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Idea#2438

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Making Data More Accessible »

Supply the Public With Direct Contact Information of White House Staff

Why Is This Idea Important?: Direct lines of regular, transparent communication between public officials and the public strengthens open government and builds public trust.

There needs to be transparent and accessible lines of communication between the citizenry and public officials, including White House staff. Why? Let's say a ordinary citizen had an extraordinary idea or wanted to invite public officials to an important and relevant town meeting here in Washington, DC, would he or she be able to talk to or invite them without a prior connection? Whether via e-mail or a phone number, should the American public have the right or privilege to contact all Executive Branch staff? Without transparent channels of communication between the public and public officials to overcome the 'blackhole effect' and the limitations of the White House switchboard to access available staff to talk over the phone, the federal government may remain less open than desired.

Submitted by Alexander Moll 2 years ago

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Comments (2)

  1. ricardomigrant said:

    I believe the email of every government worker - from Obama to the loacl postal worker, should be available on the net.

    2 years ago
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  2. g.marchal said:

    Well, all I can say is that I have left voice mail messages, faxes, emails and mailed packages too numerous to count since January to various government officials without a response from anyone. I certainlz feel the black hole effect that youl describe - with a lot of compassion. I know everyone is busy.

    But,perhaps it would be too much to have direct dial and email access to high ranking officials, but why could the public not have access to various assistants or interns that would have two contacts for email, phone, cell: one public and one private-internal.

    With this said, I have encountered to same blackhole effect with corporations, non-profits, libraries, you name it - it is just difficult sometimes to connect with someone when you are a stranger to them. This is not a federal government problem only, it is everywhere.

    Perhaps these other sectors would follow, if the federal government tried it first?

    Thank you for this suggestion.

    2 years ago
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