The Department of
Veterans Affairs has launched a new website
called "Open VA" to solicit ideas from
department employees and the public. The Digg-like platform, developed by IdeaScale, allows
members of the online community to submit and vote up or down ideas
for improvement, properly highlighting
Obama administration buzzwords like transparency, innovate, participate
and
collaborate.
This follows on the heels of a similar exercise that solicited ideas from employees and culminated with Craigslist founder Craig Newmark participating in a blue-ribbon
panel that looked at thousands of ideas from VA employees at facilities across
the country.
Now
that the department has expanded its digital suggestion box to the
public, it is no surprise that the top ideas revolve around claims
processing and other VA functions that directly affect veterans and
their families.
The
fact that VA users are frustrated with the time it takes to approve new
benefits will not come as news to the Michael Walcoff, VA's acting
undersecretary for benefits, who told the Navy Times "veterans should be prepared for
the average claims processing time to be longer in fiscal 2011 than it is
today."
Although the VA promises to continue to solicit ideas from the public, this round is only open until March 19, 2010.