Posts Tagged ‘open data’
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25 March 2015
Ukraine Advances Bill to Post More Information Online
The Ukrainian Parliament March 5 gave preliminary approval (with 243 votes) to a law that would make more public information available online and free of charge, according to an article by Boxhena Sheremeta in the Kiev Post. Government agencies would have to publish operational data, statistics and reports on a national open data web platform. […]
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12 March 2015
FOI Notes: Open Data, World Bank, FOI Research, Mexico, US, India, Construction Transparency
United States: The FOIA Project is conducting a poll on the “worst FOIA failure,” with six candidates. Awlaki Memo FBI Drones Snowden Damage Secret Surveillance Bay of Pigs History Kennedy FBI File Open Data/FOI: Reflections by Lauranellen McCann urges attention to the civic role of technology, not just the proliferation of tools. Looking back at […]
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26 February 2015
FOI Notes: Country Reports, Open Data, US States, More
Canada: “Alberta Premier Jim Prentice has personally ordered that documents from all general freedom of information requests be publicly posted, despite serious concerns from the civil servants responsible for implementing the new policy, CBC News has learned.” according to a CBC report that highlights negative reactions to the move. Oregon: Incoming governor Kate Brown announces […]
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19 February 2015
FOI Notes: Research, Country News, Tips, More
FOI Research: Gregory Michener has an article in Governance titled “How Cabinet Size and Legislative Control Shape the Strength of Transparency Laws.” Also see shorter version in Democratic Audit UK. Summary: When are governments likely to adopt strong transparency laws? Greg Michener says that too much of the existing research has tried to answer that […]
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22 January 2015
FOI Notes: Many Countries, Many Transparency Topics
Scotland: Reforms are necessary to counter the erosion the law, according to an anniversary report by Scottish Information Commissioner Rosemary Agnew. India: “What has ten years of RTI achieved?” asks the headline to an article in The Tribune by Pamerla Philipose. Open Government Partnership: “What to watch for in 2015,” an outlook article by the OGP staff. […]
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21 January 2015
Open Data Barometer Finds Low Pressure, Small Gains
Only “small gains” have occurred in the availability of open data in 86 countries, according to the second edition of the Open Data Barometer. “There is still a long way to go to put the power of data in the hands of citizens,” according to the report issued Jan. 20 by the Worldwide Web Foundation. […]
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15 January 2015
FOI Notes: Training, Spain, Aid, Extractives, Nigeria, UK, India, US, Open Data
FOI Training: The right to information is one of six topics in a training program developed by Development Initiatives “to develop and strengthen the skills, capacities and strategic visions of civil society organisations working in the areas of aid and budget analysis, monitoring and advocacy.” Nigeria: Seember Nyager, CEO at the Public and Private Development […]
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11 December 2014
From Open Data to a Right to Data
The following article is reprinted from the Worldwide Web Foundation website where it appeared Dec. 9. For more information, contact Savita Bailur, savita.bailur@webfoundation.org FreedomInfo.org is interested in your reactions to this article. Please send comments to freeinfo@gwu.edu. “Data are the lifeblood of decision-making and the raw material for accountability,” says a new UN report. We couldn’t […]
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26 November 2014
UN Expert Group Issues Report on `Data Revolution’
The UN Secretary-General’s Independent Expert Advisory Group on a Data Revolution for Sustainable Development (IEAG) presented a report, A World That Counts: Mobilising The Data Revolution for Sustainable Development. Among its recommendations the group of over 20 international experts convened by the Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon proposed that the UN establish a process whereby key stakeholders create a “Global […]
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6 November 2014
FOI Notes: Corporate Transparency, Tshwane, India, UK, US, Open Data, More
Corporate Transparency: Transparency International issues a report on Transparency in Corporate Reporting about the websites of the world’s 124 largest publicly traded companies. Also see Guardian article. Tshwane Principles: Open Society Foundations issues “a new and final version of the Global Principles on National Security and the Right to Information (the Tshwane Principles) in Spanish. […]
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30 October 2014
FOI Notes: UK, India, UK, OGP, Open Budgets, Pakistan, More
United Kingdom: Joe Reddington in a blog post writes about a paper by Alexander J Fowler, and others: “The UK Freedom of Information Act (2000) in healthcare research: a systematic review.“ In an interview, Fowler says among other things: I think the FOI Act is a hugely powerful tool for medical research – especially policy type […]
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29 October 2014
Court Finds Database Redaction Too Burdensome
By Harry Hammit Hammit is publisher of Access Reports, a bi-monthly report on U.S. and Canadian freedom of information legal developments. A ruling by Judge Rudolph Contreras finding that personally identifying information contained in several FTC complaint databases is protected by Exemption 6 (invasion of privacy), while almost certainly correct based on case law interpretation, […]
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11 September 2014
OGP Group Proposes Draft Open Data Charter
A draft international Open Data Charter is being proposed by the Open Government Partnership Open Data Working Group Steering Committee. “This Charter is based on the principles of the G8 Open Data Charter,” according to an announcement which continued, “It has been lightly revised from the original G8 language to make it more internationally focused.” […]
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7 August 2014
FOI Notes: Russia, Africa, Open Data, OGP, US, Germany, India, More
Russia: Russia’s Federal Migration Service is seeking to deport the American wife of Ivan Y. Pavlov, the founder of the Institute for Freedom of Information Development, the New York Times reported. His wife, Jennifer Gaspar, has lived in Russia for a decade, working for a variety of nongovernmental organizations, including groups focused on human rights […]
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24 July 2014
FOI Notes: Arabic ATI Guide, OGP in LA, OKFest, Contest, Open Data, Job Posting
ATI Guide in Arabic: An Arabic version of the Guide on ATI, published by UNESCO in April, is available. Latin America: Winds of Change: The Progress of Open Government Policymaking in Latin America and the Caribbean, a book in English and Spanish, reviews activities in 15 countries under theOpen Government Partnership. 2014 OK Festival: A […]
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8 July 2014
FOI Notes: Australia, Pakistan, UK, US, Open Data
Australia: The government has made FOI statistics available in a machine-readable format, according to a report in Computer World. Pakistan: “The State of Right to Information in Pakistan” by the Centre for Peace and Development Initiatives (CPDI) recommends steps to implement the new RTI laws in the states of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab. In a nationwide […]
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1 July 2014
When Open Data Isn’t Enough
By Júlia Keser? This article was published July 1 on the Sunlight Foundation blog. Keser? is Sunlight’s International Policy Manager. As part of our thinking about how open data relates to government transparency, we at Sunlight have been writing and speaking a lot about why we think open data by itself does not automatically produce the transparency that allows us to […]
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20 June 2014
Open Data Would Benefit G20 Economies, New Study Says
Improved utilization of data could achieve more than half of the G20’s 2 percent growth target, according to a new report. The report, Open for Business, was released in Canberra June 19 by Nicholas Gruen, economist and chief executive office of Lateral Economics. The report was commissioned by the Omidyar Network and is also described in […]
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20 June 2014
FOI Notes: Transparency Research, RTI on Wheels, FOI T-Shirt, Request of the Week
RTI on Wheels: A mobile van to spread the word about RTI is traveling for 10 days through Jammu and Kashmir in India, sponsored by NGO Gujarat Pahel, according to Free Press article. Open Data: “Putting Open Data to Work for Communities,” a report by the US National Neighborhood Indicators Partnership, a network of local organizations […]
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16 May 2014
President Obama Signs Spending Transparency Bill
President Barack Obama on May 9 signed legislation aimed at standardizing and publishing the federal government’s spending data. The Digital Accountability and Transparency Act, known as the DATA Act (S. 994) would require the Treasury secretary and the director of the Office of Management and Budget to establish government-wide financial data standards. (See previous FreedomInfo.org […]