Economic stimulus IT forum draws more than 2,500 participants
Vendors and IT experts submitted and ranked ideas for using information technology to better track spending under the economic stimulus law.
Should the federal government provide online maps of agencies’ spending under the economic stimulus law? How about providing online performance budgets or due-diligence reporting system?
A total of 2,629 information technology vendors and experts posted and ranked 476 ideas for tracking and analyzing economic stimulus spending in a weeklong online forum that ended May 3.
Some IT vendors and participants touted specific products. Others suggested using tools such as open-source software, data warehousing or visualization. A few offered insights and warnings on potential pitfalls of efforts to better manage and share information with the public.
The forum, conducted at thenationaldialogue.org, received 3.7 million hits, according to a news release posted today on Recovery.gov.
The Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board and the National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA) sponsored the IT solutions dialogue. The oversight board operates the Recovery.gov Web site, which provides updated information on stimulus spending.
The Obama administration and Congress approved the $778 billion economic stimulus package in February with the goal of jump-starting an economic recovery and creating jobs. About $300 billion will be channeled through state and local governments.
NAPA officials are evaluating the comments and will provide a report to the oversight board.
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