Chris Quigley, founder of U.K.-based e-communications firm Delib, set out to find the answer.
Quigley, who works with U.K. and U.S. accounts and has an "outside-insider" point-of-view, posted an online documentary and series of interviews including different viewpoints regarding the first 12 months of the Open Government initiative. Check out interviews from people like the Director of the White House Open Government Initiative Beth Noveck, web 2.0 commentator Tim O'Reilly, GovTwit founder Steve Lunceford, among others.
Two things struck me while watching this. The first one is the acknowledgment that getting people to participate in open government initiatives is a challenge -- they may not know where to participate. Scroll to 10:48 for insights from Jake Brewer from the Sunlight Foundation, Steve Lunceford and Jeffrey Levy at the EPA.
The second is that Quigley told me he was impressed at how much the open government ethos is evident at the local level in the U.S. On that note, I recommend watching Quigley's individual interviews with Manor, Texas CIO Dustin Haisler (one is posted below).
I was (pleasantly) surprised to hear from Haisler that some state and federal agencies are contacting him to see what they can learn from the local level.
More in-depth interviews with each of Quigley's subjects are available here.
