Open government site hasn't sprouted teeth yet, observers say

A White House Web site for tracking compliance with a 2009 open government directive is not an adequate enforcement tool yet, some open government advocates said after its launch last weekend.

The directive, issued to agencies by the Office of Management and Budget, established several tight deadlines for initiatives intended to make government more transparent, collaborative with industry and user-friendly for the public. The site Open Government Dashboard, was one such assignment due on Feb. 6. "As it stands right now, it's not much of an enforcement tool," said John Wonderlich, policy director at the Sunlight Foundation, a government accountability group. "All they've put together is this initial dashboard, which evaluates agencies on the basis of very basic criteria." "The act of starting a Web site is not something that you can meaningfully judge," Wonderlich said. "You can make a chart for the temperature in any room, [but requirements for] transparency are a bit tougher to get into a system that's measurable and calculable." The administration plans to upgrade the dashboard.