IfG.CC - The Institute for eGovernment

Clint Randall, Healthy Communities coordinator for the PCPC, explained in an interview with Government Technology that while traditional public forums generate some detailed feedback, it’s typically from a limited number of constituents.

“Customarily speaking, the primary tool for outreach is simply to hold public meetings, but there are clear limitations to that,” he said.

People are drawn to cities because of the wide array of opportunities they offer, from employment to education to culture. The vast majority of Americans, approximately 84%, already live in urban areas and, before COVID-19, that percentage was expected to stretch to 89% by 2050.

But with the pressure points of current urban design painfully exposed during the pandemic and recent protests for racial justice, cities will need to transform into more livable, sustainable and affordable environments. If leaders want to build more equitable and just cities, an Urbanova/Gallup study reaffirms they will have to do one thing first: listen.

Coglianese, the director of the Penn Program on Regulation, studied the topic and concluded, "Contrary to prevailing predictions, empirical research shows that e-rulemaking makes little difference: citizen input remains typically sparse."

Apps42, Ltd. announced the release of CongressVotes, the first app in its Government Transparency Series. CongressVotes is designed as the go-to resource for involved citizens as well as legislators, legislative staff, and lobbyists on Capitol Hill. Updated four times a day, this feature-rich app combines a directory of lawmakers, all legislation, and voting records with title keyword searches for the 111th U.S. Congress. An automatic upgrade to CongressVotes 112th edition in January will keep users current throughout the election and the next term.

The county‚ on its Web site‚ www.montcopa.org‚ asks residents to complete a citizen survey and state how they think the county should improve citizen access to government information and services.

Just exactly how open and transparent has the government been? The annual Secrecy Report Card, compiled by OpenTheGovernment.org, was just released. Patrice McDermott, president of the website, joined Chris Dorobek on The Dorobek Insider and she says the Secrecy reports have come a long way since they were first issued during the Bush Administration.

"The number of newly classified documents dropped by 10% from (fiscal year) 2008 to 2009," McDermott says, "which I think is pretty significant. It means that the government is creating fewer new secrets than it had been. The fewer secrets that they create now, the fewer things that need to be declassified later."

The Public-i webcasting service has been selected to form the basis of eParticipate, an 18 month European wide validation project, it was announced on 22 April 2005.