The Power Shift Effect of Open Government

The second CityCamp Colorado started off with Tom Downey and Stephanie O'Malley from the City of Denver setting the stage for the day’s theme: enhancing access to government. Held at the Jefferson County Administration and Courts Facility on October 28, 2011, more than 70 people gathered to participate, learn, and advance the open government movement.

Tom Downey, Director of Excise and Licensing for the city and county of Denver, is excited about the spread of open government. He said the beauty of a movement like CityCamp is that the organization is flat, decisions are made democratically, and things can get done and move forward.

Downey's day-to-day functions include working with a variety of licenses for the city and county of Denver, ranging from medical marijuana permits to liquor licenses and even managing parking zones—all of which run on an all-paper system. The office of Excise and Licensing has no online license system, not even for payments. Downey said it hurts the city when this office doesn't operate how consumers are used to doing business...