Engagement Commons, currently in beta, is a collaborative, dynamic, and accessible resource that both catalogs technology for civic engagement and highlights stories of real-world success. City officials and civic leaders can leverage the platform to identify, evaluate, and deploy the right apps to engage their communities. Engagement Commons is a project of Code for America and the Knight Foundation. Engagement Commons is a wiki-based, community-built resource. Contribute by adding an app or organization entry, or sharing an engagement-related story. Engagement Commons is part of the ... (continue)

Civic Commons is an effort to assist public agencies in the adoption of open systems and collaborative technologies, and to coordinate the co-creation of these technologies among agencies to ensure interoperability and shareability. Civic Commons provides infrastructure, knowledge, and toolsets to government entities, and encourages the development of shared "civic technologies" and protocols as well as supplies optional technical infrastructure (such as data and project hosting) as needed. (continue)

This guide moves beyond the traditional discussions of transparency as a means for good government, and considers the real life logistics of implementation for a federal agency, as well as the benefits that an agency may incur from developing a transparency program that fits their mission and improves their internal capacity. (continue)

AmericaSpeaks‘ newly-released report, Assessing Public Participation in an Open Government Era:  A Review of Federal Agency Plans (2011), describes and analyzes the participation activities described in Federal Agencies’ Open Government Plans.  It identifies best practices across Agencies’ public participation initiatives and recommends improvements that would increase the public’s role in shaping federal policy. The report was supported by the IBM Center for the Business of Government. Before this research, the public participation elements of Federal Agencies’ Open Government plans had not been assessed in-depth to ... (continue)

Thirty-four managers from 23 different federal agencies and departments came together on March 30-31, 2009, to develop recommendations for President Obama’s Open Government Directive. Participants in the working session shared a deep commitment to empowering the public and transforming the relationship between the American people and their government. Together, they brought to the discussion a wealth of experience in public participation, collaborative problem solving and conflict resolution. This 51-page report (2009) compiles the ideas and recommendations generated during the event. At the working meeting participants ... (continue)

This 40-page report by NCDD member Matt Leighninger was published by the IBM Center for the Business of Government. This 2011 report begins to pull back the veil on how public managers can make use of the various online engagement tactics and tools currently available to them, and when they work best. (continue)

A new article by NCDD member Pete Peterson was just posted to The American.com. In it, Pete surveys the growing number of newspaper and government websites that are engaging their readers/residents in policy decisions – from water to budgets. View the May 20, 2011 article at www.american.com/archive/2011/may/newspapers-government-2.0.  Here is the beginning… (continue)

The IBM Center for the Business of Government released this document, and John Kamensky of the IBM Center wanted NCDDers to know about it. Professors Lee and Kwak present a road map — the Open Government Implementation Model — that government agencies can follow in moving toward accomplishing the objectives of the Open Gov Directive, which emphasized transparency, public participation, and collaboration. (continue)

Three resources to help you get a sense of the kinds of legislation that can and do support citizen engagement in governance and decision-making, an NCDD listserv compilation, an amazing article by Lisa Bingham, and a 2003 global compilation by LogoLink. (continue)

The following are remixed highlights of Beth Noveck’s talk “Transparent Government” that she gave as part of the Long Now Foundation‘s Seminars about Long-Term Thinking. As with Noveck’s original talk, these highlights, as remixed by Hassan Masum and posted on August 11, 2010 here on worldchanging.com, are made available under a Creative Commons by-nc-sa 2.5 license. Noveck talks about the three pilars of the Open Government Directive:  transparency, participation and collaboration.  About deliberative democracy, she emphasizes the importance of focusing on action in addition to ... (continue)