OpenGov - Open Government Brainstorm

Perhaps the answer lies in making compliance to open government easier and more automatic. In principle, the idea of open government is good, exciting even. In practice, like so much of the federal government, it ends up being a huge burden. Look at the Paperwork Reduction Act notices everywhere for a great example of a good idea that serves no apparent purpose. Or look at the amount of compliance paperwork needed for DoD contracts, etc.

Clearly we need to discuss how to make this and many other government initative that are intended to improve things, easier to implement. In this day of computers, internet, inter-operability through XML, standards setting, etc, we should be able to develop and integrate solutions that make compliance with something like this straightforward, automatic, easy.

Good ideas to make government better should not, because of the overhead of implementation, make it worse!

As a recently retired federal employee I can agree in part if not carefully implemented the costs could exceed the benefit. However this can to easily be used as an excuse not to change. Two areas need to be looked at one as the previous commenter has suggested new technologies and practices if well implemented can facilitate open government. Secondly just looking at the cost of the processing the paper work does not tell the whole story. To do this well the whole system needs to be considered, what are the outcomes to be considered and the stakeholders (taxpayers)needs and ultimately that is who we work for.