Conclusion
We have the greatest opportunity in history to change the way government interacts with its citizens and makes decisions. In order take
advantage of this opportunity we must:
- Ensure that the government does its work in the light of day, which means publishing a schedule of public meetings and hearings as well as information on the decisions to be made and providing access to the meetings.
- Make every meeting convenient to access on the Internet, live and on-demand and complete with all the features of the integrated public record.
- Provide opportunities for citizens to productively participate and collaborate in while government is making decisions.
- Focus on enabling the best decisions to be reached by ensuring open standards, not dictating technology formats.
About Tom Spengler
Tom co-founded Granicus, Inc. as Chairman and CEO in 1999. Tom is an open government pioneer and has guided Granicus’s over 500 clients in their transparency initiatives. Tom’s primary areas of focus are improving staff efficiency, promoting public access, building innovative technologies, and creating a substantial return on investment for clients. Tom also directs Granicus’s Drive to a Million, an initiative to put one million public meetings online by 2012: up-to-the-minute numbers can be tracked at www.granicus.com/Clients/Client-Stats.aspx. He currently heads Granicus’ senior management team and will lead the company in its next stage of growth. Prior to co-founding Granicus, Tom was a member of Anderson Consulting’s (now Accenture) premier Internet development group, performing Internet strategy and development work. Prior to Anderson, Tom worked at Hewlett Packard to
help develop leading Intranet communications tools used throughout the organization. Tom currently is a University Advisor for Cal Poly, a frequent public speaker, and a certified teacher for the International Institute of Municipal Clerks (IIMC), teaching classes on minutes annotation and digital audio/video recording for government agencies.