On President Obama’s first day of service, he issued a Memorandum on Transparency and Open Government.  The topic of open government is nothing new, and is considered an important element in contemporary democratic practices.  However, the Obama Administration’s decision to promote government transparency and information disclosure via the use of new tools and technology at the federal level is innovative.  Under this new initiative, the White House created the first ever roles of Chief Technology Officer and Chief Information Officer to manage the process going forward.  In a similar and more local vein, new approaches to state legislative transparency and public engagement can be seen in the New York State Senate (NYSS).  With the Democrats capturing the majority leadership for the first time in over four decades, the New York Senate is working towards a new paradigm in servicing the residents of New York.

Back in January, the NYSS hired its first ever Chief Information Officer, Andrew Hoppin, and together with his office, Hoppin works to “leverage technology and information in order to create a more transparent legislature, serve constituents more effectively, and provide New Yorkers the means to take a more participatory role in state government.”  As part of these efforts, the NYSS has a newly overhauled website (nysenate.gov), Facebook page, and Twitter feed. In addition to Hoppin’s efforts in the Office of the CIO (OCIO), the NYSS also appointed a Director of Creative Services, Christopher Sealey, and Director of Graphic Arts, Arnold Marzan to its Creative Services Department.  In doing so, the department hopes to utilize the directors’ past design and communications experience to service and help lead NY Senators to create a strong message and presence to the communities it serves.

Although the Office of the CIO and the Creative Services departments have distinct internal mandates and are independent of each other, they both share a common objective of increasing transparency of the NYSS, and bringing meaningful and easily digestible information to the public arena.  The Creative Services Department is a bi-partisan effort to serve all 62 senators of the NYSS, as well as the overarching NYSS body by fulfilling on requests that convey the message of the constituents via print, social, new, and multi-media platforms.  ”Law makers can make better decisions if they understand what the people want, and smart use of technology allows lawmakers to collect wider public input on a variety of issues in real time”, Sealey says.  His belief is that finding a new use for these tools will help “create an emotional connection” between the people of NY State and the members of the NYSS.  This view is also backed by Marzan, who states that the NYSS sees “what’s possible when you leverage brand image” [as exemplified by the Obama Administration] and thus allowing more New Yorkers to come into the fold.  Marzan also believes that the Creative Services team can add value by providing Senators with an array of new resources and tools to get the most effective messaging across.  Both agree that the use of new and social media platforms helps reach greater audiences with less production costs and production time.  Sealey also adds that he hopes to have greater use of smart technology “erase barriers to participation” by engaging New Yorkers in the legislative dialogue, and increasing opportunities to make better legislative decisions.

While the members of the Creative Services Department are fielding various requests from Senators, the Office of the CIO is also making strides.  In late September, Hoppin published a presentation on Open Source Software in the NY Senate, and discusses the move to publish open government data, software, and copyrights.   “Making information re-usable and mashable” says Hoppin, provides multiple benefits from an internal processes stand-point and dovetails well with Hoppin’s three core principles for the OCIO: transparency, efficiency, and participation.  Much of the transparency principle is demonstrated in the data publishing efforts of the NYSS on data.nysenate.gov, which Hoppin states is progressive for its ease of use, accessibility to the public domain, and re-usable nature.  “Being informed and participating in a way that is meaningful” is what drives much of Hoppin’s work and ethos in the OCIO.

When asked why the use of efficient and new technology matters, Hoppin states, “The decisions that are made at the NYSS are decisions that directly affect our lives.  Individual citizens have a role to play in this process, and open governance is just another way to directly touch the people involved.”  Hoppin recognizes that much of the work produced by his office requires telling others to think and do things in a different way, which can be a challenge.  He is also faced with the formidable task of dealing with some long-standing negative opinions and skepticism of the institution itself.  However, Hoppin remains optimistic.  It is Hoppin’s longer term desire to produce results that allow people to see “how you can affect your government in a positive way” whether partisan or not.  He sees that the work that is being done at the NYSS is “out and in the fore-front”, and he is “happy to be following the federal government’s precedent [on use of technology]”, since the NYSS “never would have been empowered to do what we do without their lead” and has provided the NYSS the opportunity to push these efforts into a different branch of government.