NASA Helps Launch Bold New Era of Open Government

On Saturday, February 6, 2010, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration launched its Open Government Webpage at:
http://www.nasa.gov/open
In line with the Directive, the NASA Open Government Webpage serves as a portal to agency activities related to the Open Government Directive.

The portal provides an interface for users to get the latest news as it relates to open government at NASA; find ways to connect and collaborate with the agency; understand the Open Government Directive; and share ideas about how to be more transparent, participatory and collaborative. NASA's annual FOIA reports are also available on the portal in an open format. Users may access agency datasets, tools and geospatial data hosted on data.gov via this Open Government Webpage.

As part of the Open Government Directive, each agency will release an Open Government Plan. The Plan is intended to outline concrete steps NASA can take to be more collaborative, transparent and participatory. NASA is seeking input on the creation of this Plan from its employees and the public at large. The mechanism for collecting and sorting these inputs is a website where users may submit, vote, and comment on ideas. This website is publicly available at:
http://opennasa.ideascale.com
An e-mail address is also available for suggestions, along with a mailing address and phone number, posted on the Open Government Webpage. The new email address is:
opengov@nasa.gov
To ensure NASA captures and responds to ideas submitted, the agency has enlisted a team of moderators to participate in the process and facilitate dialog about this exciting opportunity, using the above tools. NASA's encourages its employees, the space community at large, and the general public to contribute their ideas on how NASA can be more transparent, participatory, and collaborative.