Federal Open Government Secretariat Symposium

On Tuesday, October, 15, 2024, U.S. Open Government Secetariat hosted a symposium: "Global to Local: Lessons for Open Government & Civic Engagement for DC."  The D.C. Open Government Coalition served as a co-host for the event, held from 5:00 PM - 6:30 PM ET, at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Public Library. The purpose of the event was to highlight the good, bad and the ugly of transparency in the District of Columbia government. The D.C. Open Government Coalition stated that "the city government is not imbued with a culture of openness, but is also hampered by technology challenges that make it difficult to find documents and data." Kathy Patterson, the D.C. Auditor, who is also a retired journalist and former D.C. Councilmember was the Keynote speaker. Director of Open Government, Niquelle Allen, participated in a roundtable discussion about the state of government transparency in the District of Columbia  and the need to establish a commission to examine open government in D.C. 

The General Services Administration provided information about the event here. The meeting overview provided by GSA is here. 

Learn more about the U.S. Open Government Initiative: https://www.gsa.gov/governmentwide-initiatives/us-open-government