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DorobekInsider.com: Rep. Honda’s tries crowdsourcing his Web redesign — a check-in

Editor’s note: To those coming from the Future Fed series that I will be doing on WTOP and Federal News Radio 1500 AM — if this is your first time t...

Federal News Network Staff

June 15, 2009 6:45 am

2 min read

Editor’s note: To those coming from the Future Fed series that I will be doing on WTOP and Federal News Radio 1500 AM — if this is your first time to the DorobekInsider — welcome. I hope you’ll visit regularly, but… each week, along with the Future Fed series, I will also have a related post each Monday morning with more on the topic. So, if nothing else, I hope you’ll join me here on Mondays.

I mentioned earlier this month that Rep. Mike Honda (D-CA) is redesigning his Web site using a very innovative method — crowdsourcing. That is essentially where a task that was traditionally done by an employee — or contractor — and it is done in a transparent, open way. Open source software is one version of crowdsourcing, but… it is developing in many different ways. It is one of the Web 2.0 ideas — my Web 2.0 definition being that information is power, but that the real power of information comes when it is shared.

Rep. Mike Honda is taking this very unique step — he is crowdsouring the redesign of his Web site. It is very innovative. And it could have broader applications. As the White House openness and transparency initiative continues, Vivek Kundra is Chief Information Officer, Katie Stanton is Director of Citizen Participation have a blog post about technologies they are looking at — and one of them is crowdsourcing. Specifically, they point to an initiative that the Transportation Department is funding to crowdsource the development of a bus stop design. The project is called Next Stop Design — cute — and you can read more here.

UPDATE: We spoke to Honda on Federal News Radio 1500 AM’s Daily Debrief with Chris Dorobek and Amy Morris. We will talk to Honda Monday afternoon on Federal News Radio 1500 AM’s Daily Debrief with Chris Dorobek and Amy Morris. (He tells us he got some push back from House administrators.)

We will talk to Honda Monday afternoon on Federal News Radio 1500 AM’s Daily Debrief with Chris Dorobek and Amy Morris. (He tells us he got some push back from House administrators. We also talk to him about the loss of control.)

Honda already has more than 80 different submissions. You can see them for yourself here — very transparent.

I have been culling through them — and there are some very good designs. I hope to have Rep. Honda back on the show to talk about the experience once they have made a final section — I’m hoping that they will unveil the new redesign on our show. But… here is one by “Apoloo” that I thought was handsome: