Andrea DiMaio

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Andrea Di Maio
VP Distinguished Analyst
12 years at Gartner
25 years IT industry

Andrea Di Maio is a vice president and distinguished analyst in Gartner Research, where he focuses on the public sector, with particular reference to e-government strategies, Web 2.0, the business value of IT, open-source software… Read Full Bio

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Open Government Is Not So Open

by Andrea Di Maio  |  April 20, 2009  |  1 Comment

Many Facebook users have probably noticed that the mainstream social media engaged users in choosing the new Terms of Service. This is in response to users’ protest against Facebook’s policy about control and archival of deleted data

Comments were requested about two documents: the Facebook Principles and the Statement of Rights and Responsibilities. Facebook also announced that if 30% of its 200 million users cast a vote, the vote will be binding.

The consultation period has ended, although people can still look at the comments that were posted. We will see what is the outcome.

This triggered a reflection about the so-called open government. A couple of weeks ago the U.S. GSA announced agreements with Youtube, Flickr and others (see Gartner comment – subscription required), and last week it announced its agreement with Facebook (see my previous post).

Since then, I tried to get hold of a copy of either agreement, but failed. A member of the GovLoop social network told me that “at the request of the providers this information can not be shared with the public”.

I appreciate there are legal issues involved and I am no legal expert. But if the basis of an agreement that supports openness cannot be shared, it seems to me that open government in the U.S. is not off to a good start.

1 Comment »

Category: social networks in government     Tags: , ,

1 response so far ↓

  • 1 Jeff DePasquale   April 20, 2009 at 7:18 am

    Access to blog, will supporting Mr. Kindra from EXP.