The Dawn of Open Government.
Governments are increasingly open and transparent in revealing the way that their citizen’s tax dollars are being spent. The Open Government movement has become simplified now that there are digital channels that can be easily updated and published.
Here is a short list of how Governments are trying to give the citizen’s better access to the spending patterns and to engage them in an open dialogue.
Canada: http://open.canada.ca/en
US: https://www.whitehouse.gov/open
UK: http://www.opengovernment.org.uk/
Australia: https://www.opengovpartnership.org/country/australia
Europe: https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/open-government
So how does the increased access to massive amounts of Government data affect the Citizen’s Experience? There are obvious information architecture implications, as IA specialist must create a site structure and taxonomy to support all of this information. Direct search does help, but unless you know exactly what you’re looking for, this approach may not work for those more familiar with the browsing and surfing process. Navigating through categories and topics may be a better way to find the item you are looking for.
On the citizen’s side they may feel somewhat comforted to be able to see what programs and services are getting funded (or not), but for the more cynical there will always be the suspicion that much of the spending is being mis-applied or hidden. Sifting through too much information can be as challenging as dealing with too little information. Sometimes it can feel as if you’re looking for a needle in a needle stack.
The Twitterverse has been lighting up recently with almost too much insight into the workings of President Trump’s thought processes. Never before has an average citizen had this much access and insight (for good or bad) into the unfiltered thoughts running through a world leader’s mind. An off-hand remark can be broadcast, recorded forever, and reacted on in real time, and can create a mind-boggling cascading effect causing billions to disappear from stock markets almost instantly.
At the very least, the democratization of data allows the citizen to be part of the conversation. Citizens now have an early warning of what the government is planning and can react accordingly.
Article and Photo by: Jonathan Rath
