2. Overview of How Version 4.0 Of the Open Government Plan Was Developed

With each edition and update of our HHS Open Government Plan, we engage our teams, leaders, and stakeholders in a variety of processes aimed at gaining thorough, innovative, and diverse perspectives in the ways we engage in transparency, collaboration and participation.  The Secretary and Deputy Secretary are actively engaged in the process in communicating goals and principles across the organization’s workforce, as well as meeting with senior executives to emphasize programmatic implementation of these strategies.

This year, our planning process has been anchored by its senior accountable officials, Ellen Murray the Assistant Secretary for Financial Resources, and Susannah Fox, the Chief Technology Officer.  We engaged a variety of committees including our Innovation Council, the New Media Council, the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Council and others to take on specific aspects of the planning.  Our base website at http://www.hhs.gov/open and other websites, such as http://www.hhs.gov/idealab and http://www.healthdata.gov, provide the public with interactive pathways to address our open government strategies.  Additionally, our agency-wide communications Yammer network, and email announcements provide input for a number of new ideas used in the plan.  A public solicitation of ideas was sought for three weeks beginning on July 11, 2016.  The input from a draft version of the plan is then integrated into the final plan for version 4.0.