Nordic Transparency: Access to Information in the Nordic Countries, a comparison of the laws of Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Norway and Iceland and international rules by Oluf Jørgensen (Nordicom, University of Gothenburg, Göteborg 2014, 40 pages.) “This publication explains and compares the legal rules determining public access to documents and data in Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Norway, and Iceland. In addition, international rules emanating from the United Nations, the Council of Europe and the European Union are elucidated. This publication in English is based on a more comprehensive version in Danish published in Nordicom-Information No 3/2014, Nordicom, University of Gothenburg. Download a pdf version of the publication: http://www.nordicom.gu.se/en//publikationer/access-information-nordic-countries
World Bank Webcast Series: The schedule for the World Bank’s webcast series on “transparency and information management” includes a variety of speakers. The program at 12:30 p.m. EDT Oct. 23 is with Nathanial Heller of Global. The following week will feature Prashant Sharma, an Open Society Fellow, on Transparency and Public Private Partnerships.
Other planned programs:
Nov. 6 – A case study of digital record keeping in Finland
Nov. 17 – Stephanie Trapnell of the World Bank on factors affecting right to information implementation (based on a synthesis of 12 RTI case studies).
Dec. 4 – A case study of digital record keeping in Estonia
Dec. 11 – A discussion on benchmarking records management and archival practice in developing countries
Dec. 18 – Reflections on transparency and information management – the year in retrospective
Outgoing US FOIA ombudsman Miriam Nesbit appeared Oct. 8 and the recording is here.
Commentary: Hear a recording of a talk by Prashant Sharma, an Open Society Fellow Sept. 29 on “Unintended Consequences of RTI.”
Transparency International: Transparency International sponsored a call on its Arabic Facebook page for passage of access to information laws.
Open Data: This Index is yours! A call for contributions to the Open Data Index. “This includes the very important translation of some key items into your local language.” It includes content for over 70 countries. DATASETS WANTED: Armenia, Bolivia, Georgia, Guyana, Haiti, Kosovo, Moldova, Morocco, Nicaragua, Ukraine, and Yemen.
Research: A new paper published by Making All Voices Count sheds light on existing evidence about the Random Controlled Trials (RCTS) in the evaluation of social accountability tools in service delivery.
Mapping: Waze, a public mapping application recently acquired by Google is launching a government partnership initiative aimed at providing more government data through its platform. The “Connected Citizens” program is aimed at creating a near real-time traffic information exchange between residents and the governing in order to improve public safety outcomes.
Development Transparency: ONE’s 2014 DATA Report: Fighting Poverty and Financing Africa’s Future provides the latest updates on aid spending globally and in sub-Saharan Africa, examines the composition and targeting of aid and rules for measuring ODA loans, profiles progress by the G7, the European Union and Australia, and assesses whether African countries are meeting their own budget promises and prioritizing spending on health, agriculture and education. The report offers 11 specific recommendations to improve public finance for development beyond 2015.
Open Data: An article, Barriers to the Open Government Data Agenda: Taking a Multi-Level Perspective, by Chris Martin, has been published in the journal Policy & Internet. Subscription required to read the full article. Abstract:
A loose coalition of advocates for Open Government Data (OGD) argue that such data has the potential to have a transformative impact by catalyzing innovation across sectors of the economy and by fostering democratic participation and engagement. However, there is limited evidence to date of the OGD agenda having such a transformative impact. This article applies the Multi-level Perspective (MLP); an approach more typically applied to study transitions to a sustainable society, to explore the nature of the barriers currently faced by the OGD agenda. It argues that such barriers exist in two forms: implementation barriers and barriers to use. The empirical results presented include survey responses measuring the perceptions of U.K. OGD community members of 33 barriers to the OGD data agenda. These results are analyzed to identify implications for OGD policy and practice. The article concludes with a start at establishing a theoretical grounding for the study of barriers to the OGD agenda.
Employment: The Transparency and Accountability Initiative (T/AI) is seeking a consultant to consolidate and synthesize the existing evidence related to the effectiveness and impact of Multi-Stakeholder Initiatives (MSIs) focus on governance challenges, such as government transparency and responsiveness. The Terms of Reference can be found here. Submissions are due Oct. 27.
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