Open Government
Open Government is a synonym for the opening of government and administration in relation to the population and the economy. This can contribute to more transparency, greater participation, to greater cooperation, greater innovation and to enhancing corporate interests. In the Anglo -Saxon world has for this development, which is characterized particularly by the Web 2.0 technologies, the term " open government " prevailed.
Open Government
Open Government is primarily used as a collective term for a number of different concepts and visions that deal with specific facet of an opening of government and administration. This includes consideration of:
- Openness and transparency ( or alpha 2.0)
- Government 2.0 - use of Web 2.0 technologies in public administration
- Participation 2.0
- Open process chains and open value chains for increased Open Innovation and Collaboration 2.0
- Opening of the capital
- Open Statecraft
- Free data: Open Data, Linked Open Data, Open Government Data and Linked Open Government Data
- Open Budget and open government data
- Open Access
- Open standards and open interfaces ( interoperability)
- Open Source Software
- Sustainability
- Fairness and responsibility
Such an opening in the age of Web 2.0, with multiple communication channels and a direct contact between the administration and citizens, the Spanish Presidency of the EU in its Granada Strategy 2010 could accelerate their transformation. A goal to strive for is therefore the establishment of an ongoing dialogue with the citizens in order to understand their needs and requirements and take them into account in decision-making. This requires an open, collaborative administrative cooperation with the population and demand transparency and openness in all their decisions and actions. This requires a cultural change in the mind, so that the public sector is an open, understandable for citizens organization, organizational change, in order to orient themselves to the new requirements and a vertical multi-channel management to exclude anyone.
In science as yet no generally accepted definition of the concept of Open Government has prevailed. Herzberg about going to look at the concept development of a " two-stage " of model. Accordingly Open Government had been understood since the 1940s, first in the sense of transparency of government action. This understanding is still important today, but will since the election victory of Barack Obama as U.S. president in 2008 Open Government increasingly understood in terms of interaction. Openness means thus interaction skills and ability to interact ultimately means learning ability. Under an open state would therefore in effect today interactional and adaptive state understood. The state must increasingly cooperate with civil society and the business community to defuse specific control and acceptance problems of today's political and administrative systems. The joint problem solving of politics, business and civil society can be described by the narrower term "open innovation", which thus become the central concept of the current implementation of open government discourse. This would include - in the sense of a follower, but clearly definable discourse - always covering issues related to renewal of democracy.
For the purpose of this second - normative - discourse level can be assumed that it is Open Government to a "political program for the redefinition of political theory and practice under the conditions of the digital networked society" is. The approach can in particular "should be understood first serious attempt to set the political and administrative systems of nation-states on the ongoing transformation of society for some time in the course of the conversion of all company systems to Internet-based communication " as the.
Benefit
- Opening of government and administration
- Citizen-oriented administrative
- Participation
- Joint cooperation
- Generation of innovations for authorities
- New division of responsibility between politics, government, business and civil society
Historical development
In times of rising system distrust, decreasing action by public debt, steadily declining voter turnout and lack of trust in public processes, it seems to be time to think about the opening of the processes and new forms of division of labor. It is therefore probably more difficult for the prognosis, politics continue in the much quoted to develop " behind closed doors " and enforce without the integration of citizens. For this opening of government and administration has in the Anglo- Saxon world, the term " open government " prevailed. Pioneer of this administrative culture change is U.S. President Barack Obama. On the day of his inauguration in January 2009, he announced the new management strategic pillars of his presidency in the Memorandum "Transparency and Open Government ":
- Government and the administration should be transparent. Transparency strengthens the sense of duty and provides information to citizens about what their government and their management currently make.
- Political participation enhances the effectiveness of government and administration and to improve the quality of their decisions by the widely dispersed knowledge of the Company is involved in the decision making.
- Open Government Collaboration | Collaboration provides innovative tools, methods and systems to accelerate the cooperation of all administrative levels and with the private sector.
These strategic guidelines to be more open, which is to strengthen democracy and increase efficiency and effectiveness in government and administration, get transparency, participation and collaboration a high priority. These requirements did not arise spontaneously, but are the result of sustained over several decades development, which took up Barack Obama because of his own conviction. In his election as U.S. president he benefited in particular from the Web 2.0 technologies, which enabled him to mobilize supporters and voters to move to a vote. To these new types of social interaction, however, only work when they are transparent (if the users are assured that they are obviously not used and useful purposes are pursued ) when they are participatory ( if users feel they can help shape ) and if they are collaboratively (if tasks can be divided so that individuals can propel a small contribution, the joint project ).
In the U.S., the UK, Australia and New Zealand national governments have recognized the potential of a networked active civil society and open government made an important pillar of its management and Domestic Policy, 2009. Openness, transparency, participation, collaboration, innovation, opening freely available data, open standards and interfaces as well as open source software characterize this cultural change, which is characterized by a new partnership with the citizens and can be built with the new trust.
Open Government and Germany
An opening of government and administration within the meaning of open government would be technically possible in Germany. E -Government, and particularly the Web 2.0 technologies are already helping with "Transparency 2.0", "Participation 2.0" and develop " Collaboration 2.0" further proven concepts for government and administration. Free information, participation, accountability and open communication characterize the Federal Republic of Germany for decades. In the meantime, can publish on the Internet management information in real time and retrieve worldwide. Portals allow the pooling and processing of distributed data sets in tables, reports, charts and maps. This selective use of information technologies, new types of information offers and processes can be generated which contribute significantly to transparency in government and administration. Web 2.0 technologies offer an enhanced participatory involvement of the population and new collaborative forms of cooperation. The economic value of data resources of the public sector is also increasingly recognized as a national asset.
Politically, an opening in the sense of open government would change the governance and manage. Simply by providing easy -to-use applications and services to the existing understanding of and dealing with transparency, participation and collaboration in politics and administration will continue to develop. Finally, many of these Web 2.0 technologies to all interested parties are already available. In addition, they are constantly being improved. Due to the intense public participation and an open information policy, public confidence in state institutions and their elected representatives can enhance and increase the power of innovation. However, an opening must be wanted by the political leaders and the politicians. Otherwise there is a danger that after the first conflict, according to verbal or physical aggression, an engagement is terminated by a word of power. Especially for politicians an opening could be associated with representation losses. They will therefore require a careful consideration, having regard to their own future role, a possible populism and the privileging of individuals who are familiar, especially when working with Web 2.0 technologies. In essence, it is about the political question to be discussed to what extent will the state and the administration to citizens, businesses and organizations open at all. An opening means not just in the technical sense more interoperability through open data, standards, interfaces and open source software. Rather, it is the administrative policy line in terms of civil and target audiences to a new division of responsibility between politics, government, business and civil society in times of empty coffers and to the design of novel, cross-organizational process and value chains based on open electronic communication systems.
For example, analyzes that use in Germany for over 30 towns and municipalities interactive collaboration platforms to actively participate through innovative participatory mechanisms citizens in the policy development process. In particular, online participatory budgeting, dialogues and consultations, while enjoying great popularity with the responsible authorities.
Since the autumn of 2011 and will address in Berlin a civil society working group Open Government Partnership Germany with preparations for a campaign to persuade the federal government to join the Open Government Partnership, an international agreement for the implementation of open government strategies worldwide.
Under the control of the project "Promotion of Open Government ", an online consultation was carried out on the draft framework paper in June 2012. All contributions to the online consultation and on the advice of the IFC were evaluated at the consultation that followed. The evaluation report, together with a documentation of all comments has been made available on the platform after the consultation in September 2012.
In October 2012, the trade group management computer science and computer science, the Department has published in law and public administration from society for computer science a memorandum to the opening of state and government ( Open Government ) in which the topic is to be developed is applied rather broad.
On February 19, 2013 GovData.de went - Data Portal live by the Federal Ministry of the Interior for federal, state and local governments in beta status for Germany (also data -deutschland.de ).