Platform for a Transparent Government

In the wake of hurricanes Katrina and Rita, just like so many stunned Louisianans, I found myself frustrated and eager to do something positive. Working in Seattle at the time, my first instinct was to focus on my expertise in technology and public relations.

The aftermath of these natural disasters posed a unique opportunity: to chart a new course in governance by embracing total transparency. With Louisiana's colorful political history, and estimates of Federal relief dollars in the billions, the timing was perfect to evangelize complete visibility into government spending. As Web Editor with TDWI, the world’s premier educational institute for information management, I could speak with authority in laying out the framework for such a revolutionary system.

A series of three editorials was published, the first two on our own site, the third in a quarterly journal dedicated to government practitioners. A massive PR campaign simultaneously kicked off, in which each editorial was pushed out via email to thousands of media people, bloggers, analysts and other concerned citizens.

Behold the results!

Article I

September 11, 2005
An 'Intelligent' Recipe for the Successful Rebirth of New Orleans
(http://www.tdwi.org/katrina)

This editorial generated significant good will in the form of numerous people and organizations who offered support. Here’s one example of publicity generated:

Tuesday, September 13, 2005
An 'intelligent' plan for New Orleans' rebirth
(http://www.nola.com/weblogs/print.ssf?/mtlogs/nola_bstdiaries/archives/print079388.html)

Article II

Soon thereafter, we published a more detailed follow-up piece:

September 25, 2005
Visibility: Seeing Is Believing in Government as in Business
(http://www.tdwi.org/visibility)

That editorial secured massive traction among Washington insiders, the media and bloggers alike, as evidenced here by Mark Tapscott, then a director at the highly respected Heritage Foundation, one of the most prominent Think Tanks inside the Beltway:

September 27, 2005
Banks Give Their Customers Their Monthly Statements and Cancelled Checks Online. Why Can’t the Federal Government Do It For Taxpayers, Too?
(http://tapscottscopydesk.blogspot.com/2005/09/banks-give-customers-their-monthly.html)

And the Washington Post (scroll down near end of article):

September 28, 2005
Operation Offset: Best Way to Pay for Rebuilding the Gulf Coast?
(http://blog.washingtonpost.com/thedebate/2005/09/operation_offse.html)

Article III

The Editor of a government quarterly, The Public Manager, requested a follow-up piece, which was published in print and online.

March 22, 2006
Citizen Auditors: Web-Enabled, Open-Source Government
(http://thepublicmanager.com/articles/docs/TPM_Kavanagh.pdf)

That article set off significant additional publicity. It was again referenced by the Heritage Foundation’s Tapscott here:

June 21, 2006
Does This Phrase Excite You? 'Citizen Auditors: Web-Enabled, Open-Source Government'
(http://tapscottscopydesk.blogspot.com/2006/06/does-this-phrase-excite-you-citizen.html)

It hit the Blogosphere here:

June 7, 2006
Team Work
(http://minimediaguy.org/2006/06/team_work.php)

It was listed on the Missouri Secretary of State's resource portal here:

June 2006
http://www.sos.mo.gov/library/reference/infotogo/?docID=info200606

It was also referenced here:

June 23, 2006
BELTWAY BLOGROLL: Friday Festival Of Blog Bits
(http://beltwayblogroll.nationaljournal.com/archives/2006/06/friday_festival_10.php)

And even made Amazon.com!

The Power of Ideas

Shortly after publishing the first editorial, I contacted several of TDWI’s stalwart sponsors, including billion-dollar software giants and top-notch consulting firms. The idea was to assemble a volunteer initiative to create an online performance dashboard that would: a) show where federal relief dollars were being spent; and b) showcase the latest data-related technologies and services, as provided by those sponsors.

The response was overwhelmingly positive. Offers were quickly presented to donate the necessary licenses, hardware and man-hours to create such a solution. The campaign was dubbed Project Visibility. The only missing component was the data. Despite such strong commitments from these organizations, and numerous attempts to secure the relevant information from federal authorities, Project Visibility itself stalled for want of data.

As fate would have it, however, the spark of this transparency idea had already ignited deep inside the bowels of our government. On April 6, 2006, Senators Tom Coburn and Barack Obama introduced S. 2590. Shortly thereafter, Tapscott testified before the United States Congress:

July 18, 2006
How to Create 10,000 Citizen Auditors
(http://tapscottscopydesk.blogspot.com/2006/07/how-to-create-10000-citizen-auditors.html)

The Coburn-Obama bill passed the Senate unanimously on September 7, 2006, and then passed in the House less than one week later, on September 13, 2006. Just less than two weeks after that, President George W. Bush signed into law the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006!

Success! President Signs Transparency Bill!

And here’s a quote from Senator Coburn:

“The group that deserves credit for passing this bill, however, is not Congress, but the army of bloggers and concerned citizens who told Congress that transparency is a just demand for all citizens, not a special privilege for political insiders,” said the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.).

• Eliminate Wasteful Spending by empowering everyone with access to the internet to begin reviewing federal grants and other forms of taxpayer assistance for waste, fraud, and abuse;
• Ensure Compliance with Federal Law by requiring grantees to also disclose their subgrantees, and
• Ensure Compliance with Lobbying Restrictions by identifying entities receiving federal grants that would be subject to lobbying restrictions in existing law.

Transparency Is a Process

The work is never done. The key now is to ensure that this database provides user-friendly analytical functionality to facilitate the process of citizen auditing. To that end, the PR campaign continues. Here's an excellent article on another highly influential government-focused media site:

September 7, 2006
Turks, Tribes and Trouble
(http://www.govtech.net/magazine/story.php?id=100913)

We also published this editorial, just over one year after the initial call for transparency:

October 4, 2006
BI for the Masses? President Signs Transparency Bill
(http://www.tdwi.org/News/display.aspx?id=8142)

And we secured a tremendous piece of publicity in yet another highly influential media outlet that serves and covers Congress, called Congressional Quarterly. This article, by Executive Editor Mike Mills, really hits the nail on its head:

October 9, 2006
The Futurist: Rise of the Citizen Auditor
(http://public.cq.com/public/20061009_futurist.html)

Now, let's create such a system for Louisiana!