Seattle open data policy will improve public access to city information

Seattle is the next city to follow in the footsteps of open data reforms implemented by San Francisco, New York City, the District of Columbia, and other cities. Data.Seattle.gov is planned as a Web site that will publish city data sets to be downloaded by citizens, or used by citizen programmers to build Web-based applications… »

Which candidates understand this central lesson of Katrina recovery?

Which candidates understand the lesson of Katrina recovery — that by their very nature, disasters overwhelm the capacity of government, but when government works as a partner with neighborhoods, the sum is greater than the parts?
The role of government should be to help stand up the capacity of neighborhood associations and civic efforts, and respond… »

President Obama: A “presumption of openness”

What does President Obama think about government transparency?
The three principles of transparency, participation, and collaboration form the cornerstone of an open government. Transparency promotes accountability by providing the public with information about what the Government is doing. Participation allows members of the public to contribute ideas and expertise so that their government can make policies… »

How New Orleans spends your tax dollars

Does this chart reflect your priorities?

Council Members Shelley Midura and Stacy Head hosted a budget town hall meeting last night. Among the strongest points made was that the lack of community participation in the budget process may have led to a misalignment of expenditures with respect to community priorities.
See the town hall Powerpoint… »

Upcoming City Council budget meetings

A schedule of upcoming City Council budget meetings:

Thursday, Oct. 29, 2PM – Budget Committee Meeting
Friday, Oct. 30, 10AM – Mayor presents his budget

Budget hearings begin, Nov. 6, 9:30AM: Throughout month of November, departmental budget committee hearings during day in City Council chambers.

Weekly Budget Review Sessions with Councilmembers Head & Midura:

Wednesday, November 11th, 7:00 PM, City… »

How do we live within our means without cutting essential city programs and services?

The public has been invited to City Council chambers tonight to comment on what the city’s budget priorities should be:
As you know, during the month of November the Council will undergo the harrowing process of adopting the 2010 budget, AND we are facing a nearly $68 million deficit based on the 2009 budget.
I am writing… »

A NolaStat review of the 2009 New Orleans budget process

Although not officially released yet, the October 2nd Inspector General’s report on the 2009 New Orleans budget process (previously leaked to the press) is now available to read on NolaStat.org:
Review of the Budget Process of New Orleans
Months of NolaStat policy research have produced many of the same conclusions about the city’s budget as can be… »

Barack the community organizer returns with a pledge of support

President Obama announced a community solutions agenda yesterday, naming Melody Barnes to be his new director of the Domestic Policy Council. Her mission is to travel around the country to discover great non-profit initiatives that are helping to strengthen communities.
Obama also proposed to Congress a $50 million innovation fund included in the Edward M. Kennedy… »

Complete, primary, timely, accessible, machine processable, non-discriminatory, non-proprietary, license-free

These are eight principles to follow in releasing government data, recommended by the public to inform President Obama’s Open Government Initiative.
The Open Government Brainstorm event was the first of three phases of public comment hosted by the National Academy of Public Administration to elicit suggestions for more transparent, participatory, and collaborative government.
An abridged list of… »

Blogger Wins $225,000 Settlement Over Public Records Delay

Matt Sanchez, writing for the Citizen Media Law Project:
Washington state political blogger Stefan Sharkansky won a $225,000 settlement last week from a county government that took two years to comply with his request for information. The settlement ended Sharkansky’s lawsuit against King County over officials’ improper delay in producing documents related to the state’s… »