August Interagency Open Gov Working Group

[Zarek, Corinna]

Hello!

 

The next Interagency Open Government Working Group meeting will be next Wednesday, Aug. 12 at 10 a.m. at the National Archives. This meeting will be open to civil society.

 

Open Government Working Group

Aug. 12, 2015

10 a.m.

National Archives Washington Room

 

The agenda is still developing and will be shared in advance of the meeting.

 

Please use the Special Events Entrance at 7^th and Constitution Ave, NW. That entrance does not open until 9:45 a.m. The Washington Room is one flight up to your right. If you would like to join by phone, please let me know and I will share the call-in information (with the caveat that the sound is not great in the room).

 

Hope to see some of you next week!

Cori

 

Corinna Zarek

Senior Advisor for Open Government

Office of Science and Technology Policy | The White House

202.456.6075

 

whitehouse.gov/open

@OpenGov

 

[Stephen Buckley]

Hello Cori (et al.),

I have an idea that might improve the audio that is experienced by callers-in to the OpenGov (in-person) meetings, like the one tomorrow at 10:00am at the National Archives (see prior message, below).

The problem is that, because it can be a large gathering (30-40), some attendees are sitting (and speaking) outside the range of the central speakerphone's microphone.  However, any person's cellphone can be set up as their own microphone to better pick up what he/she is saying:

1.  Before the phone-conference begins, the meeting convenor gives the call-in information to the in-person attendees.  Anyone expecting to speak during the meeting will then use their cellphone to call-in.

2.  The in-person attendees then lower the volume on their phone's speaker (i.e., what you hear) all the way to zero.

3.  Then, the in-person attendees activate their "speakerphone" function.

Voila!  Every person now has, in effect, a wireless microphone that they can place on the table in front of them, for use when it is their turn to speak.  And those people who are calling-in from outside can hear the in-person speakers much better (vs. only half of what was said at past meetings).

In addition, the meeting convenor could prevent inadvertent noise (paper-shuffling, coughing, etc.) by also asking that each in-person's phone be kept on "mute", until that person is recognized to speak (e.g., "Yes, the gentleman at the end.  Please un-mute your phone and identify yourself and your organization." -- (and after) -- "Thank you for sharing that. Please mute your phone again.")

If, for some reason, it doesn't work, then all we will have lost is a few minutes.  With all the talk of "innovation" and "risk-taking" in the practice of Open Government, it seems like something worth trying.

And hey, if it works, then we could point to it as a "best practice"!

best,

Stephen Buckley
OpenGov liaison, U.S. Chapter / International Assn. for Public Participation

collaboration engineer
Cape Cod, Mass.
508-348-9090
@OpenGovMetrics


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[Lucas Cioffi]

This is an interesting solution.  One other necessary step is that everyone who is in the room would also have to mute their phone unless they were speaking.  This will avoid feedback.

Lucas Cioffi

Charlottesville, VA

917-528-1831

[Zarek, Corinna]

Hi all,

 

This is an interesting idea. Since the meeting is tomorrow morning, it may be late for us to actually coordinate and try it this time around but we will set aside some time tomorrow to brainstorm ways we can make the meetings more open going forward.

 

Looking forward to seeing or speaking with all who can join,

Cori

[Stephen Buckley]

Hi Cori,

Lucas and I (along with callers-in from outside the D.C. area) want to discuss #OpenGov with you and the attendees at the "in-person" meeting but, based on the speaker-phone system used during the last 6 meetings, we are effectively prevented from hearing and joining in the discussion.

What I suggested needs no prior coordination.  As the "meeting convenor", you only need to offer 3 simple directions (below) at the beginning of the meeting.  (You can even make it optional for attendees, as some may prefer not to be heard outside the room.)

1.  Call the phone-conference number; punch in the special code.

2.  Lower your phone's volume to zero.

3.  Activate your phone's "speaker-phone".

Then do a sound-check for the callers-in ("testing 1-2-3, testing 1-2-3").  And, if the callers-in indicate a problem, then simply abort the experiment and fall back on the "old" (central) speaker-phone that would already be operating.

Following these steps won't get any simpler in the future.  Let's give it a shot so we can see what works, what doesn't.  (Also: it saves me $ on plane-tickets to D.C.!)

best,

Stephen Buckley
OpenGov liaison, U.S. Chapter / International Assn. for Public Participation

collaboration engineer
Cape Cod, Mass.
508-348-9090
@OpenGovMetrics

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[Alexander Howard]

Stephen,

The National Archive theater is underground and does not get good or even any cell reception, in my experience.

A much simpler way to ensure remote participants can hear questions is to make sure everyone uses microphones, which are generally available on-site.

-Alex

[Zarek, Corinna]

Hello!

 

Thanks to all who joined for the August Open Government Working Group meeting. Here is a recap:

 

Open Government Working Group

Aug. 12, 2015

10 a.m.

National Archives Washington Jefferson Room (oops – sorry about that mixup!)

 

I.                    Stand with Civil Society: Laura Schulz (Laura_A...@nsc.eop.gov) presented on the Stand With Civil Society Executive Order and initiative, meant to promote civil society inclusion around the globe. Laura specifically encouraged input on how the United States can increase citizen engagement through the upcoming third Open Government National Action Plan. Slides are attached.

II.                  DATA Act: Hudson Hollister (hudson.h...@datacoalition.org)of the Data Transparency Coalition provided a great overview of the DATA Act, the first-ever law related to open data in the financial sector. Neeraj Gupta (Neeraj...@treasury.gov), who is part of the Treasury team working on implementation, joined to share an update on progress to operationalize the law. Neeraj discussed an implementation pilot with SBA and a publication pilot to build the USASpending successor.

III.                NAP 3.0: Progress on the third National Action Plan is moving … but slowly. Many agencies have not submitted proposed commitments. If your agency was point for a commitment in the NAP 2.0, you should be sharing an expansion of that commitment for the NAP 3.0 (unless that project ceases to exist). Still seeking write-ups of other projects to highlight as well.

IV.                Improving participation: Meredith Stewart (meredith...@nara.gov) offered to lead a committee to research existing, no-cost options for meeting locations to make it easier for remote participants to attend these meetings. If you are interested in helping out or have ideas of existing government meeting space that could fit our needs (wired with microphones, holds up to 60-75 people, no cost), please reach out to her.

 

V.                  Upcoming fall events:

·         Safety Datapalooza: save the date for Sept. 30; will share a link when I can

·         DOJ FOIA workshops: the next one is Aug. 26, several more scheduled in the coming year

·         FOIA Advisory Committee meeting: Oct. 20, check this page for updates

·         Data Transparency Coalition conference: Sept. 23

·         Open Government Partnership Summit: Oct. 27-29

 

The next open meeting will be Nov. 11.

 

Thanks!

Cori

 

Corinna Zarek

Senior Advisor for Open Government

Office of Science and Technology Policy | The White House

202.456.6075

 

whitehouse.gov/open

@OpenGov

 

 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: us-open-g...@googlegroups.com [mailto:us-open-g...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Alexander Howard
Sent: Wednesday, August 12, 2015 7:36 AM
To: US Open Government

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