ANDRE GOODFRIEND: My name is Andre Goodfriend.
I'm a senior advisor within the office of eDiplomacy
at the US Department of State.
For the past year, I've putting together the State Department's
2016 Open Government Plan, which is our plan for implementing
the principles of open government
that were described in the 2009 Open Government Initiative.
Essentially, with the Open Government plan,
we're showing the various ways that the State Department has
used openness, has used the principles of open government,
transparency, public participation,
collaborative effort, to move forward with foreign policy
and accomplish the various foreign policy
objectives of the United States government.
Now this is our fourth open government
plan since the 2009 initiative.
2010, 2012, 2014, now 2016.
And what we're trying to show is that open government is the way
that we accomplish the foreign policy mission of the State
Department.
That it's not simply an objective
to accomplish open government for the purpose
of open government.
But that open government is the way
that we carry out foreign policy.
That it supports democratic governance,
that it is a model for good governance
within democratic societies.
It builds trust among the citizenry.
It enables, it promotes stability.
Because with trust, the government
is able to rely upon the support of its people.
And with greater transparency, it
facilitates partnerships, where each side is able to contribute
to a common objective.
The objectives that are identified,
the flagship initiatives within this year's open government
plan are the primary strategic objectives of the Department
of State, such as harnessing the data revolution for sustainable
development goals, or modernizing
the way we carry out diplomacy.
That these are, in fact, the goals that
are written in our strategic objectives,
in our quarterly diplomacy and development review, the QDDR.
That these are the same objectives
that are supported by open government.
That it's not open government itself which is the initiative,
but that our flagship initiatives
are the foreign policy mission of the US government.
JESSICA KLEIN: I'm Jessica Klein,
and I'm a senior advisor in the Office of US Foreign Assistance
Resources at the Department of State.
So I'm leading the efforts to bring transparency and openness
to the US Government Foreign Assistance Portfolio
across the entire government.
So we launched foreignassistance.gov in 2010
to collect and standardize the investments
that the US is making around the world in one place,
so that stakeholders, beneficiaries, host country
governments, taxpayers could see where US investments are going.
So foreignassistance.gov collects budget data,
financial data, program data, and performance data
from across the US government agency,
standardizes it, and makes it available to the public
in either a downloadable format or in visualizations
to answer easy questions.
BRIDGET RODDY: Hi, my name's Bridget Roddy.
I work at the State Department's Office of eDiplomacy
on various citizen engagement programs.
One of the programs that we run in the office
is called the virtual student foreign service, or VSFS.
And VSFS has been key to the open government plan
since the very beginning.
So what VSFS does is it allows US college students, all
over the US, to engage directly with their government
on various projects while they're still in school.
So it helps the government to be more open, transparent,
and collaborative, and students also gain real work experience.
The Virtual Student Foreign Service Program
is the largest digital internship program
in the world.
It connects thousands of college students, every year,
to various offices within State Department,
and across government.
So students are helping with projects
like data visualization, graphic design, and public outreach,
all while still in school and gaining real work.
VSFS is part of the Open Government initiative,
and has been a foundation since the very beginning.
So if you're interested in joining the foreign service,
if you're a US college student, we
encourage you to apply every summer.
And to see all the projects that are
available on VSFS.state.gov.
And if you're a government agency who says,
wow, I could really benefit from working with college students,
we also hope you'll join us.
ANDRE GOODFRIEND: We look forward
to public participation, to public engagement,
in Open Government with the State Department.
The principles of open government
are transparency, collaborative effort,
and public participation.
So what we're doing now is trying
to encourage public participation
in shaping and partnering with government and government
policy.
So if you're interested in good governance, in open government,
in transparency, the principles of open government,
participate in this conversation.
Participate in any conversation where
you're with any government agency that
is seeking your input.
Because open government really does
require the public to engage.
It's ongoing engagement, and doesn't stop
with publication of a plan.
JESSICA KLEIN: So I encourage you all to check out
foreignassistance.gov.
There's a feedback mechanism on the website
where we very much appreciate emails, questions, or comments.
We also post foreignassistance.gov projects
on the Virtual Student Foreign Service Program every year,
so that would be another way to work with us.