2.2: Open Government Community Outreach

Engage in opening USDA, making it more accessible and accountable to citizens

Other Information:

Open Government implies opening the agencies to the community. USDA is actively engaged in opening itself, making it more accessible and accountable to citizens. To foster accessibility, USDA recently launched its own Open Government Web site, located at http://www.usda.gov/open/. The site serves as a gateway for Department activities related to the Open Government Directive. More specifically, it boasts two different sections for citizen idea sharing. In the first of these sections, citizens can learn about and comment USDA information, including available and proposed datasets, records, reports, and other resources. The second section encourages citizens to post their own ideas about transparency, collaboration, and participation at the Department. Here, the public can submit comments or vote on other ideas to help USDA create its Open Government Plan and be more innovative and efficient. Community outreach and program education are integral to the People's Department. USDA provides training, fact sheets, and electronic information. It also hosts meetings and forums to spread the word about our mission, and inform farmers and would be farmers about the many programs and services we offer and how to access them. The Education and Outreach Web site contains information and links for these programs. In addition to providing a forum for citizen participation, USDA agencies are responsible for responding to public input received on the Open Government Web site regularly. They also must maintain and update the site it in a timely manner. To ensure accountability, USDA is working to develop ways to present and evaluate its progress. Available on the Open Government Web site, the USDA Open Government Dashboard will allow the Department to evaluate its progress in addressing USDA’s Open Government objectives. These steps are just the beginning of a new and open way of doing business at USDA. In addition to asking the public for feedback on the open government plan through the Open Government Web site, USDA employees have actively participated in the ongoing Open Government Directive Workshop Series. This series, an unpaid, transparent volunteer effort, is a partnership between the public and private sectors. Each workshop has been spearheaded by a Federal agency and publicized online at the Open Government Playbook. USDA has been invited to host the fourth workshop in the series in April 2010. The workshop will focus on identifying and addressing solutions to challenges in implementing Federal agencies' open government plans.

Objective(s):

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