White House Open Gov Post Vacant

The White House official overseeing the president's transparency initiative stepped down last week to return to her teaching post at New York Law School, Obama administration officials said Monday. A replacement has not been named.

The departure of Beth Noveck, deputy chief technology officer, coincides with the second anniversary of Obama's landmark open government memo. The guidance the president released one day after taking the oath of office called for agencies to institutionalize public participation in policymaking, collaboration with outside organizations and a default setting for disclosing information.

On Monday, Office of Science and Technology Policy spokesman Rick Weiss said this of Noveck:

Beth has been a tireless advocate for opening the federal government to greater collaboration and public participation. She has helped to develop significant advancements in the administration's efforts to utilize technology to break down the barriers between the American public and their government. We are sorry to see her go, and wish her all the best in her next endeavors.

Government transparency advocates have applauded agency efforts to create plans for fulfilling Obama's open government vision but criticized agencies' follow-through. They argue White House leaders aren't doing enough to hold agencies accountable for failing to be transparent. And questions have arisen about Obama's personal commitment to the movement.

But activists seem hopeful that the administration will keep Noveck's post and appoint someone capable of filling her big shoes. Already the blogosphere is abuzz with suggestions for replacements, like these from the social network GovLoop:

-Andrew Hoppin, New York State Senate chief information officer

-Dustin Haisler, CIO for the City of Manor, Texas

-Clay Johnson, former director of the Sunlight Foundation's software development division

-Bill Eggers, director of Deloitte research, public sector

-Lena Trudeau, vice president of the National Academy of Public Administration; founder of the Collaboration Project, an independent consortium working to apply web 2.0 tools to solve the government's problems.