Technology for Transparency Update

[David Sasaki]

Dear All,

Other than the initial announcement I sent out on January 20th about the launch of http://transparency.globalvoicesonline.org/, this is our first update on the mailing list. Welcome to all of you - so far we have 87 subscribers to this mailing list and I expect that the number will grow over the next few months as we lead up to our Global Voices Summit on May 6 & 7 in Santiago, Chile where our researchers will present their findings on technology for transparency projects in Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia, South Asia, China, and Central & Eastern Europe. That first week of May we will also publish and distribute a more in-depth paper that aims to 1) frame and contextualize transparency and accountability in developing democracies, 2) examine the related role of technology from a critical perspective, 3) and make recommendations to funders, civil society organizations, and technologists about how to more effectively implement technology in order to increase government transparency and accountability in developing democracies.

For a basic introduction to this project please see:

http://transparency.globalvoicesonline.org/about

So far we have published 12 case studies on the website and 10 podcast episodes. You can subscribe to the podcast here:

itpc://transparency.globalvoicesonline.org/podcast

It's a great way to get your dose of technology for transparency news while stuck in traffic or at the gym. I have also written an overview of our first round of case studies and some common themes we observed:

http://globalvoicesonline.org/2010/03/02/the-technology-for-transparency-review-part-i/

Finally, in addition to documenting and evaluating projects, we also hope to inspire conversation and constructive criticism about the best ideas that should be replicated and how projects can improve to more effectively achieve their goals.

There is an interesting conversation about information can turn into increased accountability in Kibera, one of the world's largest slums outside of Nairobi:

http://transparency.globalvoicesonline.org/project/map-kibera#comment-35

There is also a very interesting conversation taking place on the comment thread of a post by Rebekah Heacock about a failed World Bank ICT project in Southern Sudan and what lessons it can lend to activists thinking about the use of technology in Sudan's April general election - the first time the country has held general elections in over 20 years:

http://globalvoicesonline.org/2010/03/04/sudan-is-ict-all-its-cracked-up-to-be/

I encourage everyone to take part in those conversations.

This mailing list is also meant to be a conversational space for all topics related to the intersection of technology with transparency, accountability, and civic engagement - with a special focus on developing democracies.

Please feel free to introduce yourself and let us know what's on your mind. In the future I might try to facilitate some more specific discussions.

All the best,

David

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David Sasaki | outr...@globalvoicesonline.org

Director of Rising Voices

http://rising.globalvoicesonline.org

gtalk: osopecoso | skype: elosopecoso

http://el-oso.net/blog

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[Michelle Thorne]

Hi all,

It's great to meet you. My name is Michelle Thorne, and I work for Creative Commons, a non-profit organization that develops free legal tools to help people share their creative works. Right now we're seeing a lot of international activity with local and national governments who are opening up their information and improving access and facilitating reuse. It's an exciting time for networks like this one, and I'm really looking forward to the discussions and documentation that arises from it.

Thanks, David, for bringing us together!

Warm wishes from Berlin,

// Michelle

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Michelle Thorne
Eisenacher Strasse 2
10777 Berlin, Germany
+49 302 191 582 66

creativecommons.org/international

[Andrew Lewman]

Following David and Michelle's lead,

It's great to virtually meet you. I run The Tor Project which carries out research and development into online privacy and anonymity. We've been working with a few data collection organizations who find themselves under increasing scrutiny in various locales. Some of these organizations have been in a country for years without any issues; until someone in a government or powerful company realizes the aggregated data could be used to tell a different story. Overall, the accountability and increased transparency is a positive process, however the tools of freedom can frequently be turned into tools for control by those in power. We're all here to help.

I look forward to the conversations.

--
Andrew Lewman
The Tor Project
pgp 0x31B0974B

Website: https://www.torproject.org/
Blog: https://blog.torproject.org/
Identi.ca: torproject