Technology plays an important part – a huge one, many might argue – in the success of the worldwide open government movement. People are creating apps, websites, databases and many other digital ways of enhancing and fostering government transparency. Our friends over at techPresident are tracking this wonderfully through their WeGov series, which we highly recommend.
If you haven't read the recent terrific posts from Tom Steinberg over at mySociety and Tiago Peixoto worrying about the labeling confusion around open government/data/everything, you should.
“Nobody is listening to your telephone calls,” said a defiant President Obama—now in full damage control mode—to a crowd Friday in California. Unfortunately for the administration, the claim is too little, too late. Had the disclosure come at the program’s inception and been justified as a way to prevent attacks at home and overseas, perhaps the reaction wouldn’t have been so intense.
The nomination of Open Government Partnership architect Samantha Power for US Ambassador to the United Nations represents a tremendous opportunity to promote government transparency and accountability around the world, especially in those countries not yet part of the nascent initiative.
Last week, Global Integrity was selected as a runner-up for the Omidyar Network Award, an award given out by the Omidyar Network to grantee organizations "who are collaborating with one another in exciting ways as well as those who are exemplifying the values of the network in their own sectors and communities."
A Minister of Transport sits drinking a beer on a restaurant patio. Across from him is the vice president of the country’s leading private railway company. A week later, a multi-million dollar public contract to connect the country’s biggest metropolis to its countryside is awarded to the same vice president’s railway company.
On May 3rd, Pan-American Freedom of Speech NGO Alianza Regional por la Libre Expresión e Información (Regional Alliance for Free Speech and Information) published a new report which analyzes media regulations in 16 countries around the region.
