Federal agencies covered by the Chief Financial Officers Act have met a February 6 deadline to incorporate an online feedback mechanism into their websites, GSA has announced.
The White House issued an open government directive calling on agencies to establish websites with some sort of community forum software to allow users to post and comment on ideas. Agencies are also supposed to respond to that input.
GSA stepped in and provided a free solution – including with free support – and 23 out of 24 agencies incorporated the tool. The next deadline is in early March, when agencies are required to submit open government plans, describing how each will improve transparency and integrate public participation and collaboration into its activities.
In general, the directive calls on agencies to enact principles of transparency, participation, and collaboration, and to publish information online in an open format that can be retrieved, downloaded, indexed, and searched by commonly used web search applications, and it says they should proactively disseminate useful information rather than waiting for specific requests under FOIA.
