Video: A two-minute animated video from The Access Initiative of the World Resources Initiative describes the potential value of participation in the decision-making about a new highway.
United Kingdom: Martin Rosenbaum in a BBC report discusses efforts to the reform the UK law. He begins: “Freedom of information has been in force in the UK for seven years now, and some people are itching to get the law changed. Next year could mark an important phase in the history of the right for the public to have access to state information.”
Brasil: Brasil will launch a national data portal on April 16, but a beta version of the portal containing 20 data sets is available, according to a press release.
United States: Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) and OpenTheGovernment.org have released a joint report, Measuring Transparency Under the FOIA: The Real Story Behind the Numbers, analyzing the government’s Freedom of Information Act data for 2010 and how it compares to the previous administration’s data. “The results paint a mixed picture, with agencies generally processing more requests more quickly, but also increasing their reliance on the FOIA’s nine exemptions to withhold more information from the public. As a result, the Obama administration has fallen short of its commitment to create a government of unparalleled transparency.”
India: The Indian government offers five fellowships for persons from the media or civil society to conduct field-based research on themes relating to RTI.
India: The Hindustani Times describes its experiences seeking minutes from ministerial groups.
Transparency Camp: An early announcement about Transparency Camp April 28-29 in Wasington, D.C., described as an “unconference” for open government: “an event where, each year, journalists, developers, technologists, policy-makers, government officials, students, academics, wonks, and everyone in between gather to share their knowledge about how to use new technologies and policies to make our government really work for the people — and to help our people work smarter with our government.”
Conference: A call for papers has been issued for the 1st Global Conference on the Knowledge Commons sponsored by the International Association for the Study of the Commons. The deadline is Jan. 31 for the abstract submission (deadline for full paper submission is July 31). More information is available on the conference website. The site explains: “ A variety of initiatives and policies have been proposed that are going beyond ‘open access,’ and aim to facilitate more effective and extensive (global) sharing on local and global pools of not only scientific information and data but also genetic resources and cultural expressions. There is thus a need to examine a number of these proposals’ conceptual foundations from the economic and legal perspectives and to analyze the roles of the public domain and commons in facilitating sharing of scientific and technical data, information and materials. The 1st Global Thematic IASC Conference on the Knowledge Commons aims to bring together leading people from a number of international scientific research communities, social science researchers, practitioners and policy analysts, to discuss the rationale and practical feasibility of institutional arrangements designed to emulate key public domain conditions for collaborative research.”
Filed under: What's New