I received an email today from Greg Nelson, Associate Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement. He forwarded on a message from Robynn Sturm, Assistant Deputy CTO for Open Government, encouraging our networks’ participation in the Discussion phase of the Open Government dialogue that’s going on right now on the OSTP blog at http://blog.ostp.gov/, and giving us a heads up on the soon-to-come posts about citizen participation and civic engagement, which many of you will surely want to participate in if you’re not already active in this phase.

In his email, Greg said “We’re excited about these initial phases, and want to make sure we engage as broadly as possible.”

Here is Robynn’s email:

Thank you so much for joining us on last Thursday’s call about public participation in the development of the Obama Administration’s Open Government policy. As suggested on that call, we want to provide this list with an update and invite your continued participation. The Discussion Phase is ongoing at www.whitehouse.gov/open/blog/.

At present, we are seeking input for our recommendations on transparency policy. We have discussions open for comment on:

• Transparency Principles: How do we define transparency so that we can prioritize our policymaking? (www.whitehouse.gov/blog/Discussion-Phase-Transparency-Principles/)
• Transparency Governance: How do we institutionalize transparency across all government agencies? (www.whitehouse.gov/blog/Transparency-Governance/)

Over the next 48 hours, we will also post a new request for input on:

• Transparency: Open Government Operations and
• Transparency: Data, Data.gov and Metadata

As we wrap up the transparency conversation with a final posting about information access and the Freedom of Information Act tomorrow, we want to preview what’s coming this week in the discussion about Citizen Participation and Civic Engagement. Beginning on Wednesday we’ll start conversations on Participation:

• Creating More Opportunities for Citizen Participation in Government Decision making
• Increasing Citizen Participation and Civic Education
• E-Democracy: New Tools and Technologies for Participation
• Web 2.0 Policy Framework
• Public Participation in Federal Rulemaking

We need your participation to ensure a productive conversation that informs the Administration’s policies on transparency, participation, and collaboration with your expertise and experience. Perhaps even more important, we need your help to ensure that open processes of policymaking become the norm in this Administration.

Many thanks,

Robynn Sturm, Assistant Deputy CTO for Open Government