more engaged, unified community that seeks to share information, politically and socially, for the benefit of its citizenry and their concerns.

(End of the 5th paragraph)

Technology that is designed to benefit the citizenry places the governments under pressure "to change and innovate the way in which their bureaucracies relate to citizens." [15] E-government initiatives have been established and supported in order to strengthen the democratic values of governmental institutions, which can include Transparency, along with improving the efficiency of the legislative processes to make the government more accountable and reactive to citizens' concerns. These will further civic engagement within the political spectrum for the sake of greater Direct representation and a more democratic political system.

Civic tech around the world[edit]

Technological progress is rampant throughout the nations of the world, but there are dividing efforts and adoption techniques in how rapid certain countries are progressing compared to others. [16] How countries receive their information all pertains to how devoted these nations are to integrating technology into the lives of their citizens and businesses. With greater funding and devotion to improving the accessibility to technology, nations are able to improve their structures of attaining information, for the concerns of their citizens and for overall improved businesses. Civic technology is requiring governments nowadays to wake up and realize that it is time to progress and improve for today's era of technology, that being the platforms, which enable its users to gain access to information through engaging actively within these sectors. Local and national governments are funding tens of billions of dollars towards information technology, for the sake of improving the functions and operations of this technology to work for the people and the governments. [17] With more governments attaining a grasp on these technologies, it is paving the way towards more progressive and democratic political systems, for the concerns of future society and for those of the citizens of these nations.

America

Within the political realm, the most current presidential administrations (Clinton, Bush, and Obama) have sought out initiatives to further openness of the government, through either increased use of technology in political institutions or efficient ways to further civic engagement. [18] Recently though, the Obama administration has pursued an Open Government Initiative based on principles of transparency and civic engagement.[4] This strategy has paved the way for increased governmental transparency within other nations to improve democratically for the citizens' benefit and allow for greater participation within politics from a citizen's perspective. During his run for president, Obama was "tied directly to the extensive use of social media by the campaign." [19] The furthered usage of social media by political and governmental figures has demonstrated the impact of social media and technology on the political sector and how it is transforming how policies are shaped and enacted during the times of technological growth. For governmental purposes, social media is on the rise to enhance the openness and transparent features of governmental institutions to benefit the people and their concerns. Certain technologies, including social media, have allowed for increased civic participation in forming decisions on matters attaining to the government for the sake of implementation and for increased transparency within governmental institutions. The transparency imposes a greater accountability on the government to take responsibility for initiatives that they take in order to improve efficiently and democratically.

Future of civic technology[edit]

As civic technology is "just a piece of the $25.5 billion that government spends on external information technology (IT)," it is not difficult to see how this sector will grow from here on out towards fostering more innovation in the public and private sectors and towards furthering civic engagement within these sectors and with these platforms of technology. [20]

PEER REVIEW FOR CIVIC TECH:

I think the first paragraph should be moved to "civic tech around the world" because the subsection "America" has nothing and it would be a great contribution. Explain the Open Government Initiative more. In the second paragraph, "Transparency" and "Direct representation" don't need to be capitalized. Curious to see where you plan to put your other sources.

POPVOX[edit]

POPVOX is a platform that combines legislative data with personal reactions that delivers the users' opinions to governmental officials on policies. Formed in 2010 by Rachna Choudhry and Marci Harris, POPVOX was developed as a civic engagement resource to connect the citizens and the government, with the mission to "empower effective participation, and create a transparent record that influences policy-making and fosters accountable, responsive governing." As a source to convey the constituents' opinions on legislative measures, POPVOX is able to politically engage the citizens in a rather direct way. POPVOX is a civic engaging source that enables citizens to not only feel valuable in the political spectrum, but also gain a sense of representation in regards to the policymakers, demonstrating the use of technology in its governmental applications.[21]

History[edit]

The two founders of POPVOX, Rachna Choudhry and Marci Harris, met in 2009. They realized that they both wanted to make their voices heard by lawmakers. The two bonded over how the system was broken. They began to communicate more in an effort to establish a solution to their shared problem, and eventually took their idea to Tim O’Reilly, who became their first angel investor. Afterwards, Choudhry and Harris raised additional funds from family and friends before quitting their jobs.[22] After launching the first version of the platform, they saw just how much people wanted a "transparent advocacy platform" when military families used POPVOX to ask Congress to pass a bill that would continue to provide compensation regardless of a government shutdown.[23]

Marci Harris[edit]

Marci Harris received her law degree from American University and spent years in public service working on health reform. She was working as a congressional staffer at the time she met Choudhry.[22]

Rachna Choudhry[edit]

Rachna Choudhry first studied Political Science at UCLA and then went on to get her Masters in Public Policy at Georgetown University. She worked on political campaigns prior to becoming a lobbyist, where her personal frustration grew because of how difficult it was for people to have their voices heard by lawmakers.[22]

Function[edit]

From its creation to its current state, POPVOX has grown immensely in usage and in performance. This platform "collects correspondence between constituents and their representatives on certain bills and issues, organizes the data by state, and packages the information in pie charts and maps so lawmakers can easily spot where voters stand on a proposed bill."[24] The pie charts and maps facilitate the support and opposition of bills and assist in understanding where people side on certain issues. They enable the users of POPVOX to see where people around the country and on different sides of the spectrum vote on issues they are concerned about, in an effort to assist in their own perspectives on the issue and make their voices heard in the political realm.[24]

POPVOX establishes communication between the lawmakers and their constituents for the sake of making the people's voices heard on bills concerning them. Through the tracing of real-time legislative action on Congress.gov, individuals and organizations can utilize POPVOX to follow bills and their progress in the Congress, while emphasizing their stake in the legislative processes through communicating with lawmakers in regards to these congressional processes.[25]

As it was built around expressing support or opposition to Congressional bills, POPVOX makes the goal to improve civic participation within the political realm to influence policy-making towards transparent and more effective governing.[21] Its functionality and accountability separate POPVOX from the other related transparent platforms, as it "verify constituent addresses, focus comments on specific bills pending before Congress, give our users an opportunity to simply “support” or “oppose” a bill if they don’t want to write a personal comment."[26] These enable POPVOX to improve the transparency of Congress for the benefit of voters on issues concerning them, so that their concerns are communicated directly to their representatives on specific issues/bills. This becomes more personalized and more direct in regards to communication between constituents and their representatives through Congressional Web Forms, and improves the transparency of the legislative processes within the Congress.[27]

Congressmen and women rely on their constituents' opinions that in one way or another have an effect on their policy-making and legislative strategies. It is stated that 88% of Congressional staffers have claimed that personal messages have influenced their decisions regarding policies and bills, researched in a survey by the Congressional Management Foundation.[28] This provides the foundation for POPVOX and its intent on personalizing the concerns and opinions of voters/users for the sake of creating a more transparent governance system and legislative process in the Congress. POPVOX is progressing towards enhancing the usage by lawmakers and congressional staffers/members and it appears that time has come for POPVOX to gain enough credibility for this to occur. House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) announced that House Democrats would start to use POPVOX "to feed into the official intranet for House Democratic staff."[29] This is a sign of change towards increased transparency in the government and towards furthered communication between incumbents and their constituents, so that the people know what their representatives are voting for in the Congress.

Collaborations[edit]

POPVOX has teamed up with Politix to help readers share their viewpoints on pending legislation. After readers reach the bottom of certain Politix articles, they have the option to be directed to POPVOX to learn about bills and have the unique ability to "communicate their stance on the bill directly to their elected representatives."[30]

PEER REVIEW FOR POPVOX:

Establish wiki links to Marci Harris and Rachna Choudhry, if they have one. You should also mention civic tech and open government in your lead because they are big parts of the "Progress" section. Also, mention some of its impacts in the lead too, to provide a clear overview of the entire article.

Sources that are not within the drafts currently will be utilized with the increase of my contributions to these articles.

RESPONSE TO THE PEER REVIEW:

Thank you very much Jinna for your review of my drafts of the articles thus far! Once I've completed my drafts of the articles I intend to edit, I will edit and evaluate to ensure that my drafts are relevant to the article topic and to the sources mentioned. I'll also review the training modules so I know how to link other Wikipedia articles inside of my own article. Along with these, I will make sure to post on the talk pages of the articles to make sure I am approved to edit prior to publishing. I will use your critique to my advantage and to the benefit of my editing.

  1. ^ Florini, Ann M. (2002-01-01). "INCREASING TRANSPARENCY IN GOVERNMENT". International Journal on World Peace. 19 (3): 3–37.
  2. ^ Hollyer, James R.; Rosendorff, B. Peter; Vreeland, James Raymond (2011-01-01). "Democracy and Transparency". The Journal of Politics. 73 (4): 1191–1205. doi:10.1017/s0022381611000880.
  3. ^ Kinsey, Megan A. (2004-01-01). "TRANSPARENCY IN GOVERNMENT PROCUREMENT: AN INTERNATIONAL CONSENSUS?". Public Contract Law Journal. 34 (1): 155–173.
  4. ^ a b Huijboom, Noor (March–April 2011). "Open data: an international comparison of strategies" (PDF). epracticejournal.edu. European Journal of Practice. Retrieved October 23, 2016.
  5. ^ a b Robinson, David G.; Yu, Harlan; Zeller, William P.; Felten, Edward W. (2009-01-01). "Government Data and the Invisible Hand". Rochester, NY: Social Science Research Network. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  6. ^ Pyrozhenko, Vadym (June 2–4, 2011). "Implementing Open Government: Exploring the Ideological Links between Open Government and the Free and Open Source Software Movement" (PDF). Syracuse University. Retrieved October 24, 2016.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: date format (link)
  7. ^ Davies, Tim (August 2010). "Open data, democracy and public sector reform" (PDF). Opendataimpacts.net. Oxford Internet Institute. Retrieved October 24, 2016.
  8. ^ Yu, Harlan; Robinson, David G. (2012-02-28). "The New Ambiguity of 'Open Government'". Rochester, NY: Social Science Research Network. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  9. ^ Scassa, Teresa (June 18, 2014). "Privacy and Open Government". Future Internet. Future Internet. Retrieved October 25, 2016.
  10. ^ Maier-Rabler, Ursula; Huber, Stefan (2012-01-05). ""Open": the changing relation between citizens, public administration, and political authority". JeDEM - eJournal of eDemocracy and Open Government. 3 (2): 182–191. ISSN 2075-9517.
  11. ^ "Knight Foundation". www.knightfoundation.org. Retrieved 2016-12-08.
  12. ^ Criado, J. Ignacio; Sandoval-Almazan, Rodrigo; Gil-Garcia, J. Ramon (2013-10-01). "Government innovation through social media". Government Information Quarterly. 30 (4): 319–326. doi:10.1016/j.giq.2013.10.003.
  13. ^ "Civic Graph Charts the New World of Civic Tech". www.govtech.com. Retrieved 2016-12-07.
  14. ^ a b "Knight Foundation". www.knightfoundation.org. Retrieved 2016-12-08.
  15. ^ Bonsón, Enrique; Torres, Lourdes; Royo, Sonia; Flores, Francisco (2012-04-01). "Local e-government 2.0: Social media and corporate transparency in municipalities". Government Information Quarterly. 29 (2): 123–132. doi:10.1016/j.giq.2011.10.001.
  16. ^ Corrales, Javier; Westhoff, Frank (2006-01-01). "Information Technology Adoption and Political Regimes". International Studies Quarterly. 50 (4): 911–933.
  17. ^ Montgomery, Mike. "Why Civic Tech Is The Next Big Thing". Forbes. Retrieved 2016-12-07.
  18. ^ Bertot, John Carlo (August 12, 2010). "Engaging the Public in Open Government: Social Media Technology and Policy for Government Transparency" (PDF). Researchgate.net. ResearchGate. Retrieved October 23, 2016.
  19. ^ Bertot, John Carlo; Jaeger, Paul T.; Hansen, Derek (2012-01-01). "The impact of polices on government social media usage: Issues, challenges, and recommendations". Government Information Quarterly. 29 (1): 30–40. doi:10.1016/j.giq.2011.04.004.
  20. ^ "The future of civic technology | Brookings Institution". Brookings. 2016-12-07. Retrieved 2016-12-07.
  21. ^ a b "About POPVOX - POPVOX". POPVOX. Retrieved 2016-12-06.
  22. ^ a b c McKinney, Sarah. "The Future Of Political Engagement Is Here (And It's Called POPVOX)". Forbes. Retrieved 2016-12-06.
  23. ^ "DCinfluencer/Q&A.: Start Your Search!". eds.b.ebscohost.com. Retrieved 2016-12-06.
  24. ^ a b "Start-ups aim to change lobbying: Start Your Search!". eds.b.ebscohost.com. Retrieved 2016-11-08.
  25. ^ "POPVOX: The Newest Platform for eAdvocacy". Epolitics.com. 2011-04-04. Retrieved 2016-12-06.
  26. ^ "Using POPVOX to Email Congress". heritageaction.com. Retrieved 2016-12-06.
  27. ^ "PopVox: How to advocate your cause in Congress". Socialbrite. Retrieved 2016-12-06.
  28. ^ "Frequently Asked Questions - POPVOX". POPVOX. Retrieved 2016-11-08.
  29. ^ "Start-ups aim for a more democratic lobbying system". Washington Post. Retrieved 2016-12-06.
  30. ^ "Politix Signs Two New Partners; Continues Driving Online Political Discussi...: Start Your Search!". eds.b.ebscohost.com. Retrieved 2016-11-08.
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