Invitation to a Bar Camp on "Technology, Transparency and Accountability" in Delhi, India

[Laina]

Dear all,

Accountability Initiative (AI) is pleased to announce that it’s
holding a bar-camp on “Technology, Transparency and Accountability” on
the 5th and 6th of June at Delhi. Details can be found here -
http://accountabilityindia.in/events/2239-technology-accountability-transparency-camp

Founded in 2008, AI is a research initiative that aims to improve the
quality of public services in India by promoting informed and
accountable governance. To this end, one of AI's key efforts is to
develop innovative models for tracking government led social sector
programs in India. The Centre for Policy Research, an independent and
non-partisan research institute and think-tank, is the institutional
anchor for this initiative.

It is now widely accepted that greater transparency – access to
information and data on the day to day functioning of government – is
key to creating accountable and effective governance systems. The
Right to Information Act (2005) has played a significant role in
strengthening transparency by committing the government to both
proactively providing citizens with information and also responding to
specific information requests. While the Act has met much success –
RTI applications are growing by the day - there remain concerns
related to quality, and reliability of information and data provided.
Moreover, there are still many gaps in the Government’s efforts to
proactively disclose information and data of public relevance.

Technology is one of many tools that can help address these gaps.
There are some incredible initiatives taking place across the world on
opening government data and on getting data to work for ordinary
citizens. Through the bar camp, we hope to create a platform for
technologists to share these technologies and contribute to the debate
on strengthening accountability and transparency.

Equally, we believe that technology solutions can be significantly
enhanced if they are developed in consultation with people working on
the ground, people who deal with the challenges of our current
governance systems in India. By organizing a bar camp, we at AI want
to initiate a conversation between technology specialists and people
working on the ground. Through the bar camp, we intend to create a
space where people can share their knowledge about how best to use new
technologies to make our government really work for the people.

If there's anybody interested in participating in this camp, please
drop me a mail at lemm...@accountabilityindia.org

Warm regards
Laina