OGP: See proposals for sessions at the OGP December summit in Paris, including many on access to information.
OGP: “The inconvenient truth about the Open Government Partnership,” by Mukelani Dimba, Executive Director of the Open Democracy Advice Centre and incoming civil society chairperson of the Open Government Partnership, describes how OGP member states Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa voted against a pro-civil society resolution at the recent session of the UN’s Human Rights Council.
United States: The Justice Department will be asking all agency FOI officers for their plans to implement by Jan. 1 a “release to one – release to all” standard, Melanie Ann Pustay, director of the Department of Justice’s Office of Information Policy, said at the first meeting of the new Chief FOIA Officers Council. At the next meeting, she said, journalists will be invited to testify on their varied views on whether delayed public release should be instituted to protect journalists’ requests. See article by Luis Ferre Sadurni of the Reporters Committee of the Freedom of the Press in which some FOIA officer refused to identify themselves after speaking at the public meeting. Some FOIA officers voiced concerns about the cost of having to make more records accessible.
World Bank: “World Bank forgoes transparency, participation in addressing vulnerable groups,” a commentary by the Washington-based NGO Bank Information Center and a press release. The updated World Bank Environmental and Social Framework was endorsed for full Board consideration by the Committee on Development Effectiveness on July 20, 2016. The Board is scheduled to come to a decision on August 4, 2016.
South Africa: The group My Vote Counts files a suit seeking an order declaring the Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA) invalid and inconsistent with the Constitution, because it argues the legislation fails to ensure voters have the right to know who secretly donates money to political parties, according to a report in EWN.
Spain/Madrid: The Madrid City Council has approved what Access Info Europe called “one of the most progressive sub-national transparency regimes in Europe, encompassing proactive publication on a broad scale, the right to request information, including via anonymous requests, and a strong lobby regulation that requires the registration of lobbyists before they meet with public officials.”
Open Contracting: “From Publication to Award – The story of the missing information in the tender cycle,” an article by Mara Mendes of the Open Knowledge Foundation Deutschland. “A major shortfall in covering the whole procurement cycle is the lack of information about contract implementation,” she writes.
Bulgaria: Members of the open-source community have welcomed new legislation from Bulgaria that says software written for the country’s public sector should be open source, a development described by Andrada Fiscutean for Central European Processing.
Open Data: “Foundations for Government Storytelling: Tell the Story and Drive Action,” published by Socrat and described in this blog post, beginning: Your government’s data is only valuable if people use it. Yet most people — citizens and staff alike — aren’t trained in data analysis to interpret and comprehend complex datasets.
Open Data: “From Principles to Practice” – a consultation on joined-up data standards, from Joined-Up Data. “We at the joined-up data standards project, run jointly by Publish What You Fund and Development Initiatives, have just released a consultation paper on interoperability. The paper brings together the findings of all our research to date and draws on knowledge and ideas we have developed over the course of the year. Feedback can be provided either by email or by filling in the online feedback form.
Slovakia: “Better late than never: Bringing Government Data Into the Light: Slovakia’s Open Data Initiative, 2011-2015,” a report by Jordan Schneider.
Uganda: A case study of a partially successful effort to get procurement plans by the Arica Freedom of Information Centre.
India: Shailesh Gandhi, former Central Information Commissioner, launches a Facebook page “all about good governance and asking tough questions.”
United States: The administration issues an updated Circular A-130 providing guidance to federal agencies on general policy for the planning, budgeting, governance, acquisition, and management of federal information, personnel, equipment, funds, information technology resources and supporting infrastructure and services. “OMB has revised Circular A-130 to reflect changes in law and advances in technology, as well as to ensure consistency with Executive Orders, Presidential Directives, and other OMB policy,” according to a White House blog post. The Circular can be previewed hereand is effective July 28, 2016.
United States: ”FOIA at 50: How American Views of Transparency Have Changed,” a Time article.
United States: “How Your Taxes are Helping Some Companies Profit From the Freedom of Information Act,” an article in Inc. by Lisa Abeyta, Founder and CEO, APPCityLife.
United States/Commentary: Columnist Sean Lahman of The Democrat and Chronicle asks, “Why do we publish information on the salaries of public officials, but not the names of people who are receiving government welfare benefits?” He reports one answer: According to Robert Freeman, executive director for New York State’s Committee on Open Government, those records are exempted from the state’s Freedom of Information Law. Freeman said. “The reasoning behind this is pretty straightforward: It’s nobody’s business who is poor.”
United States: State and local governments are taking a variety of approaches to how they regulate police body camera footage. While some aim for protecting the rights of citizens, others want to limit access altogether,” according to an article by Eyragon Eidam.
Budget Transparency: An from the International Budget Partnership’s 2015 Annual Report reported that budget transparency has improved modestly over time, particularly for countries that were ranked among the least transparent in previous rounds of the survey. IBP conducted research to identify why some countries are able to raise their OBI scores above 60, and why others are only capable of more limited improvements. A new publication The Road to 61: Achieving Sufficient Levels of Budget Transparency describes the findings. “As a next step, we will partner with governments and researchers in the identified countries to dig more deeply into the political circumstances that propelled or limited progress.”
Open Data: A report on East Asia and the Pacific region based on the 3rd Edition of the World Wide Web Foundation’s Open Data Barometer.
Open Data: Open Data in Southeast Asia,” a book by Manue Stagars with the subtitle “Towards Economic Prosperity, Government Transparency, and Citizen Participation in the ASEAN.”
Book Reviews: If you have access, Governance magazine (now seeking a new editor) has several RTI-related articles in the current issue of Governance, Carolyn Warner reviews The Quest for Good Governance by Alina Mungiu-Pippidi. “It has yet to occur to the international community that corrupt actors rarely, if ever, reform themselves out of business,” Warner says. “Mungiu-Pippidi’s work is a significant contribution to our understanding of the subject, and one to which policymakers and international donors should pay attention.”
And Gaia von Hatzfeldt reviews Democracy and Transparency in the Indian State by Sharma Prashant. India’s 2005 Right to Information Act “is lauded for being both a producer and a product of an empowered and active citizenry,” von Hatzfeldt says. “Sharma Prashant provocatively and astutely questions this assumed correlation between the RTI and democratic processes.” Read the review. Gaia reviewed Sharma’s book for FreedomInfo.org in June 2015.
Austria: In cooperation with the City of Vienna, KDZ Austria has developed a procedure model for implementing open government initiatives. English version expected in August.
United States: “It’s not just Hillary Clinton. Members of Congress are careless with classified material too,” write Michael Crespin and Nathan Gerth in The Washington Post. Crespin is associate director and Gerth is assistant curator and archivist at the Carl Albert Congressional Research and Studies Center.
United States: The First Amendment Foundation in Florida asks elected officials and candidates to sign the Open Government Pledge.
Isle of Man: Cost limits could be placed on FOI requests, according to IOM Today.
United States: A controversy in the state of Maine about nondisclosure of the governor’s handwritten notes, reported by Scott Thistle of The Press Herald.
Open Data: Datopolis is a board game about building things – services, websites, devices, apps, research – using closed and open data. “It’s set in a town called Sheridan, which is gradually declining as shops close, teachers quit, hedgehogs go extinct and pollution rises. The tools players build contribute to making Sheridan a healthier, wealthier, happier place to live.” It’s an actual physical game, complete with a warning:
This game contains laser cut components. Laser cut items will have a slight amount of soot around the edges, which can easily be wiped off; and will have a campfire smell for about a week after you open them.
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