Shamparency: A new (?) term used in an article about a new advocacy group formed by President Obama to advocate for his agenda (and about which there are some transparency concerns. The article is focused on the controversial organization of the new group, but the Slate author, David Weigel, begins:
Coin a neologism to describe fake transparency. I’ve come up with “shamparency” and nothing better to describe the way Organization for Action kicked off its founding conference in D.C.
Zombie Transparency: Revenue Watch Institute’s blog reports a speech by RWI President Daniel Kaufmann in which he listed on four “powers” that will strengthen efforts to establish transparency and accountability as international standards: Data, Smart transparency, Incentives and Partnerships. The blog entry by Suzanne Ito recounts:
Access to information is critical, but only if it is “smart transparency,” for not all transparency is effective. “Zombie transparency” is opaque, aggregated information. “Partial transparency” includes disclosure of only revenues rather than contracts, expenditures, sovereign funds and other valuable information.
Transparency/Accountability: Vanessa Herringshaw, diretcor of the Transparency & Accountability Initiative, looks at the accomplishments of the transparency & accountability field and asks about future directtions. This blog post links to a workshop T/AI is hosting in New York March 13-14. See here. Twitter #tafuture.
Open Data: “There is a high risk that open data will not meet international expectations if inaccurate data is used for economic forecasting, development planning or holding governments accountable,” writes Anne Thurston, founder and director of the International Records Management Trust in The Guardian.
China: Two publications of relevance:
China Government Transparency Watch, which focuses on freedom of information in China.
Public Participation Watch, which focus on public participation in governance, but includes stories on openness of government information.
These two free journals have been published since November of 2009 and are electronic. They are produced by a nonprofit organization, CPPSS of Peking University, and rely on the work of law students. They are primarily in Chinese, but include some English summaries and articles. Transparency Watch begins with cartoons! Both are available here. Transparency Watch is on the left side, second box down.
Governance: Readers respond to Governance magazine’s article, by Francis Fukuyama, “What is Governance?“ Get free access to the commentary and read the responses on the Governance blog.
Canada: A new section on the website of the Information Commissioner about FOI court cases.
Research: Understanding the Complex Dynamics of Transparency,” by Albert Meijer, published in Public Administration Review. Albert Meijer is associate professor of public management at the Utrecht School of Governance. Abstract:
This article contributes to the growing body of literature on government transparency by developing a model for studying the construction of transparency in interactions between governments and stakeholders. Building on theories about complex decision making, a heuristic model is developed that consists of a strategic, a cognitive, and an institutional perspective. To test the model’s value, it is applied to two empirical cases: Dutch schools and the Council of the European Union. Applying the model to the school case provides insights into the connection between the introduction of transparency and the transformation in arrangements for safeguarding school quality. The case of the Council of the European Union highlights the role of transparency in the transformation of the council from a supranational to an intergovernmental body. The article concludes that the heuristic model, together with in-depth, longitudinal case studies, helps us understand government transparency in relation to broader transformations in the public sector.
European Union: George Soros, founder of the Open Society Foundations criticized Royal Dutch Shell for pressuring the Netherlands government to weaken proposed European Union disclosure rules, pressure that the Dutch government indicated it had decided to resist. “It promised to endorse rules that did not grant companies exemptions reporting country-by-country the payments made to governments,” Suzanne Ito reports in a blog for Revenue Watch Institute.
EITI: Also in the RWI blog, Ito also wrote about the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative’s board meeting in Oslo, saying the board decided to require project-by-project reporting of companies’ payments to governments in EITI reconciliation reports. “The international oil and gas company representatives attending the Oslo meeting opposed requiring contract transparency, while the implementing country and civil society representatives strongly supported making it a requirement.”
Ireland: It’s almost St Patrick’s Day. Keep up on Irish news at FOIreland.
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