Collaborate and work in the open by default

Open Government is a concept that can not only improve public trust, but also improve services and policy outcomes. In addition, some governments have a legal requirement to consider or publish service reporting or open source code. People working with government directly or as a third party must consider how government can share the service’s non-sensitive data, code, evidence, research, and decision making openly. This includes using open standards where possible and open-source licensing where required. The Digital Nations Charter recommends that government prioritize open government, open data, open source, open standards, and open markets to maintain sustainable digital transformation of governments.

Questions to ask: 

• How will the general public find out information about the service, such as its compliance or performance?

• How will citizens participate in the design or ongoing improvements to the system or service?

• Have you explored how other governments might have solved this problem, including the use of reusable tools?

• How might the government customer share information across their own organization and jurisdiction?

• How does the government customer want to share this work so that other governments can reuse it?

• Can you share your outputs with appropriate open source licenses and channels?