OGP Access Working Group: The OGP Access to Information Working Group announces a process for creating a new steering committee “to support implementation of the work plan, help set direction for the working group, and assure a more robust and vibrant engagement of different members and stakeholders.” The process envisions self-nomination and an election by all members. There will be 8 members of the steering committee (one government representative and one civil society representative from each of 4 regions) plus the co-anchors. If you are interested in being a part of the OGP ATI Steering Committee, complete the attached form and return it to megan.card@cartercenter.org by March 18 with a CV. OGP ATI WG Steering Committee App_FINAL_with fillable text
Australia: A speech by David Fricker, director general of the National Archives of Australia and president of the International Council on Archives, who says governments need to start valuing the information they create. “The most debated so far is the suggestion that the Freedom of Information Act be amended to increase confidentiality around public service policy advice and opinion,” the article says. Fricker? warns senior public servants that their approach to information management is fostering low levels of trust with the public. He says a renewed focus on digital recordkeeping could help improve public trust and accountability, according to The Canberra Times.
Myanmar: Civil society representatives representing a range of diverse interests form a National Right to Information Working Group.
Japan: A court has recognized the “right to be forgotten” — the first ruling of its kind in Japan — in a case filed by a man demanding Google Inc. remove three-year-old news reports of his arrest in connection to child prostitution and pornography, according to newly discovered court documents, The Japan Times reports.
United States: Two college professors will discuss whether government is “too open” on March 15 at the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute in Columbia, Missouri. Bruce Cain of Stanford University will argue that US government is now too open. Charles Lewis of American University disagrees. Watch the webcast here.
United States: “The Role of Automation in FOIA Compliance” by AINS employee and FOIA software expert Cindy Dillow in Information Management Magazine.
SDGs: A forward-looking article by Thomas Wheeler on the governance goal (16) in the Sustainable Development Goals.
Canada: Proposals on how to make the government more open are being kept secret by the Treasury Board Secretariat, reports The Star and others. Requests via the access law for recent briefing notes and memos on possible reforms were partially denied.
Pakistan: “It is extremely unfortunate that a democratically-elected government has chosen to strengthen the secrecy narrative at the expense of the transparency narrative, by raising the bogey of the ‘changing security situation’,” writes Zahid Abdullah, an author associated with Centre for Peace and Development Initiatives.
Australia: New South Wales officials are significantly cutting the flow of information to the public, according to a report by Information Commissioner Elizabeth Tydd, described in this review.
Accountability Research: A report by the Transparency & Accountability Initiative, Connecting the Dots for Accountability, “argues that efforts to strengthen accountability should adopt approaches that strategically ‘connect the dots’ across actors, mechanisms and levels of governance.”
India: The Delhi High Court amends its RTI Rules following a petition filed by law students who objected to high fees, according to a LiveLaw article.
Open Data/Ghana: The Ghana Open Data Initiative “is too narrowly focused on the supply side of the project,” according to an article, “One way traffic: The open data initiative project and the need for an effective demand side initiative in Ghana,” an article by Frank L. K. Ohemeng is an assistant professor of public administration at the School of Political Studies, University of Ottawa, and administration and management, and comparative public policy, and Kwaku Ofosu-Adarkwa, a retired Chief Director of the Ministry of Communication, and is finishing his PhD at the Department of ICT, at the Accra Institute of Technology/Open University of Malaysia.
EITI: Civil society organization at the 2016 Global EITI conference in Lima protest “the improper and illegitimate interference in civil society’s right to self-selection of their representatives to the EITI International Board and the addition of a civil society candidate to the list of civil society nominees, without the support of the broad civil society constituency,” according to a PublishWhatYouPay statement.
OGP: Veronica Cretu writes “Co-creating public policies or ways to bring citizens into the process” that “looks into a number of key pre-conditions needed for a constructive, participatory, inclusive, open and transparent co-creation processes around public policy.”
United States: The Virginia governor makes wholesale changes to an open records bill, “rejecting legislation meant to force state agencies and local governments to release as much of sensitive public documents as they can,” reports The Daily Press and the Virginian Coalition for Open Government campaigning to preserve the bill. Virginia state lawmakers rejected a bill to keep policy officers’ names secret, the Washington Post says.
Open Data/United States: State legislators and officials testify about the problems and potential for state open data initiatives, reports Jason Shueh, a staff writer for Government Technology magazine.
Open Data/Africa: Unlocking the data that can help people monitor what their governments are really up to is bolstering democracy in many African countries,” according to a Guardian article by Stephen Abbott Pugh of Code for Africa.
United States: “FixFOIAby50 gains momentum,” writes Adam Marshall of the Reporters Committee for the Freedom of the Press. He also describes a legislative attempt on Florida to nix attorney fees for successful FOIA litigants.
Open Data/US: “How (and why!) Boston uses Open Data to show what’s going wrong,” according to a Smart Cities Council article.
Vietnam: Experts gather to discuss bills on the right to information and freedom of the press, according to an article (in French) in Vietnam+.
India: Questions are raised about the closing by the Telangana state government of a webpage for sharing of government orders, as described in a Hindu article.
United States: Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder releases more e-mails about the Flint water crisis, a Detroit Free Press article explains.
Open Data: Omidyar Network co-hosted an event that explored how data about the extractive industries can be used for storytelling, writes Andrew Clarke.
Scotland: A special website has been set up by Transport Scotland and Amey in response to over 30 Freedom of Information requests since the closure of the Forth Road Bridge on Dec. 4, 2015.
Open Budgets: “Digital Budgets: Improving How Fiscal Information is Disseminated Online,” a report from the International Budget Partnership.
Philippines: “Learning to Transform Governance in the Philippines,” written by Blair Glencorse, Accountability Lab Executive Director.
Democratic Republic of the Congo: A report (in French) on a workshop on access to information organized by the Collectif 24 with the support of Internews.
Australia: The Canberra Times reports on a controversial report titled “The Blunders of Our Governments” by a former minister, Peter Shergold.
Mexico: The National Institute of Transparency, Access to Information has agreed to cut its operating expenses by five percent next year, papers such as El Ecnomista report.
Commentary: Writing in Economia Michael Izza, chief executive of The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales questions allowing access to tax records.
Australia: The Administrative Appeals Tribunal has said that processing time should not include time spent consulting with third parties if those consultations were not required under the FOI Act, according to guidance from lawyers at the Clayton Utz firm.
Open Data: Commentary on future directions by Andreas Addison, civic innovator for Richmond, Va.
Open Data: “Open Data publishers must adapt their media to a large spectrum of data customers,” writes Nicholas Terpolilli, also saying, “Now we need a Netflix/Medium/Spotify kind of experience for data discovery!”
Strategy: The World Bank issues “Evaluating Digital Citizen Engagement – a Practical Guide.”
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