OPEN GOVERNMENT TO
TRANSFORM YOUR CITY
Take action now:
Learn About Open Government ↑ Back to top
Make Life Easier
Open governments encourage developers to create simple, beautiful apps that help citizens in their day-to-day lives. Apps like these: One Bus Away and Crimespotting.
Improve Your Community
Open governments embrace creative and cooperative problem-solving among agencies, citizens, non-profits, and the private sector. Problem-solving like this: SeeClickFix and Adopta.
Save Tax-Dollars and Resources
Open governments save money by streamlining data access. Open governments save money by using open software and systems, which gives them the ability to share technology and reuse apps. Access like: Open311, and share with The CfA Commons.
Steps for Action ↑ Back to top
Energize Your Community
Spread the Word ↓
Spread the Open Impact message: Write an op-ed, reach out to your community, or rally the troops through social media.
Broadcast on Social Media
Educate and recruit as many open government advocates as possible. Tell your friends and local community groups to join the Open Impact campaign.
Contact Your Local Paper
Write to your local newspaper -- get the word out and let the public know why open government matters.
Fill out this form, type in your zip code, and voila! A list of publications from your area will appear, along with the sample opinion piece for you to edit. Modify the content to reflect your city’s needs, then choose the publications you want to send to (the more the merrier).
Recruit Allies ↓
As more people and organizations advocate for open government in your city, change is sure to follow. Who'd make natural open government allies in your city?
Reach out to student groups, meetups, nonprofit organizations, and other civic associations with a tech or civic focus.. Try searching sites such as Meetup and Eventbrite, as well as your local paper.
Here's what we’d usually say:
Fill out this form to directly send an email to your potential allies.
Follow up! If you don't get a response, try another email. If you still don't get a response, try a phone call or attend the next event/meeting to establish contact.
Show Your Government What's Possible ↓
Open data and create civic software yourself. Show city residents and city officials what open government can do for your city.
Open Civic Data
Want to collect and curate data-- so you and others can make useful things with it? Learn how to liberate data.
Deploy and Maintain Civic Software
Have you ever come across a killer civic app in another city, and think to yourself “I wish my city had this app?” You can make it happen.
Commit to an Open Source Civic App
Are you a developer who wants to do good, and lend a hand to your community? Fork, commit, push. one of these open source apps
Host an Event ↓
Host an open government event, and educate your neighbors about the benefits of open government.
Use the list of events below to get inspired, and don’t forget to check out the CfA Brigade’s list of open government events across the country.
As you go to plan your event, look at our handy editable event guide and list of discussion topics .
Meetups
Start talking about open gov in your city. Use meetup.com and similar services like Google Groups to bring together interested community members. Don’t forget - you can also start a meetup to organize an event or hackathon in the future!
Hackathons
Host a Hackathon. Hackathons promote collaboration between community members as well as city staff and city residents. They allows for discussion of civic issues, and are loads of fun.
Invite friends, allied organizations, and government officials to your event and have them hack away at a civic issue. Successful hackathons are those who strive to bring together a diverse field of specialties and interests.
You can hack away at code (i.e make an app or API) or a policy (i.e. drafting an open data policy). Follow these steps and launch your own hackathon.
City Camp
Organize a CityCamp. CityCamp is an unconference focused on innovation for municipal governments and community organizations. They have become widely popular as a way to bring different stakeholders together (i.e. designers, developers and city leaders) to discuss new ways of solving civic problems. Unconferences are not your typical conference, they are interactive and engaging. The participants play a huge role in directing the conference. Here is a breakdown of how to get started.
Speaker Panel
Bring together a panel (3-4 people) to talk about open government. Whatever the structure of discussion, use the panel as an opportunity to turn audience members into open government advocates. Collect contact information and make sure to mention your plans for bringing open government to your city both before and after the panel discussion.
Engage City Officials
Contact Individual City Leaders ↓
Speak up and educate your city officials. Tell your representatives why open government matters to you and your community; you can be the difference between a problem being ignored and acted upon.
Send a letter to your city council and mayor
- Visit your city's website
- Find your representatives under the section commonly labeled City Council or Government. Your mayor will also likely have his or her own section.
- Each city representative will have the option to send them a letter/request either by post or email. Gather all of the relevant email addresses.
- Email your city officials. Use this form to send your emails directly to your representatives.
Quick Tip: Your city might have a different names for the its main legislative body. Some other terms to look for include Board of Selectmen or Board of Supervisors.
Set-up a Meeting with Your Local Representative
- Visit your city council website
- Find your city councilor(s)' email under the section commonly labeled city councilor or government.
- Request a time to meet by email using this link.
- State the reasons why you are contacting them.
- State your objective of the meeting
- Be sure to mention that you are a constituent of the legislator.
- If applicable, refer the legislator to the relevant bill and let him or her know the specific bill number.
- Follow-up on your email. Call your city councilor's office confirming a time to meet.
- At the meeting use the slideshow deck (with the slideshow script) and give your city council member the open government handout. Ask your city official to sign the open government pledge.
Quick Tip: Call way in advance to the date you want!
Speak at City Council and Committee Meetings ↓
City council or committee meetings allow constituents to provide feedback to government – the perfect chance to educate your elected officials on the value of open government.
Request to Speak at a City Meeting
- Visit your city's official website and look at their weekly meeting calender for when and where the next city council meeting takes place
- Look at the meeting agenda and familiarize yourself with its structure
- Consult your city's website to get informed on the details to participating in a city council meeting or hearing.
- Fill out a city council meeting or hearing request form online before the submission deadline.
Quick Tips:
- Citizen speeches on topics not on the agenda are reserved for the public comment portion of the meeting.
- If there is an agenda item regarding open government, you will be allotted time to speak on that issue before discussion begins.
- Allotted time can range from 1-5 minutes.
- Deadlines to submit speaking requests vary
- Fill city hall with your supporters. The more people you arrive with, the bigger the statement to your elected officials.