Survey shows gains in opinion about open government

A new survey about open government found that 53 percent of responders think that the federal government is more open today than when President Barack Obama was inaugurated.

MeriTalk, a government information technology group and Web portal, conducted the survey which was taken by 118 respondents. Government IT professionals made up 61 percent of the responders and 39 percent were from the systems integrator and vendor community, according to MeriTalk. The survey was released March 23.

The company found 42 percent of the responders think that they have a voice in how government works and 83 percent assert that the government should conduct research to better understand what the public wants from open government.

Respondents cited management resistance to real transparency as the No. 1 obstacle, followed by absence of a proven model and infrastructure for real citizen engagement, and insufficient funding – 34 percent, 16 percent, and 12 percent, respectively.