We recently sent you an email regarding Open Source for America’s final “Guidelines for Open Government Plans,” which are posted at http://opensourceforamerica.org/guidelines. OSFA has submitted our suggested guidelines to the Obama Administration and will use these guidelines to help us grade federal agencies’ plans later this year.

We appreciate all the feedback we received from members to improve the draft guidelines and wanted to let you know that there is still an opportunity for you to participate in this process. The Administration has invited public comments on each agency’s open government page through March 19, 2010. We encourage all of our members to visit http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/02/23/make-your-voice-heard and provide input to the federal government on how to use technology to engage better with the American public.

Thanks again for your help and feedback in this process.

I’ve mentioned the OSFA proposed guidelines before, and I think they are pretty good. Not perfect, of course, but pretty darn good nonetheless.

Effective?

Check out OpenGov Tracker. The ideas are there, with good discussion, but I’m doubtful about the numbers. The “top ideas” all have under 100 votes. It’s a new site, sure, but I wonder if people can get enthusiastic about trying to influence the government.