How to defend openness when it’s under threat - International Open Data Charter

lterrat's bookmarks 2017-06-13

Summary:

"there are two serious threats to the transparency movement.

The first is that the initial promise that openness, and in particular open data, would lead to radical change in outcomes for citizens hasn’t happened, despite some good individual examples. There is a danger that the transparency agenda – once fashionable in international politics – becomes yesterday’s fad.

The second threat is the broader political environment, where experts are dismissed and authoritarianism is on the rise. In this world, the gains to date, whether it’s the Open Government Partnership, or beneficial ownership transparency, feel fragile.

These challenges can feel pretty disheartening.

But there’s an opportunity here. I think now is the time for us to become more political. This doesn’t mean that we need to be partisan or support a particular party. Instead, we must position the decision to open up government information as a political, not technocratic, one. We must sell openness as a core value for governments who respect and serve citizens.

The Open Data Charter is a collaboration between governments and experts who agreed six Principles for how governments should be publishing information. The shared aspiration was that government data should be open by default, timely and interoperable.

Our goal at the Charter is to embed a culture of openness in government and make it resilient to political change. We will do this by championing a realistic vision of how open data can be a tool to enable better government – it isn’t an end in itself. This will only be possible by working with other organisations and governments committed to openness."

Link:

http://opendatacharter.net/defend-openness-threat/

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Open Access Tracking Project (OATP) » lterrat's bookmarks

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Date tagged:

06/13/2017, 19:17

Date published:

06/13/2017, 15:17