rebooting .gov

[Carl Malamud <xxxx@media.org>]

not for redistribution ... this is my 1-pager I've been circulating  
around the transition types.

Carl

Rebooting .Gov

The Government Printing Office (GPO) should be used as the basis for a  
"revolution in governmental affairs" that could achieve dramatic  
results in 100 days, transforming the way citizens interact with their  
government.  In the first 100 days, these 4 programs could be up and  
running:

1. The Washington Bridge.  Immediately hook up all federal hearing  
rooms in Washington, D.C. to the Internet to provide live, broadcast- 
quality video as bulk data.  Services such as YouTube, CNN.Com, and  
many others would process and present this information to the public.   
The service would start immediately with the executive branch, but  
would also be offered to Congress and the Judiciary as a service.

2. Open Source America's Operating System.  Immediately make available  
in bulk key GPO "products" such as the Congressional Record, Federal  
Register, U.S. Code, and many others. Create and release in bulk a  
digital collection of all federal court cases, administrative  
proceedings, and other primary legal materials.  Begin immediately  
with historical materials, and then offer ongoing service to the  
Judiciary to help them fix their PACER problems.

3. Create a .Gov Cloud.  Put several petabytes of disk and processors  
in a facility to provide immediate outsourcing capability for the  
executive branch.  For example, if an agency doesn't have access to  
instant messaging, blogging services, or video servers, this cloud  
could deploy resources quickly without an expensive procurement and  
design process. Use this "cloud computing" as a way of educating the  
agencies on a new way of conducting their computing business.

4. Go Beyond FOIA.  Submit legislation to the Congress that would  
codify the principle of bulk access to government data as a  
fundamental job of government.  This legislation would be based on the  
"8 principles of government data" that was established by a group of  
30 of the leading Internet practitioners in the field (e.g., Larry  
Lessig, Tim O'Reilly).

The 100-day push could be used to create a real transformation over 4  
years, achieving goals such as:

1. Fully digitizing all government information, including the Library  
of Congress and the National Archives.

2. Changing the interaction between government and citizens from a one- 
way stream to a two-way stream.  For example, citizens should be able  
to participate in public proceedings, helping to suggest changes to  
legislation or questions to witnesses before Congress.

3. Rebooting .Gov and making it one of the top 10 destinations on the  
Internet.

A lot of groundwork has been done already on many of these steps.  For  
example, the Washington Bridge plan was approved by the Bush  
Administration's Public Printer and the technical details were vetted  
by senior engineers from Cisco Systems, Google, and Sun Microsystems.