Open Government Overview

From Open Government
to Online Engagement:
Lessons Learned

Andrew Krzmarzick
GovLoop
Director of Community Engagement

Our Time Together

1. Overview of GovLoop

2. Evolution of Open Government

3. Social Media Trends

4. Online Engagement: Lessons Learned

• 14 years raising money and
awareness for non-profits,
educational institutions and social
businesses
• Generated over $100 million through
proposals, fundraising and marketing
• Design and deliver presentations on
social media, generational diversity,
telework, and social learning
• Built first-of-its-kind, government-
wide mentors program in the U.S.
Andrew Krzmarzick
• Manage a team of 15 full-time and
LinkedIn.com/in/andrewkrzmarzick
part-time employees to deploy a
comprehensive digital engagement @krazykriz
strategy

Online community of
government colleagues
helping each other
to do their jobs better.

Mission: “Connect government to improve government”

Evolution
Passionate Federal Full-Time
Employee Committed Volunteers Team = 4

JUN 2008: JAN 2009: JUN 2009: SEP 2009: JUL 2010:
GovLoop Community 10,000 20,000 Next Gen Gov
Launched Leaders Members Members Event in DC

SEP 2010: MAR 2011: SEP 2011: Jul 2012: SEP 2012:
40,000 Mentors 50,000 Next Gen = 60,000
Members Program Members 600+ Members

20+ Corporate Sub-Communities, Podcast, Team = 14
Partners Guides

Member Overview
Top 10 Agencies on GovLoop
1.Dept. of Defense
2.Dept. of Health & Human Services
3.Dept. of Agriculture
4.Dept. of Veterans Affairs
5.Dept. of Homeland Security
6.General Services Admin.
7.Dept. of Commerce
8.Environmental Protection Agency
9.Dept. of Transportation
10. Dept. of Labor
Total # of Agencies: 37

“Knowledge Network”

Vehicles: Value:
• Blogs •Share and find best practices
• Forums
•Get questions answered quickly
• Groups
•Solve problems faster
• Events
• Guides •Learn from peers and experts

• Podcasts
• Webinars

“Knowledge
Network”

1. Learn from each other online.


2. Learn from each other in person.

“Knowledge
Network”

3. Learn from each other one-on-one.


4. Learn from experts via webinars.


5. Learn from experts via podcasts.


6. Learn from experts / each other via guides.


Partners With:
With

7. Teach citizens that government works.


Questions?

Historic Change?

"Liberty cannot be
preserved without
a general
knowledge among
the people, who
have a right and
a desire to know.”

President Obama: Day 2

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/TransparencyandOpenGovernment

January 21, 2009

“Nondisclosure should never be
based on an effort to protect the
interest of Government officials at
the expense of those they are
supposed to serve.”

“All agencies should adopt a
presumption in favor of
disclosure….”

Presume openness;
disclose affirmatively;
and modernize.

http://www.justice.gov/ag/foia-memo-march2009.pdf

March 2010

http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/assets/memoranda_2010/m10-11.pdf

300+ to date

September 2011
• disclosed more information
under the Freedom of
Information Act.
• devised ambitious Open Government
Plans to increase opportunities for
public engagement
• made voluminous information newly
available on government websites.
• shined more light on federal spending.
• taken steps to provide more disclosure
of sensitive government information.
• used technology in many innovative
ways that make information useful to
citizens in their everyday lives.


Freedom of Information
• Agencies made full disclosures—i.e., un-
redacted disclosure of all requested information—
for nearly 56% of all FOIA requests where
responsive records were processed.
• constitutes more than a 6% increase over the
previous year from October 2008 through
September 2009.

• marks the first increase in full FOIA disclosures in the past
ten years.
• Taking partial and full disclosures together, agencies made
disclosures in 93-94%% of all processed FOIA requests over
the last fiscal year.


Freedom of Information
• Over the past fiscal year, the ninety-seven
agencies subject to the FOIA together invoked
FOIA exemptions less than in the previous year.
In fact, the invocation of FOIA exemptions
dropped by nearly 54,000 over the past
year, more than a 10% reduction.
• agencies overall processed more requests than they received
this past fiscal year…also increased the number of FOIA requests they
processed as compared with last fiscal year
• reduced their backlogs of pending FOIA requests over the
past fiscal year. The ninety-seven agencies across the government
that are subject to FOIA collectively reduced their backlogs by 10.1%.


Digital Government Strategy

March 2012
http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/memoranda/2012/m-12-18.pdf

Digital Government

http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/memoranda/2012/m-12-18.pdf

Digital Government

http://www.state.gov/digitalstrategy/

Digital Government

http://www.gsa.gov/portal/content/142785

Digital Government

http://www.howto.gov

Digital Government

http://www.apps.gov/

Open Innovation: Leading Practices

• Allows vets to access and download • compares different plans
information from My HealtheVet into
simple text file or PDF • shows information that has
• Gives control without special software never been made public
• Enables sharing with health care
providers, caregivers, or people you trust.

Open Innovation: Leading Practices

8 Lessons from Open Gov in the U.S.
1. Nail down policy first.
2. Remove legal hurdles.
3. Give clear directions and deadlines.
4. Assign agency champions.
5. Provide tools and resources.
6. Hold agencies accountable, report on progress.
7. Use peer pressure via comparison.
8.Highlight leading practices.

Open Government: Global Impact

Sep 2011

http://www.opengovpartnership.org/

• Launched on September 20, 2011, with 8
founding governments (Brazil, Indonesia,
Mexico, Norway, Philippines, South Africa, UK, US)
• aims to secure concrete commitments from
governments to promote transparency,
empower citizens, fight corruption, and
harness new technologies to strengthen
governance.
• overseen by a steering committee of
governments and civil society organizations.
Participating countries must:
• embrace a high-level Open Government Declaration;
• deliver a country action plan developed with public
consultation; and
• commit to independent reporting on their progress.


Open Government: Israeli Impact


Open Government: Local Impact

Dec 2010

Open Government: Local Impact

OpenGovernmentInitiative.org/

5 Mega Trends
with Social Media
and Government*

*Source: http://www.businessesgrow.com/2011/04/04/five-mega-trends-how-social-media-is-transforming-government/ç

1. The cry for transparency

“This is a terrible time to be a control freak”
– Hillary Clinton, U.S. Secretary of State

•broad recognition that government information belongs to the people
•technology is enabling a new wave of sharing
•Best practice: U.S. Government Printing Office site
o volumes of documents now available at visitor finger tips


2. Citizen engagement

“The opportunity of social media and government is not
economic or technological. It’s emotional.”
— Aneesh Chopra, Former CTO of the U.S. Government

•Challenge.gov rewards citizens with cash prizes for solving government
problems
•Crowd-sourced budgeting processes
•NASA has a range of programs encouraging active participation in
agency project – customize your own NASA project page


3. Humanizing government
“Social media is not a second website,
it’s a community.”
— Tristram Perry, U.S. State Department

•people are people, brands are building an emotional connection
•citizens are expecting government to do the same
•City of Reno poked fun with YouTube videos, crooked Christmas tree.
•U.S. Embassy, Jakarta = more Facebook fans than all embassies combined:
o Spark discussion and give people a reason to belong.
o Customize your information for your audience.
o Develop unique, engaging content.
o Post regularly.
o Set goals and reassess them periodically.


4. Crisis management


5. Real-time response (and mobile)

•in private sector, there are many case studies about companies using social
media as an effective tool to solve problems in real-time
•these practices are being adopted by state and city (and federal) governments.
•with a tweet or text (or an app) — potholes, broken street lights and other
issues are being reported and fixed.
•311-Twitter service in San Franciso, for example, has answered over 7 million
calls and thousands of more requests online.

Why wouldn’t citizens expect national
governments to do the same?


Leading Practice: Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs


Anatomy of a Fantastic Facebook Page
1. Human voice
2. Effective use of photos
3. Relevant, local information
4. Diverse information
5. Blend of fun and serious
6. Frequent posting
7. Open forum


4 Lessons for Open
Online Engagement
from

1. Engagement is Not Easy
• It’s REALLY hard, but…
• There’s a methodology and rigor

Integration with traditional
communication =
key to driving real results

2. Email is Not Dead
1 6
4

7

2 5

8
3
9

If Twitter was a country

Population: 140 million
It would be bigger than Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan

If Facebook was a country

Population: 1 billion active users
It would be the world’s 3rd largest country
Bigger than North and South America combined

If Email Was a Country

It Covers Continents
It would be an empire: 2.9 Billion users

Anatomy of a “Social” Newsletter
1 6
4

7

2 5

8
3
9

3. Aim for an Integrated Approach

4. You Don’t Have to Do It All

Test => Learn => Iterate

Recommended Resource

http://www.slideshare.net/alexgrech/open-government-and-social-media

Andrew@GovLoop.com
LinkedIn.com/in/AndrewKrzmarzick
202-352-1806
@krazykriz

Open Government Overview

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