By the People: Citizen Involvement the Open Source Way

Everything’s going open source nowadays. Why not government? That’s precisely the question that some analysts and consultants are asking, along with citizens themselves. President-Elect Barack Obama has begun to implement a bit of open source thinking with his Presidential Transition Project Web site, which allows citizens to send in comments, ideas and suggestions for public policy, as well as apply for jobs within the Obama administration. And others in and around government are likely to follow his lead in enacting what might be called “Legislation 2.0.”