There is a brilliant series of episodes in the 80s britcom, Yes, Minister, on the "open government" theme. The cynical conclusion was that making information more open merely results in people turning very circumspect about what they say or put in the official records. Frank deliberations turn into theatrical productions.

Call me a skeptic, but I don't think that has changed much. We have the Internet and data firehoses now, so the powers that be will find ways to swamp the essential information with incoherent volumes of crud.

As the show claimed, I think Open Government is a contradiction in terms. You can have openness or government, not both. Secrecy is unfortunately essential for too many types of problem solving processes.

American politics is too full of rosy idealism. We get dreck like the West Wing. A good remake of Yes, Minister and Yes, Prime Minister would do a lot more for sane governance than well-meaning "Open Government" initiatives. It is political sophistication in the electorate, not data, that is sub-par. The American electorate is probably one of the most naive among democracies of the world.