Two Indian Americans, brought in by President Barack Obama to the White House, have brought a cyber revolution to US Government by breaking down barriers between the federal government and the American people.
Obama’s Chief Information Officer, Vivek Kundra, 35, and his Chief Technology Officer, Aneesh Chopra, 38, have made the government accessible to US citizens directly to their desktops, laptops and i-phones in an unprecedented transparent manner; which was not visible earlier.
“The Administration was transforming the way federal government has long operated, shifting the default setting from closed, secret, and opaque to open, transparent, and participatory,” Mr. Kundra explained as White House announced about 300 new sets of data were being made online as part of its commitment to break down barriers between the government and the people.
These steps would create an unprecedented level of transparency and public participation in government.
“Through our open government efforts, we are bringing down the walls between the government and the American people, strengthening our democracy and enhancing the effectiveness and accountability of our government,” White House said in a statement.
Mr. Chopra said that “these datasets empower people by simplifying access to information that, for too long, were sitting on shelves throughout Washington.”
Each of the 24 major government departments and agencies, together with several small and independent agencies, have uploaded information to Data.gov, in accordance with the Administration’s Open Government Directive issued in December 2009.
The directive established an unprecedented standard for government agencies, insisting that they achieve key milestones in transparency, collaboration, and participation.
As part of the data published on Friday, the US Department of Transportation (DOT) was issuing information about the ease of use for child safety seats. While the safety data was already available.
Consumers would now be able to access the ratings focused on the ease of utilizing instructions, reading labels, installing the seat, and securing the child.
The Department of Health and Human Services published information that provides detailed breakdown on the volume of physician services delivers to Medicare beneficiaries and the payments for those services, which earlier cost a person $100 to acquire.
With the first stage of the Open Government Directive completed, attention turns to step two: each agency was creating a website to serve as the gateway for agency open government activities.
In addition, Mr. Chopra and Mr. Kundra would soon launch an open government dashboard to track agencies’ progress to increase transparency and public participation in their operations. The deadline for this is February 6.
