Government - Written Friday, May 21, 2010 by Thomas Gegenhuber - 7 Comments

Successful approaches to open government

The market for tools that are used for Open Government Initiatives is still nascent. But the Open Government Initiative of the White House reinforces the trend towards more openness in the World. Microsoft’s release of “Town Hall” is also an indicator that the field of Open Government is growing significantly. I had a look at recent Open Government Initiatives of the White House, Microsoft’s “TownHall,” and the City of Manor’s Manorlabs.

There are four lessons which one can draw from looking at these early initiatives: First, using Facebook applications (and other public platforms) to harness the ideas of the crowd is more user-friendly than having to log in on a proprietary site. Second, communities and tools that increase the “glory” of participants by attaining badges or reputations points lead to a higher intrinsic motivation of participants. Third, limited voting might ensure that voting is scarce resource and that people think more carefully about using it. Fourth, the size does not matter. Like in the case of Freiburg’s participatory budget model, a small town like Manor can also serve as a role model for open government initiatives. Continue…