technical and scientific expertise, she said. Teams of volunteers review specific patent applications.

"The group works together on coming up with the best information, rating and ranking each other's information, commenting on each other's information, and then that group work product gets provided to the government patent official at the end of the process," she said. "So where we can think about using the community to do some of the work of moderating itself, we decrease the cost, we decrease the load, and I think we increase the opportunities for engagement and participation."

Linking Feedback to Policy

As Web-based comment and feedback functions proliferate, agencies must develop ways to inject that feedback into decision-making processes.

"It's one thing to build a Web site that gives people a place to submit a suggestion and another thing to actually create a policy to route the information to the right place, to ensure that there is someone at the other end to receive it," Noveck said.

Digesting and using online feedback was a challenge for the Obama campaign, Noveck said. The campaign eventually created networks of policy experts to evaluate the information. Wikis and "listservs" were built to distribute useful suggestions, she said.

"It's about really rethinking the process of transparency, participation and collaboration," Noveck said. "It's not transparency for its own sake ... but toward the end of making better decisions, creating greater accountability and driving better performance.