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Open Government

Research Note: Is Your Government Open or Closed? October 2011 23 Conclusion The future of open government A recent report from Australia‟s Government 2.0 Taskforce made up of policy and technical experts and entrepreneurs from government, business, academia, and cultural institutions, asserted that leadership was one of the pillars of Government 2.0. Leadership, the taskforce said, is crucial in bringing about the cultural change required to make government more open and transparent. Bold leadership is made up of problem solving mentality and strong consensus-building skills. One of the keys is that Government 2.0 teams must come to understand their audience and market data in the same way that the private sector understands their market. When this is accomplished, they will be able to shepherd the changes that cultivate transparency, participation and collaboration that bring value to government operations and process. We look forward to March 2012 when Brazil will host the second high-level meeting of the Open Government Partnership, when the 38 additional countries that joined the partnership will endorse the declaration and release their plans toward more open societies and open economies. Many other nations have also promised to sign on to the agreement in the coming year. A further force of the OGP is that it strengthens government accountability, but not merely between OGP and a member country, but between the member country and its people -- where accountability is most desirable. Through the OGP, 46 nations are now committed to improve transparency, openness and civic engagement. As these countries create and reach their goals for openness, we may soon behold a political vista in which nations of the world are recognized as either open or closed.