I thought it might be valuable to provide a quick update regarding my ongoing work on Open Government. As you may be aware, Open Government is one of the four ‘pillars’ to the Corporate Technology Strategy which will be coming to Council in September as I understand.
I’m sure you have all come across the term Open Government as it is now quite commonly used, however, it is not always adequately defined. In an attempt to decode this concept and in relation to a strategic initiative identified in the 2012 CSP, I am currently developing an Open Government Framework for the City.
In general terms, the framework will provide information related to concepts such as open data, open source standards/procurement, proactive information disclosure, knowledge sharing, innovation partnerships and crowdsourcing. I will also provide examples of successful Open Gov initiatives led by other public sector agencies along with a high level roadmap for Guelph. In order to ensure a successful and fully sustainable program there will be a need to develop an Open Government Strategy and associated work plan. Along with the identification of both short and long term objectives as well as support requirements, this plan will also make connections to work currently underway within the organization such as the Corporate Technology Strategy, Citizen Engagement Framework and Community Well Being Plan.
The Open Government Framework will be brought forward for your consideration prior to the end of 2012. I look forward to collaborating with all of you in order to move forward this interesting and important work. Staff