Thursday, October 07, 2010

irekia - the most open of governments

For many of the readers of this blog, the words irekia and euskadi mean little, if anything at all. But the Basque Country of Spain is quietly becoming a significant example of open and participatory government. The Basque Country website is built entirely around the concept of open government and teems with excellent examples of how government can involve its public. (The site is available in Spanish, Basque, and English). Every section of the site invites, almost demands, comment and participation. How does the Basque region resident avoid participating? And the open data portal on this site rivals that of any state in the U.S. And when you submit a proposal to the strategic planning process you can sign in with your Twitter account using OAuth. Polls, active listening, and multimedia all help make this government site work.

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