The Big Invisible: A Practical Approach To Transparency In Open Government
The city's various departments are variously online. Some departments are divisions. But only on certain parts of certain city government websites. And doing business in his town is interesting. I researched for a client, and after about 30 minutes, I'd found the correct form(s). I think.
There's precious little help in determining which documents are the applicable ones, and even less information on requirements and filling them out. But these were the ones, I was pretty sure. Now, to fill them in and submit online with the application fees. Uh. Hmmmm. Well, it's true; these were electronic docs (Acrobat PDFs, even - the de facto standard for delivering secure, high fidelity, interactive docs and forms). But alas, these were for download only. I checked again to see if I had the correct official docs. They were clearly scanned: a bit off-center, slightly askew. The city seal was in the header, but I didn't know if this was the most current version. Studying the footer yielded nothing: there was no attribute, version, or revision info to be had. Just a long gray line and plenty of nice clean whitespace.
Ok. So prospective business owner would have to head over to the finance department. Or division. Or the ubiquitous "business office". Except the websites listed multiple similarly named offices that fit the bill. But clearly only one was the right one. Right? Sure. So here was my consultation: fill out this form by hand (even though digital signatures had been reduced to something as simple as a checkbox since Clinton and Gore re-invented the Interwebs). Take this for across town to here. With your checkbook. No credit or debut cards allowed (even though this transaction could've been paid for online I mere minutes). And take a pen. This form is likely older than the combined ages of Google and Yahoo, so you'll likely have to start filling it out all over again. If you're in the right place. Which I'm pretty sure you would be. If not, head across town to the other business office. The one for doing business in town. Not with the town. Well, sorta. Whatever. Just plan for a day or two of it.
Maybe open government and transparency should start simple. Machine-readable datasets and nifty spiffy mashups are great, don't get me wrong. But open implies accessible to the electorate and transparent implies clear. Clearly the very real process I just described is neither easily accessible to folks nor clearly the correct path to achieve the desired outcome. First: simple document control usage instructions, and documentation, next, online interactive forms, with simple electronic payment options. Confirmations, receipts, instructions every step of the way. Things clearly marked, and easily understood. That'd be a start. Everything else is gravy once the murkiness of a process is cleared away.
Dunno. What do you think?
