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At the annual Regulatory Information Conference (RIC) on March 13–15, 2012, attended by more than 3,000 participants from 34 countries, the agency’s Open Government initiatives were highlighted. A poster, entitled “Open Government — Two Years In,” and a tabletop presentation, entitled “Public Affairs – Sharing information through Social Media,” illustrated how our Open Government program continues to enhance the agency’s commitment to transparency and integrates public participation and collaboration into our regulatory activities. As part of our Mobile NRC initiative (our new Flagship Initiative), we used Quick Response (QR) codes on event materials to provide mobile device users with enhanced access to RIC materials.
Eliot Brenner, Director of the NRC’s Office of Public Affairs, discussed the agency's approach to public communication at a workshop held in Austria by the International Atomic Energy Agency. Attendees included representatives from Bangladesh, Iran, Iraq, Indonesia, Israel, Jordan, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines Sri Lanka, Syria, Thailand, Vietnam, and Yemen. For more information on NRC support to U.S. interests abroad, see International Programs.
In April, the NRC will publish the latest addendum to its Open Government Plan, first issued in April 2010. This addendum provides the roadmap for the agency's program over the next 2 years. Our Milestone Inventory will be updated to reflect planned initiatives over the next 2 years.
In a Staff Requirements Memorandum (SRM), dated March 21, 2012, the Commission approved the staff’s plans for ongoing engagement with the public and other stakeholders on matters related to the nuclear crisis in Japan. For additional detail, see the staff’s recommendations (SECY-12-0010), dated January 23, 2012.
Social Media — How are we doing? Our statistics on the use of our Social Media initiatives (blog, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, LinkedIn) suggest we are doing just fine. Through March 2012, we have posted 169 blog entires, approved 1,050 comments, and attracted 187,000 visits. We count 1,500 Twitter followers, and have sent 289 “tweets.” We’ve also posted 40 video/audio clips to YouTube, have 128 regular subscribers, and counted 9,200 visits. In addition, we count 2,366 LinkedIn followers of 60 NRC staff. |
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The NRC was one of five agencies recognized by the U.S. Department of Justice for exemplary efforts in implementing the Attorney General’s FOIA Guidelines.
On April 26, 2012, the NRC’s senior managers met with office directors for the Spring Senior Leadership Meeting at the Professional Development Center in Bethesda. Discussions centered around 12 special focus areas, including “Open Government and Stakeholder Outreach.” Eliot Brenner (Director, Office of Public Affairs) discussed various initiatives the agency is undertaking to expand the use of social media, including a new public Blog and YouTube channel (which now has 42 video clips, with more than 12,000 views), as well as a Twitter feed and Flickr gallery. He then played one of the agency’s YouTube videos, which demonstrates NRC efforts to expand Open Government and better engage our stakeholders.
Like most people, the NRC usually focuses on the negative feedback we receive, in order to drive improvements to our public website. However, every so often, we receive a thoughtful compliment regarding our site from a member of the public. On May 30, 2012, we happened to receive several through our Site Satisfaction Survey, including the following examples:
- "This is the most useful, user friendly, and comprehensively thorough presentation of related documents that I have found on any government Web site in over 30 years of volunteer research for public interest groups and law firms. Thanks for a job well done."
- "Thanks for organizing information and making it readily available. There is no other way of accessing most of what is on the NRC site."
The Office of Administration (ADM) and Office of Information Services (OIS) have prepared guidance and standards for the use of Quick Response (QR) codes on agency documents. These QR codes are matrix barcodes containing a large amount of information. This information can be quickly accessed by smartphone users with a barcode reader "app" that scans the QR code with the phone’s built-in camera. For more information, see Public Information? There’s an App for That! (NRC Blog, 9/27/2011). |
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The NRC published its 2012–2013 Information Digest in September 2012. The Digest describes, in a quick-reference format, the agency's regulatory responsibilities and licensing activities, while also providing general information on nuclear-related topics.
Addendum 1 to the NRC’s Open Government Plan, published April 9, 2012, identified MobileNRC as the follow-on flagship initiative to Enhancing Stakeholder Engagement, presented in the agency's 2010 Open Government Plan. In May 2012, the Administration launched its Digital Government Strategy (DGS), which also focused on the use of mobile technologies to make content and data available to customers in creative and cost-effective ways. In response to the DGS, the agency established a Digital Government website, and published a blog posting requesting ideas on services to optimize for mobile use and systems to “web-enable” using application programming interfaces (APIs) to give developers ready access to high-value data feeds.
The NRC’s Public Document Room (PDR) received kudos from a member of the public, who said, “I don't mean to clutter your Inbox because I’m sure you’re busy, but I do want to say Thank You. I appreciate your efforts. If there were a ‘Best Of’ competition for helpfulness and effectiveness within NRC, the PDR staff would surely win and would have my vote. Thank you again....” |