The Commerce Open Government team was recently asked to assess just how well we answered the core questions of the Open Government Directive with the Open Government Plan we released earlier this month.
The table below establishes “grades” for each of the major components of our Open Government Plan and the overall result.  These grades were decided by looking at the 30 distinct questions/requirements laid out in the Directive itself and determining whether our plan fully satisfied (Green), partially satisfied (Yellow) or failed to address (Red).  You can see the full-evaluation by clicking the “Read More” link below.

Overall, we think the Commerce Department, like most other Federal Agencies tasked with responding, has partially satisfied the requirements for the Open Government plans and we're working quickly to address those parts that aren't quite there or could be better. You will notice that we have the previous and current versions on our Open Gov Web site.  We are doing this to allow public viewing of where we started leading to where we are now.  Our previous versions are under the Open Gov Plan history area.  We'll continue to make changes, as soon as they're completed, we'll put them up on this site and make sure you know about them.  Please use the feedback section to give us your comments on the plan.

While we would have liked to be green in all areas and fully satisfied every requirement for our Open Government Plan, we know the plan we publish is a living document this is version 1.1 release it has some updates to the previous version.  As we move forward we are working with all of our partners in both internal Commerce Bureaus and external partners to ensure the Commerce Plan grows and meets the public needs for information sharing.

Overall Grades for Commerce Open Government Plan

Click "Read More" below to see our complete evaluation.

The Commerce Open Government team was recently asked to assess just how well we answered the core questions of the Open Government Directive with the Open Government Plan we released earlier this month.

The table below establishes “grades” for each of the major components of our Open Government Plan and the overall result.  These grades were decided by looking at the 30 distinct questions/requirements laid out in the Directive itself and determining whether our plan fully satisfied (Green), partially satisfied (Yellow) or failed to address (Red).  You can see the full-evaluation by clicking the “Read More” link below.

Overall, we think the Commerce Department, like most other Federal Agencies tasked with responding, has partially satisfied the requirements for the Open Government plans and we're working quickly to address those parts that aren't quite there or could be better.  We'll make these changes over the next few weeks and, as soon as they're completed, we'll put them up on this site and make sure you know about them.

While we would have liked to have fully satisfied every requirement for our Open Government Plan from the start (like our friends at HHS, DOT and NASA), we also knew the plan we published on April 7 was a 1.0 release.  In the weeks ahead, we'll do everything we can to make the report we were proud to unveil earlier this month an even stronger.

Overall Grades for Commerce Open Government Plan

Click "Read More" below to see our complete evaluation.

In order to encourage transparency, participation, and collaboration in government, it is time that Commerce comes to you on some of your favorite social media and information-sharing sites. As part of the Open Government initative, you can now connect with the U.S. Department of Commerce on YouTube,  Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace .

We know that you may not be able to visit Commerce.gov/open everyday, so we wanted to provide some alternative ways for you to keep up to date with the latest news and initiatives from the Department of Commerce that ultimately affect you and your community.

While we know our new presences on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and MySpace need a bit of work (OK, our MySpace presence needs a lot of work), we wanted to let you know about them ASAP so you could share your thoughts about how to use them most effectively going forward. Have a great idea for a YouTube-based video contest or a Commerce Facebook App?  Post it in the comments section below.

Whether it is photos on Facebook, live-tweets from an event on Twitter, discussions on MySpace, or video updates from Secretary Locke on Youtube, we hope to offer a fun way to follow what's new at Commerce and join the conversation. Invite your friends on Facebook or MySpace and your followers on Twitter to join as well.

Finally, let us know by posting a comment if there are other information-sharing and social media sites that you would like to use to connect with Commerce.

Thanks for stopping by our brand new site on Open Government at the U.S. Department of Commerce, Commerce.gov/open.

This website, launched in response to the President's Open Government Directive, aims to document the U.S. Department of Commerce's efforts to become more open, participatory and collaborative in engaging U.S. citizens.

You can use it to find out about the data sets we're posting on Data.gov, learn how to make a FOIA request, or take a look at the latest draft of our Open Government Plan (coming soon!).

Most important, we want to use this site to interact with you. In addition to leaving comments on any news item on this site or e-mailing us at open@doc.gov, we also encourage you to use our citizen engagement tool, OpenCommerce.IdeaScale.com, to contribute your thoughts and ideas concerning our Open Government Plan.

With your help, we can make sure that Commerce's plan for Open Government is one of the most comprehensive and creative plans produced by a government agency.