What is a [good] commitment?

In collaborating with our colleagues at the Open Government Partnership, and with the social impact firm Reboot, we discussed what makes a good OGP commitment.

According to the Open Government Support Unit, a commitment includes the following elements/qualities. It is:

• Ambitious - you can build on something, but you should take it further than what you were doing already.
• Specific - a declaration of what you want to do that can be measured
• Relevant to open government - accountability, transparency, citizen participation, technology and innovation
• Co-created - together between civil society and government

According to Reboot, there is an Open government sweet spot:

A commitment should make an impact, have interest within civil society, and be feasible.

And for those of us here in Austin, we thought, well, a commitment should also:

• be inclusive
• state who is committing to whom, and it should be a commitment both ways
• focus on what's important for a positive impact in Austin