The US Census website is featuring a ”Take 10″ map that allows you to easily see national census participation rates, and also zoom in to view community level rates.  I’ve had a lot of fun playing around with it, and there could be interesting analysis done about not just response rates, but also which communities, states, or regions return forms earlier as opposed to later, or if big campaigns or publicity events will result in a surge of completed forms returned. It’s a great accountability measure for both the agency and for citizens and local leaders. The availability of this data is a win for open government, providing information and feedback to citizens about the success (or not) of the work of the census in an easy and fun way.  Furthermore, from what I’ve seen the Census Bureau has in general done a nice job of being open and connecting citizens to the Census, and making sure people understand why the data is important and what it is used for.

TechPresident also writes about the map:

It’s all rather fun, frankly, to have hard, real-time data on which places in the U.S. are meeting their civic duty, and which places might need a little push. Where this gets actually civically useful is where mayors, governors, organizers, and advocates are able see how well, on a day-to-day basis, the people they represent are complying with the 2010 Census. “The collaborative partnership with Google allows communities the ability to track how their area is responding to the once-a-decade count,” says the Census Bureau in a release. The head count is important stuff because, as you no doubt now, this census data will be used to determine everything from local hospital funding to the size of a state’s congressional delegation.

Have you returned your census form yet? How is your community’s participation rate?

While open government is obviously a very current topic, the Sunlight Foundation takes us back to look at The History of Transparency – Part 1: Opening the Channels of Information to the People in the 18th Century.

Agencies are finding it hard to follow through on open government order, reports federaltimes.com. While agencies successfully completed the first steps of the directive, there are reports that the next steps are proving more difficult – drafting open government plans.

“Agencies say they’re particularly concerned about the Obama directive’s public feedback requirement, which requires agencies to solicit and use public feedback on improving transparency and citizen participation. Many agencies say they’re concerned about rolling out technology to support this requirement, although some have already issued solicitations for Web design and social networking projects.”

Earlier this week the White House released a memo with “Guidance on the Use of Challenges and Prizes to Promote Open Government.” The memo addresses various aspects of offering prizes including why and how to offer prizes, and of course plenty of legal considerations.

Andrea DiMaio explores the definition of Government 2.0, and questions the use of common terms as means or ends. “Being open or transparent or collaborative is not necessarily an end, but a means to an end.”

What is the end then? Well, I guess it is to have a government that fulfils its mission more effectively and efficiently, providing value to its constituents and making the best possible use of available resources. The end is to be better, not necessarily to be different (although very often this will be the case).

If we start looking at government 2.0 as a toolkit that can help government become better, and possibly much better at doing what it is supposed to do, I would argue that we can would all the current and future efforts tagged as “open government” and “government 2.0” under a better light.

Clearly, as government 2.0 does enhance collaboration, participation, engagement, also the finality of government action will evolve. What government will be supposed to do in 10 or 20 years time may be quite different from what it is supposed to do today, and government 2.0 will play an important role in reshaping this.

From Nextgov: Scholars look to increase research on open government.

Indeed, it will be interesting to see a larger body of scholarly work on open government in light of the OGD, though we’ll have to wait some time to see long-term results.

Doug Beizer at Federal Computer week writes that Agency mission, not technology, should be guide for open government efforts, according to two experts.

A key to creating the plans should include identifying agencies’ top priorities, said Robynn Sturm, assistant deputy chief technology officer for open government at the White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy.

“When thinking about your open government plans, you should start with what is it that you want to achieve in the next two years and then work back[ward] from that, thinking about how an open approach might help you do so,” Sturm said today at an open government conference sponsored by GovDelivery.

……

Connecting mission priorities with open government plans is likely the only way to be successful, according to Lena Trudeau, vice president of the National Academy of Public Administration.

“You have to connect what you’re doing around the Open Government Directive to your strategic goals because that is what people in your organization really care about, and that’s what your stakeholder who engage with you on a regular basis really are passionate about,” Trudeau said.

Mark Drapeau has a great post asking Is Open Government Dangerously Digital? This is an important question to consider, as excitement and attention builds around the new technological components of open government, are we losing the human connection?

But collaboration and participation are human endeavors, not robotic ones. Building websites, inventing contests, and inviting input are necessary but not sufficient for collaboration and participation, whether inside the enterprise or with the public. Only when combined with government participation in and knowledge and understanding of communities that rely and care about their missions do these things work well over the long term, repeatedly.

A light-hearted post for your Monday, from Andrea DiMaio: Five (Not So Serious) Proposals to Make Open Government Cooler. Follow the link for more information about Open Government Idol, Open Brother, 24 (Open Edition), Open Dexter, and Open Government Olympics.