Kansas Identifies Four Key Factors to a Successful Online Financial Transparency Project

KCStat, a data-driven approach to improve city services that is used as an active social media portfolio (i.e., posting information from the city's data platforms to Twitter and Facebook to help gain public and media attention). Since starting its online fiscal transparency initiative in 2014, the Kansas City Office of Management and Budget has identified four key factors to the program's success: 1.Start out with executive support. 2.Start simple. 3.Know who your audience is (and isn't). According to Scott Huizenga, budget officer, Office of Management and Budget, "If the top is not on board, you're pretty much dead on arrival." [...]the finance department is working with the Center for Neighborhoods, homeowner groups, and other neighborhood organizations in Kansas City to help put "boots on the ground" to talk to people about the financial processes and the online tools the city has made available to Y gain a broader variety in local government finance participation. [...]a government's transparency goals are likely to evolve _ over