[okfn-br] Fwd: Call for Papers: Workshop on Information and Transparency in the Digital Age

Quinta Novembro 29 21:10:35 UTC 2012

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Michael Bauer <>
Date: 2012/11/28
Subject

The Right to information and transparency in the digital age: Policy,
tools and practices Workshop organized by Liberation Technology
Program at Stanford University, United States, 11.-12. March, 2013

Call for Papers

Access to information has become one of the most promising tools to
combat corruption, increase people's participation in (self)
governance and thus, to strengthen democracy.  Since the 1960s there
has been a steady progress in the number of countries that have
legislated access to information laws, and over eighty countries have
such laws today.  There have also been several social developments and
innovations which embrace access to information, such as open
constitution reform process in Iceland, open innovation challenges by
the United States government, participatory budgeting processes in
Germany, Finland and Canada and social audits in India, just to
mention few. As a parallel development, the open data movement is
evolving in several countries, pushed forward by both civil society
and governments and incentivized by the global Open Government
Partnership network. These practices are supported by open innovation
and open design strategies, which the public sector is increasingly
adopting.

These open and participatory practices give tools for citizens to
monitor governments, to hold them accountable, and to practice agency
in the public sphere. The right to information and transparency
movements can be considerably strengthened by creative use of
information technologies - but realizing this potential requires us to
revisit the design of RTI policies, tools and practices to update them
to serve citizens in the digital age. In re-evaluating the tools for
accountability, we should be mindful that increased use of
accountability technologies suggests re-articulations of the power
structures in modern societies, including new forms of social control,
new spaces for public deliberation and new conceptualizations of
participation in democracy.

The workshop will convene both practitioners and academics to discuss
their work in the area and to examine the theoretical and practical
implications of these phenomena. We seek to bring together people
engaged in law, policy, social movements, administration, technology,
design and of course, the use of technology for accessing information.
 We propose to go well beyond the issue of accessing information by
looking at the use of technology to record, store, process and
disseminate public information, and to create interactive spaces in
the public sphere so that the full potential of ICT for transparency
can be realized.

We welcome submissions focusing on intersection of technology, the
right to information and participatory practices, which enhance
transparency, including, but are not limited to, the following areas:

*

1. Technology for transparency*

-   What are the design improvements and practices to improve digital tools

that are used to record, store, process and disseminate information to
empower right to information activists? How can, for instance, open
design practices enhance transparency, access to information and
participatory practices?

- How do social movements use technology, and can technology be
empowering for the poor and the marginalized or will/is it be a tool
for the privileged?

-   What are the emerging power structures in digital democracy, and what

is the role of technology in mediating and distributing power?

*

2.  Open data, open knowledge and open access*

- What is the role of open data ecosystem in the right to information
movement? What are the tools, practices and policies to encourage the
use of open data?

- How do open knowledge, open access and open science practices serve
transparency in society?*

*

*3. Open innovation and transparency *

- How does open innovation support transparency in governance, and
strengthen right to information?

*

4. Legal and policy considerations in the use of technology for right
to information *

-   What are the current limitations of right to information laws

established based in the pre-digital age, and what kinds of legal
changes are desirable in the digital age?

-   What are the legal challenges to accessing information in digital

format?

-   What are the laws that prepare the context in which the right to

information is exercised, and how should they change in the digital
age?  For example, how should public records laws and the system of
recording and managing public information adapt to play a supportive
role, and what are the best practices in public record management
systems that will enable the effective use of technology by RTI
activists?

-   What are the challenges involved in using technology to make

corporations, civil society organizations and other non-government
organizations transparent?

*

5.     Role of media and journalism in transparency*

- How do journalists use data to monitor governments? What are the
challenges in using data for monitoring and reporting as it stands
today?

- What kinds of tools, data formats or practices could enrich data
driven journalism.

*

6. Digital tools for transparency*

- How can maps help citizens hold their governments accountable? How
should information be designed such that government activities can be
mapped?

- How could public agencies use videos and photographs to record their
activities, and how can the citizen use such information effectively?

- How do citizens use modern surveillance and other monitoring
practices for transparency?

- How can satellites be used to monitor governments?

- How can mobile phones be used to record and access information

- Can better visualization of data make a difference for the right to
information movement?

- What is the role of crowdsourcing and co-creation in combatting corruption?

The deadline for submissions is 18th of January, 2013. Accepted
presenters will be informed by February 1st, 2013.

The form of submission is either full paper (maximum 25 pages) or
extended abstract (6 pages). The submissions should be sent to the
following email

address: vivekdse+rti em gmail.com<mailto:vivekdse+rti em gmail.com>.

The workshop will be organized at Stanford University in March 11-12, 2013.

The workshop is being organized by the Program on Liberation
Technology at Stanford University, an interdisciplinary program at the
intersection of political science, computer science and design
engineering.

There is no fee for participating in the conference, and participants
are expected to make their own travel and lodging arrangements.

For more information, please contact Tanja Aitamurto at
tanjaa em stanford.eduor<mailto:tanjaa em stanford.eduor> Vivek Srinivasan
at vivekdse em stanford.edu<mailto:vivekdse em stanford.edu>.

--

AnnaLee (Anno) Saxenian

Professor and Dean

UC Berkeley School of Information

Berkeley, CA 94720-4600www.ischool.berkeley.edu

--

This message was sent to
ischool em ischool.berkeley.edu<mailto:ischool em ischool.berkeley.edu>

--

https://josephhall.org/

----- End forwarded message -----

--
Data Wrangler with the Open Knowledge Foundation (OKFN.org)
GPG/PGP key: http://tentacleriot.eu/mihi.asc
Twitter: @mihi_tr Skype: mihi_tr

_______________________________________________
okfn-discuss mailing list
okfn-discuss em lists.okfn.org
http://lists.okfn.org/mailman/listinfo/okfn-discuss
Unsubscribe: http://lists.okfn.org/mailman/options/okfn-discuss

-- 
Everton Zanella Alvarenga (also Tom)
Open Knowledge Foundation Brasil