B. Executive Summary. Page 2 of 7

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1 Category: Open Government Initiatives Project: NYS Open Government Initiative Submitted By: New York State Chief Information Officer/Office for Technology and New York State Senate Chief Information Officer Prepared by:

2 B. Executive Summary The is a cross-jurisdictional collaborative effort, comprised of Empire 2.0 of the Executive Branch and Open Senate of the Legislative Branch, and represents a ground-breaking, first ever cross-jurisdictional collaborative initiative of it's kind in New York State. The initiative was launched in May 2009 to dramatically improve government transparency, increase collaboration across jurisdictions, encourage greater citizen participation, and improve operational efficiency through the use of web 2.0 related technologies Empire 2.0 is an active, expanding, and exciting strategy allowing citizens better access to government. Empire 2.0 is the first comprehensive state initiative in the nation to address the use of social networking tools to advance government transparency and citizen engagement. The Empire 2.0 strategy encourages state agencies to embrace engaging technologies to interact with each other and with citizens, businesses, and employees with increased efficiency, collaboration, transparency, and openness. The Empire 2.0 initiative has matured to have sponsorship, leadership, participation, and, most importantly, results. 53% of State agencies use social networking technologies and there have been nearly 190 million unique visitors to state agency websites. Open Senate: Open Senate has enabled the NY Senate to become one of the most "Open and Participatory" legislative bodies in the nation, and has become a model emulated by other States and Federal entities for its technical approach to open data publishing, its cost-effective use of open-source Software, and its progressive content licensing policies. NYSenate.gov, the primary instantiation of Open Senate, serves both as an accessible repository of all legislative and institutional administrative data, and well as a "Gov 2.0" portal comprised of interactive websites for all 62 Senators and more than 40 Legislative Committees. NYSenate.gov integrates social networking and Web 2.0 tools including YouTube, Blip.tv, FaceBook, and Twitter, as well as "crowdsourcing" applications and commenting systems to increase citizens' interaction with elected officials. Its "Open Legislation" component is a public legislation search interface, as well as an Application Programming Interface ("API"), that together make legislative data available to the public in a way that it can easily be searched, commented upon, shared socially with others, and usable by third-party programmers to develop additional value-added web applications leveraging the same underlying legislative data. More than 1.6 million unique visitors used NYSenate.gov since its launch. More than 220,000 people have watched live streaming video on NYSenate.gov, and more than 600,000 have viewed archived Senate videos on YouTube. More than 10,000 Senate archived videos on YouTube, and hundreds of pieces of legislation in Open Legislation, have been shared, rated, or commented on. Page 2 of 7

3 C. Description Problem Active citizen involvement is a hallmark of democratic government, but it is increasingly commonplace today for citizens to feel alienated from their government. Citizens are often unaware of the many programs and services available to them. Much legislative and state agency information and data was not readily available to the public anywhere online. Policymakers also found it difficult to ascertain the opinions of citizens on myriad public policy issues. The State government workforce has historically used cumbersome and time-consuming methods to accomplish work and implement policies. Solution In May 2009, New York State launched the NYS Open Government Initiative an active, expanding, and exciting strategy allowing citizens better access to their government. The NYS Open Government Initiative is designed to promote government participation, increase collaboration, and expand the State s ability to share information with constituents. The NYS Open Government Initiative also allows citizens to share information and opinions with policymakers. Under the initiative, cross-jurisdictional collaborative initiatives were launched June 2009 at an inaugural and groundbreaking event entitled CapitolCamp. CapitolCamp was the first ever unconference held in a State Capitol building, co-sponsored by the New York State Senate and CIO/OFT. This event convened a diverse group of more than 100 people from government, business, non-profits and citizens to discuss using new social media communication technologies to improve government transparency and citizen participation. At CapitolCamp, the NYS Chief Information Office/Office for Technology (CIO/OFT) launched its Empire 2.0 Strategy Create, Connect and Collaborate and the New York State Senate launched its Open Senate online "Gov 2.0" program. Empire 2.0 is the first comprehensive state initiative in the nation to address the use of social networking tools to advance government transparency and citizen engagement. The Empire 2.0 strategy is a roadmap for New York State government agencies to use emerging media and social collaborative tools and technologies to encourage citizen involvement, inform policymakers, and improve workforce productivity. It is modeled after and in support of President Obama's Strategy on Open Government. The Office of the CIO of the New York State Senate unveiled Open Senate : an online "Gov 2.0" program intended to make the Senate one of the most transparent, efficient, and participatory legislative bodies in the nation. Key elements of Open Senate include: NYSenate.gov NYSenate.gov serves both as an accessible repository of all legislative and institutional administrative data, and well as a leading "Gov 2.0" portal comprised of websites for all 62 Senators and more than 40 Senate Committees. NYSenate.gov integrated social networking websites and Web 2.0 Page 3 of 7

4 tools including YouTube, Blip.tv, FaceBook, Twitter, Tumblr Blog, and Crowd Sourcing applications to increase citizen s interaction with elected officials. OpenLegislation is a website and an Application Programming Interface (API) that makes legislative data available to the public in a way that it can easily be searched, commented upon, and shared socially with others. Data is available in industry standard open formats as feeds, and the publicly accessible API allows data to be integrated directly into web applications by third-parties. Open Source -- NYSenate.gov and Open Legislation exclusively use opensource software which is freely available for re-use. There are no license fees for maintenance of websites. Open Standards & APIs -- All data and other content used in NYSenate.gov and Open Legislation is published as data feeds in open standards formats and there is a freely available Application Programming Interface (API). This empowers third-parties to do much of our work for us, developing applications that provide access to Senate data in a variety of value-added forms such as interactive voice response (IVR) telephony, at no additional cost to taxpayers. To help promote the increasing use of technology, social networking, and the sharing of information to increase transparency, efficiency and government participation for all citizens and expand the Open Government Initiative, the Empire 2.0 Workgroup was established February The workgroup consists of two branches of government -- Executive and Legislative -- several key state agencies and four universities. The Empire 2.0 Workgroup serves as an incubator and pilot group for new tools and technologies identified for possible use in New York State Government. The Empire 2.0 Workgroup is actively engaged in a multi-pronged approach involving education and training, solution piloting, development of a governance framework and knowledge sharing with the goal of encouraging and guiding State government entities in the effective and efficient use of Web 2.0 technologies. D. Significance The NYS Open Government Initiative is significantly improving the ability of New Yorkers to access government using technology. With the launch of Empire 2.0 and the Open Senate Initiative, New Yorkers with a computer or mobile phone arguably have more comprehensive access to legislative, administrative, and official legislative event information, and have more ways to communicate interactively with New York State agencies and their elected legislators, than constituents in any other State. During the past year, the deployment of several specific social networking strategies has worked to successfully achieve the goals of the NYS Open Government Initiative: Interactive Gubernatorial Website: Governor David A. Paterson created the Office of Taxpayer Accountability (OTA) in 2009 to spearhead the effort to save Page 4 of 7

5 taxpayer dollars and provide property tax relief to local taxpayers. The OTA website at keeps taxpayers informed of the OTA's progress and allows the public to submit ideas. Straight Talk from the Taxpayer is an interactive site on the OTA website where New Yorkers can submit, vote, and comment on ideas regarding State spending. Each week, OTA responds to one of the ideas through their blog Straight Talk Straight Answers ny.gov/governor/straighttalkstraightanswers/. Brainstorming Portal: CIO/OFT launched a crowdsourcing site that allows users to engage in brainstorming and online discussions regarding technology strategies for New York. The site is dedicated to promoting dialogue on overarching technology strategies. Wiki: The Senate and Twelve State agencies now use wikis. CIO/OFT s wiki, is used for collaborative statewide information technology policy development. Twitter: The NYS Senate and Nineteen State agencies now allow citizens and employees to use Twitter to learn about real-time events. For example, the NYS Emergency Management Office (SEMO) created an emergency notification system known as NY-ALERT that allows State agencies, county and local governments, emergency service agencies, and institutes of higher learning to provide both emergency information and private notification to a defined audience (local, county, regional, or statewide). The notifications are sent in real time via , phone, and posted on the ny-alert twitter feeds. Facebook : The NYS Senate and Twenty State agencies use Facebook. CIO/OFT s Facebook page, has 300 fans and the NYS Senate, has more than 900 fans. Nearly 3,000 people are fans of the Department of Labor s (DOL) Facebook page Since its inception in August 2009, the page has become a repository for the unemployed to have benefits questions answered and discover the latest information on unemployment insurance. NYSDOL has committed to helping more than 850,000 unemployed people find work and is answering Facebook questions nights and weekends. YouTube Channel: The NYS Senate CIO/OFT and fifteen New York State agencies now use YouTube to publicize various events and messages. For example, the New York State Department of Health (DOH) launched a YouTube video in December 2008 designed to educate New Yorkers, especially youth, about the relationship of sugar-sweetened soda to childhood obesity. YouTube was recognized as an easy, low-cost means to introduce this subject to a wide audience. To date, the video has received over 75,000 views. Over 1,000 comments were received by the DOH via YouTube and the Department s Page 5 of 7

6 website. Media reports on the video were made by the New York Daily News, Fox News, and the Drudge Report. Blog: Seven State agencies currently use blogs. For example, the Department of Labor s (DOL) Buzz Blog posts follow-up information about labor investigations, articles related to jobs and unemployment, and events attended by employees at DOL. Soon, businesses and jobseekers that have worked with DOL will be guest contributors to the blog, giving some insight on the programs offered for businesses and the unemployed. Open Senate" is without precedent among State Legislatures, but has been developed in concert with Open Government mandates issued by the White House beginning in January 2009 with a memo regarding the Freedom of Information Act, and continuing with the issuance of the Open Government Directive. " O'Reilly Media's new book, "Open Government: Collaboration, Transparency, and Participation in Practice," features Open Senate, and describes this stark contrast as follows: "With the 2008 election of a new Democratic majority, the New York Democratic Senators made a commitment to transparency and modernization... The Senate s quick shift toward transparency, information modernization, and open information policies have radically improved the information publication within the state, catapulting them from a 1970s framework to a full-fledged modern legislative body... The New York State Senate, in less than a year, with legislative leadership and a fresh technology team, overcame what I would call the most complicated, tensionfilled, overly politicized legislative environment and anachronistic technology I ve ever seen. They are quickly progressing toward more transparency, access, and modernization. Now, the New York State Assembly and other legislatures have an example to follow." E. Benefits of the Project New York State is leading the nation in its comprehensive approach to linking the legislature, citizens, policymakers, and the State workforce by using social networking technologies. The Empire 2.0 Create, Connect, Collaborate embraces the future now, especially by engaging the Generation V community. There are several immediate benefits associated with the Empire 2.0 strategy: As of March 2010, there was an 84 percent increase in the number of unique visitors to State agencies websites over the past year; 53 percent of New York State agencies use social networking technologies; and over the past year there have been 190 million unique visitors to New York State agency websites. More than 1.6 million unique visitors have used NYSenate.gov since its launch. More than 220,000 people have watched live streaming video on NYSenate.gov, and over 600,000 have viewed archived Senate videos on YouTube. More than 10,000 Senate Page 6 of 7

7 archived videos have been shared, rated, or commented on. Crowdsourcing initiatives on NYSenate.gov have elicited nearly 7,000 votes on legislative ideas, and more than 1,000 comments on specific pieces of legislation. We continue to update constituent engagement statistics weekly on the online NYSenate Open Data portal. Local media and non-profit interest groups have benefitted. A collaboration between NYPIRG and the Albany Times-Union newspaper leveraged the programmatic accessibility of data through Open Legislation to analyze Senate Session transcripts, yielding a brand new data set, which the Times-Union published, ranking Senators by the number of words they spoke in debate on the Senate Floor. This analysis is facilitated by the open, standards-compliant manner in which Open Legislation is designed and its data presented. One of the Senate's most notable online events occurred when a Marriage Equality bill came to the floor in December As many as 15,000 concurrent viewers watched the proceedings live online from around the world and discussed the floor debate virtually in an online chat as the debate unfolded. Video uploaded to YouTube was disseminated far and wide, further amplifying the debate, and yielding a massive spike in online visibility of some Senators. For example, one Senator's five minute speech during the debate was viewed more than 300,000 times on YouTube in the two weeks following the debate. The Open Senate program has been nationally recognized by peers inside and outside of government. The Open Legislation site changes the relationship citizens have with their government and demonstrates the New York State Senate s commitment to a transparent and accessible government, said Dave McClure, the U.S. General Services Administration s Associate Administrator of the Office of Citizen Services and Communications. Now, more than ever before, state and local governments, the federal government, and other nations can use this innovative technology to reach out and engage more citizens in the legislative process. Execution of Open Senate and Empire 2.0, leverages web 2.0 tools and techniques is open-source and are fully maintained by in-house staff. The State and Senate anticipates little if any outside development costs. The Senate has used the Open Government project mandate as a forcing factor for internal enterprise IT modernization (e.g.: using the open-source platform Drupal as well as leveraging Cloud-computing for software development and hosting instead of an expensive Mainframe). Corollary IT modernization executed by the same team in the Senate enabled a *reduction* of nearly $1 million in the total IT budget of the Senate for 2009, including salaries and direct costs, relative to 2008, and a reduction of more than $500,000 relative to the average annual Senate IT budget for the ten years prior to Page 7 of 7