Photo Contest: Winners were announced for the photo contest organised by FOIAnet (the Freedom of Information Advocates Network). There were over 120 entries. A total of 1,000 euros will be awarded to the winners.You can see the photos online here: http://bit.ly/2012FOIAPhotos
The winners are:
1st place. Photo: “The other access” by Ranaivosoa Tolojanahary from Madagascar.
2nd Place. Photo: “I have a right to know” by Ramesh Soni, from Dhar, India.
3rd Place. Photo: “The Godfather” by Rajarshi Chowdhury, from Bangalore, India
OpenGovHUB: A new space for those “working in the transparency and accountability space” has been established in Washington. OpenGov Hub (www.opengovhub.org) opened its doors on Oct. 1 to recently overhauled office space of Development Gateway, a founding OpenGov Hub anchor tenant, announced Global Integrity. Other participants are: Development Gateway, Open Government Partnership, Accountability Lab, Institute for Social Policy and Understanding, FrontlineSMS ReThink Media, GroundTruth Initiative, Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT), and Ushahidi.
Job: The World Resources Institute seeks an Associate/Senior Associate for The Access Team. The Access Team serves as the Global Secretariat for the Access Initiative (TAI). “The Access Initiative is the world’s largest network of civil society organizations dedicated to ensuring that communities have the right and ability to influence decisions that affect the natural resource they depend on. TAI works on strengthening freedom of information laws; strengthening participation in environmental impact assessment and policy decisions on natural resources and opening courts and tribunals to serve the public in cases of environmental harm. The Team also services a number of new initiatives on climate adaptation, supporting regional developments on procedural rights, access to information for public health and the environment and access to information in Africa.”
Job: A Fund manager is being sought for “Making All Voices Count: A Grand Challenge for Development” an effort that brings together the Department for International Development (DFID), US Agency for International Development (USAID), Omidyar Network (ON) and other funders to create a fund in the region of $30-35 million, to support innovation, scaling-up and research in the use of technology to support open government and citizen engagement. MAVC will run until 2016. . All documentation related to this tender is available through the DFID suppliers portal (http://www.dfid.gov.uk/Work-with-us/DFID-portal/). The deadline is Nov. 5.
Case Law: Right2info.org has placed 55 case summaries from 21 countries with links to the texts of the decisions in a Freedom of Information Case Law Database. The database has four search options to help you navigate through the summaries. All search functions are described in detail in the User Guide that can also be found on the website.
Case Law: The African Network of Constitutional Lawyers Access to Information Committee has a collection of 16 cases from South Africa, Uganda, Nigeria, Kenya and Zambia.
Scientific Information: An article in Science magazine addresses the issue of whether scientific researchers need more protections.
Open Data: A summary of the Open Knowledge Foundation conference in Finland by Pia Waugh.
Research: A book edited by In M. Holzer & A. Manoharan, E-Governance and Civic Engagement: Factors and Determinants of E-Democracy, addresses a variety of transparency topics. One chapter is on the topic “Exploring Determinants of Governmental Transparency: The Case of Proactive Dissemination.” Contact Erin Borry at borry@ku.edu for a copy of the chapter. It reports on the proactive dissemination behaviors of New Jersey’s 566 municipalities resulting from a content analysis of their websites. Another chapter is “E-Government for Transparency in Mexico: Advances and Limits in Promoting Open Government and Citizen Engagement, by Cristina Galíndez-Hernández (Cívicus Consultores, México) and Ernesto Velasco-Sánchez (Cívicus Consultores, México. Other chapters deal with e-governance, the digital divide, and e-participation.
Open Data: The Indian government portal data.gov.in, which will be used to share official data with the public, is set to be fully functional soon.
Technology: “Exploring the Area of Tech for Engagement,” a Knight Foundation report, and blog post on related funding.
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