Should NTIA/RUS Share Scores And Comments With Applicants?

Last week I wrote about how NTIA and RUS were failing stimulus applicants by not communicating with them.

While there has been some good news since then, namely that at least NTIA will be sending out rejection letters, I think we need to be seriously considering an idea I proposed in that post, namely requiring NTIA and RUS to release the scores they gave projects as well as any comments that were written during the review process.

There a number of reasons for doing this.

First, it would provide important feedback to applicants as they figure out what to do for the second round. While first round applicants have been encouraged to reapply, how are they supposed to know what they did wrong in round one without any feedback?

I understand that NTIA/RUS are overwhelmed and don't have time to provide detailed commentary on how applications can improve, but by having them give back the scores and supporting notes that would at least give applicants something to work with. And the result of doing this would presumably be to afford them a greater opportunity to improve their applications for the second round.

While I know that nothing's necessarily easy when you're dealing with hundreds and thousands of applications, I think the relatively small amount of time needed to do this would pay off huge dividends in the end and would be worth the effort.

The second major reason for enforcing this transparency is so that the public can have some sense that the review process is actually working. This would help both by providing a soft audit of this review process to make sure things aren't totally broken, and at the same time it would help with the PR challenge NTIA/RUS face. Right now the only people who believe the process is working is those who've received money. Everyone else thinks it's broken. If they share the scores and notes, they can show that it is in fact working.

Another potential side effect of doing this is that it may help to shame bad actors from reapplying in the second round. Let's be real, there are a lot of bogus projects that applied for money. But if they're shown to have embarrassingly low scores in the first round, especially if the scores are accompanied by notes ridiculing what they're proposing, then that might help keep them away from asking for money again. I know this may not happen as if you applied for money you don't deserve then you likely don't have much of a moral compass to begin with, but this is another example of the positive effect that being transparent can bring.

I honestly don't see much of a downside to doing this. Sure there are questions to answer, like should all scores be made available to everyone, or should they only send applicants their own scores? (I'd love to see the information available to all.)

And the one caveat is that by showing the scores you're likely going to end up with some applicants (rightly or wrongly) questioning their total and making a stink about it.

But, assuming that the review process is working, then these are issues that can be overcome and ultimately I think embracing transparency will be a net positive for NTIA/RUS.

So I throw the gauntlet down to NTIA and RUS. Are you willing to step up and use this as an opportunity to dispel the many doubts around what you're doing?

And to the White House and Congress, you all are starting to talk a big game regarding open government, well here's an opportunity to live up to that ideal. We might not be able to get NTIA and RUS to take this request to be transparent seriously as they have a lot of other things on their plate right now. But if not then we need you all to lean on them to make sure this happens.

If you truly believe that by opening up government we can improve how it serves the people of the United States, then here's a ball for you to take and run with.

Maybe I'm missing something about all this that would make opening up scores and notes a bad idea. If you can think of anything, add a comment below about what it is as I'm always open to being wrong.

But my sense right now is that NTIA/RUS have the opportunity to realize a big win with minimal effort. So hopefully this idea can gain the traction needed to become a reality.