[LINK] The United States Releases its Open Government National Action Plan

[Marghanita da Cruz]

>   Among the highlights of the Plan:
> 
>     * "We the People."  The White House announced the launch of the "We the People" petition platform to give Americans a direct line to voice their concerns to the Administration via online petitions.  In addition, the Administration plans to publish the source code of the new "We the People" petition platform so that it is available to any government around the world that seeks to solicit and respond to the concerns of the public.
>     * Whistleblower Protection.  Recently, Congress nearly enacted whistleblower legislation that would eliminate loopholes in existing protections, provide protections for employees in the intelligence community, and create pilot programs to explore potential structural reforms in the remedial process.  The Administration will continue to work with Congress to enact this legislation.  But if Congress remains deadlocked, the Administration will explore options for utilizing executive branch authority to strengthen and expand whistleblower protections.
>     * Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative.  The U.S. is committing to implementing the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI).  EITI requires governments to publicly disclose their revenues from oil, gas, and mining assets, and for companies to make parallel disclosures regarding payments.  By signing onto the global standard that EITI sets, the U.S. Government can help ensure that American taxpayers are receiving every dollar due for the extraction of these valuable public resources.
> 
> Other initiatives include: expanding the use of technology to achieve greater efficiencies in Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) administration; overhaul the public participation interface on regulations.gov to help the public find, follow, and participate in Federal rulemakings; and launching ExpertNet, a platform to communicate with citizens who have expertise on a pertinent topic. There are a lot of exciting initiatives in our Plan -- too many to recount in this post -- but you can view the full plan here . 
<http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/09/20/united-states-releases-its-open-government-national-action-plan>
-- 
Marghanita da Cruz
http://ramin.com.au
Tel: 0414-869202