WeGov
All over the world, groups and individuals are using technology in a variety of innovative ways to increase government transparency, fight corruption, open data, and hack on civic problems. Think of sites like Ushahidi (Kenya), I Paid a Bribe (India) and Ciudad Intelligente (Chile). Everything from government policy-making to investigative reporting to local social services and civic life are being upended and reconfigured. Currently, the information available about this emerging movement is scattered across several sites and sometimes hard to find. Often, the reporting available is incomplete or out-of-date. As a result, many individuals and groups often end up having to reinvent the wheel, either repeating mistakes or developing redundant technologies to support their projects or initiatives. Furthermore, they aren’t able to benefit from the experience, advice, support, and technologies of peers working on similar projects.
Over the next year, techPresident's expanded WeGov section will endeavor to cover this emerging arena with a mix of in-depth feature reporting, daily news digests, and the development of a growing archive of articles, modules and pointers to other valuable resources.
Personal Democracy Media is thankful to the Omidyar Network for its generous support of techPresident's WeGov section.
Culture Hacking: How One Project is Changing Transparency in Chile
BY David Eaves | Wednesday, May 16 2012
A few weeks after the launch of Inspector de Intereses — a Chilean website that allows citizens to map money trails in politics — the team at La Fundación Ciudadano Inteligente, the organization behind the site, had an interesting visitor. At the doorstep stood a member of parliament, carrying a stack of papers which outlined his interest in various corporations. He had received the team’s letter inviting him — and his colleagues — to update his records, and here he was, ready to do so, in person no less.
That eager senator wasn’t alone: about 20 percent of Chilean parliamentarians took the opportunity to update their records. In a country where conflicts of interest are not regularly discussed or acknowledged, this was an interesting shift, a change in culture and in process that was part of a Ciudadano Inteligente's strategy to make more transparent the link between money and power in Chile.
Read More[OP-ED]: My Government's Commitment to the Surveillance State – the UK Queen's Speech
BY Jon Worth | Monday, May 14 2012
Jon Worth argues that the Queen's Speech, delivered last week, presages a return to the "Big Brother" state in the UK. Read More
How the German Pirate Party's "Liquid Democracy" Works
BY David Meyer | Monday, May 7 2012
In the midst of the political upheaval affecting Europe, a relatively new movement is making stunning progress, particularly in Germany. On Sunday, the Pirate Party entered its third German state parliament in eight months, demonstrating momentum that surprises even its core members. The party is now on track to pick up a double-digit percentage of the vote in next year's federal elections. And it's dealing with this explosive growth through the medium it knows best: technology. Read More
By tedeytan from Washington, DC (Library of Congress Reading Room Open House 7)
How to Evaluate the State of Open Data
BY David Eaves | Tuesday, May 8 2012
The Open Knowledge Foundation recently announced that it will organize and coordinate an Open Data Census. The intent is to create a basic baseline against which governments can measured around how much (and how ... Read More
Why Open Corporate Data Matters
BY David Eaves | Tuesday, May 1 2012
We don’t normally think of corporate data as democratic data. But limited liability – the right to have an legal entity that protects its shareholders from personal bankruptcy – is an enormous privilege conferred by the state to individuals. In a 19th century democracy – to say nothing of a 21st century one - who is making use of this privilege, and to what ends, should be a right of public knowledge. Here's why--and a new report on who is doing it well. (The bad news is, no one.) Read More
The Opportunities and Challenges of the Open Government Partnership
BY David Eaves | Monday, April 23 2012
A multilateral partnership on open government and transparency, the Open Government Partnership is still in a formative stage — just learning how to walk. But it will be tested early by a number of issues and how the steering committee reacts over the next few months are likely to determine the fate of the initiative — whether it becomes a transformative body that fosters and supports strong new expectations for what qualifies a country as open and democratic or if it becomes more of a talking shop, like the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, which shepherds along more incremental progress. Read More
Announcing "WeGov," Covering Technology in Politics and Governance Worldwide
BY Micah L. Sifry and Andrew Rasiej | Monday, April 16 2012
Welcome to WeGov, the newest experiment at Personal Democracy Media and a special new section of techPresident that we are launching today with the financial support of the Omidyar Network. This new section of techPresident has a simple but ambitious goal: To report on the stories of efforts around the world to reshape politics and governance using technology, and to assess the impact of those efforts. Read More
U.S., Brazil To Lead International Open Government Partnership
BY Nick Judd | Tuesday, July 12 2011
Ask the State Department and it is a return to a challenge President Barack Obama issued at the last U.N. General Assembly, encouraging other countries to embrace open government. Ask some observers, and it is a return to the American practice of democracy building, just under a different name. Either way, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Brazilian Foreign Minister Antonio Patriota this morning announced international partnership to promote transparency, citizen participation, and accountability in participating countries. The event was streamed live on State.gov. Read More
The Three Branches of We.Gov
BY Micah L. Sifry | Monday, September 14 2009
There’s a very interesting confluence of conversations taking place at the moment on the topic of how technology is changing politics. One is on the idea of government 2.0, or government-as-a-platform. The second is on ... Read More
In Search of a New American Vision at Netroots Nation and Right Online
BY Micah L. Sifry | Monday, June 20 2011
The Right knows what it wants, but its base needs to learn how to better use technology. The Left knows how to use tech, but its base needs to figure out what it wants. Both can't help but be reactive to each other. And ... Read More
New Pew Report on "Govt Online" Shows Big Citizen Participation But Little Govt Engagement
BY Micah L. Sifry | Tuesday, April 27 2010
"The more we can enlist the American people to pay attention and be involved, that's the only way we are going move an agenda forward. That's how we are going to counteract the special interests." --Barack Obama, ... Read More
Bright Lights, Small City: Is Tiny Roosevelt Island a Microcosm of Urban Innovation's Future?
BY Nick Judd | Monday, May 9 2011
The Roosevelt Island tram, one of the only urban tram systems in the country. Photo: Shinya Suzuki / flickr Jonathan Kalkin gets excited when he talks about his latest scheme, a plan to build one of the world's first ... Read More
"The Two Tribes of Open Government"?
BY Nancy Scola | Monday, May 9 2011
The Project on Government Oversight's Danielle Brian takes issue with former White House Deputy CTO Beth Noveck's breaking down of the open government space into "Good government reformers who focus on a certain ... Read More
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