[Okfn-irl] Next Steps for OGP in Ireland?

Sun Jan 12 13:53:14 UTC 2014

Dear Nat,

Sorry, we should certainly have made the point you mention below in our reply to Denis; we had in fact expected that we would have been able to make the announcement on the regional conference at an earlier stage and certainly before the Christmas break.

Hopefully any confusion caused by us not doing so has been cleared up.

Kind Regards,

William

William Beausang
Head of Government Reform Unit and Civil Service HR Policy Division
Department of Public Expenditure and Reform
7/9 Merrion Row
Dublin 2
Ireland
Tel. +353 1 6045433
Mob. +353 86 1729303

From: Nat O'Connor [mailto:noconnor at tasc.ie]
Sent: 08 January 2014 12:50
To: McCann, Conor; 'Denis Parfenov'
Cc: open-data-ireland at googlegroups.com; open-government-ireland at googlegroups.com; okfn-irl at lists.okfn.org; admin at ogpireland.ie; Martinez, Claire; 'Nat O'Connor'; Beausang, William; O'Connor, Evelyn
Subject: RE: Next Steps for OGP in Ireland?

Dear Denis and Conor,

Just to add, I didn't circulate the initial reply to my letter at the time, as the Department was waiting for the Minister's public announcement of the Europe Regional Meeting and asked that the response not be circulated until then.

I would add to Denis's enthusiasm, as I think the Regional Meeting will be a great showcase for OGP and will hopefully lead to increased public enthusiasm and interest for open government.

Kind regards,

Nat

From: McCann, Conor [mailto:Conor.McCann at per.gov.ie]
Sent: 08 January 2014 09:58
To: Denis Parfenov
Cc: open-data-ireland at googlegroups.com<mailto:open-data-ireland at googlegroups.com>; open-government-ireland at googlegroups.com<mailto:open-government-ireland at googlegroups.com>; <okfn-irl at lists.okfn.org<mailto:okfn-irl at lists.okfn.org>>; admin at ogpireland.ie<mailto:admin at ogpireland.ie>; Martinez, Claire; Nat O'Connor; Beausang, William; O'Connor, Evelyn
Subject: RE: Next Steps for OGP in Ireland?

Dear Denis,

Thank you for your email, and for bringing our attention to the establishment of the OGP Ireland 'Crowdhall'. We will take note of any recommendations that emerge from the group.

Regarding Nat O'Connor's letter, please see the attached email, which contains our response to Nat - issued on December 5.

Regards,
Conor

From: denis.parfenov at gmail.com<mailto:denis.parfenov at gmail.com> [mailto:denis.parfenov at gmail.com] On Behalf Of Denis Parfenov
Sent: 08 January 2014 08:48
To: McCann, Conor
Cc: open-data-ireland at googlegroups.com<mailto:open-data-ireland at googlegroups.com>; open-government-ireland at googlegroups.com<mailto:open-government-ireland at googlegroups.com>; <okfn-irl at lists.okfn.org<mailto:okfn-irl at lists.okfn.org>>; admin at ogpireland.ie<mailto:admin at ogpireland.ie>; Martinez, Claire; Nat O'Connor; Beausang, William
Subject: Re: Next Steps for OGP in Ireland?

*Apologies for any cross-posting*

Dear Conor,

Once again, thank you for sharing news regarding the plans to hold the OGP Europe Regional Meeting<http://per.gov.ie/2014/01/06/ireland-to-host-open-government-partnership-ogp-europe-regional-meeting-in-2014/> in Dublin in May 2013. I believe we have a fantastic opportunity to increase awareness about OGP and opportunities for Open Data in Ireland.

I would like to draw your attention to an absence of response on Nat O'Connor's letter<https://groups.google.com/forum/#%21topic/open-government-ireland/x3rsP2DwWq0> dated 22nd November 2013, where an ad-hoc group of civil society members outlined a suggested way forward in terms of the collaboration between government and civil society on the development of the first Irish National Action plan.

Also, I would like to bring to your attention that at the meeting between DPER and representatives of civil society on June 26th<https://groups.google.com/forum/#%21topic/open-government-ireland/3XxjHe22aJo> we discussed the importance of public deliberation online. Subsequently, we looked at suitability of four platforms<https://groups.google.com/forum/#%21topic/open-government-ireland/3XxjHe22aJo> suggested by the OGP and Global Integrity and established that http://crowdhall.com/ is the most adequate for us. As a result we have set up an instance of 'Crowdhall' specifically for the Irish OGP consultation process: http://crowdhall.com/h/52

This platform can be useful for the public online deliberation of the 62+10<http://per.gov.ie/open-government-partnership-ogp/> suggestions generated during the initial consultation process that took place between July and September 2013. Crowdhall allows for the generation of a unique URL for each one of the action plan items.  This can facilitate a public deliberation on each commitment online and an ability for civil society to rate and rank commitments.

For example, Fingal County Council: Submission to Open Government Partnership Ireland Consultation: https://crowdhall.com/h/52/p/402 (tweet: https://twitter.com/opengovIRL/status/420663295754792960)

I hope this is helpful.

Best regards,

Denis Parfenov

--

Denis Parfenov // OKF Ambassador for Ireland // m: +353863850044 //  @prfnv<https://twitter.com/prfnv> // http://okfirl.org/
The Open Knowledge Foundation Empowering through Open Knowledge http://okfn.org/

On 22 November 2013 15:19, Nat O'Connor <natoconnor at gmail.com<mailto:natoconnor at gmail.com>> wrote:

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Nat O'Connor <noconnor at tascnet.ie<mailto:noconnor at tascnet.ie>>
Date: Fri, Nov 22, 2013 at 3:09 PM
Subject: Next Steps for OGP in Ireland?
To: "Beausang, William(William.Beausang at per.gov.ie<mailto:William.Beausang at per.gov.ie>)" <William.Beausang at per.gov.ie<mailto:William.Beausang at per.gov.ie>>
Cc: admin at ogpireland.ie<mailto:admin at ogpireland.ie>, communications at ogpireland.ie<mailto:communications at ogpireland.ie>, okfn-irl at lists.okfn.org<mailto:okfn-irl at lists.okfn.org>, open-data-ireland at googlegroups.com<mailto:open-data-ireland at googlegroups.com>, open-government-ireland at googlegroups.com<mailto:open-government-ireland at googlegroups.com>, "evelyn.o'connor at per.gov.ie<mailto:evelyn.o%27connor at per.gov.ie>" <evelyn.o'connor at per.gov.ie<mailto:evelyn.o%27connor at per.gov.ie>>, "Martinez, Claire" <Claire.Martinez at per.gov.ie<mailto:Claire.Martinez at per.gov.ie>>, "McCann, Conor" <Conor.McCann at per.gov.ie<mailto:Conor.McCann at per.gov.ie>>
William Beausang
Head of Government Reform Unit and Civil Service HR Policy Division
Department of Public Expenditure and Reform

CC various mailing lists
BCC (private) 43 individual email addresses of interested people
Apologies for any cross-posting

Dear William,

Further to the meeting between members of civil society and your team (October 25th), where
it was suggested that we propose a process to inform your unit's submission to a Government meeting before late November. I'm conscious that time is pressing on this.

At our discussion at the October meeting, I recall that a potential impasse was identified. Civil society has put forward 71 recommended actions; however the Government has yet to put forward their own list of proposed actions, derived from the Programme for Government and from civil service suggestions from the relevant Departments. We risk getting bogged down if either side wants to stick to their preferred list and go through each item one after the other in exhaustive detail.

You noted that the national OGP Action Plans are meant to be short documents and you suggested that we begin the Irish Action Plan with a higher level narrative text, informed by both lists of proposed actions. Out of this higher level text, we would then derive a set of SMART actions for the first plan. These would differ in detail from some of the proposals from either side, but they would hopefully address a large number of them and provide a basis for substantive progress on some of the OGP goals. (I would add, this should not close down further discussion on any proposals from civil society).

Based on this, the following is a suggestion from me. I benefited from feedback by email from the various colleagues but any remaining errors/omissions are my own:

Proposed Process for Civil Society and Government Joint Working on Ireland's OGP Plan

1.       We want a process that leads to a jointly-drafted Action Plan between civil society and Government;

2.       A steering group drawn from civil society needs to be established to provide continuity of contact between wider civil society and the Government. We need a small number of volunteers to commit to attending a regular number of meetings between now and April 2014, to engage with the Government on jointly-drafting the first Irish Action Plan;

3.       The Government needs to commit to a series of meetings between now and April 2014 to work jointly on the first Irish OGP Action Plan;

4.       All formal records of the process (e.g. Agendas, Minutes) should be posted online in a timely fashion after each meeting, so that wider civil society and the general public can access them and monitor the process;

5.       Members of civil society have been consulted by Transparency International Ireland, leading to a report containing 62 recommended actions (some of which are multiple actions). Another 9 additional actions were submitted in parallel to this process, leading to a total of 71 civil society proposed actions (some of which have multiple aspects to them);

6.       The Government is to produce a list of its own proposed actions for inclusion in the OGP Action Plan;

7.       The first meeting of the Joint Government-Civil Society OGP Steering Group (hereafter Steering Group) should agree headers for high level narrative text within the first Action Plan - drawing on experience from other countries' plans;

8.       These headers should be elaborated with text that accurately reflects the diverse ideas and the overall direction of travel indicated in the TI report of the civil society consultations. It should equally represent the Programme for Government/civil service proposals;

9.       Based on the high level text, subsequent meetings of the Steering Group should agree SMART actions to be included in the first Action Plan;

10.   A draft Action Plan should then be published with sufficient time for wider civil society and the general public to make comments and suggestions;

11.   The joint Steering Group than should meet to agree the final plan text for submission to the OGP Summit in April.

12.   Periodic meetings of the joint Steering Group should continue to monitor progress on the plan, and prepare for its renewal.

Come April 2014, no one is likely to be perfectly happy with the resultant Action Plan, however I would hope that it would lead to the best possible compromise and provide a solid basis to see some new open government actions implemented that go beyond what was anticipated in the Programme for Government.

Likewise, I would hope that the process would provide a basis for working together and with Government on open government that would be sustainable throughout the lifetime of the plan.

There is already work ongoing to form a series of thematic working groups (following similar topics to the ones being formed at international level in OGP) and other existing groups (e.g. Aarhus Roadshow) could be seen as relevant stakeholders equivalent to working groups too, so that everyone interested in a given topic has an opportunity to voice their suggestions and concerns between meetings of the Steering Group. Facilitating this and attending relevant working groups would be an additional commitment required of anyone volunteering to join the Steering Group.

As you know, two significant things have occurred subsequently to our October meeting. Firstly, some civil society people attended the two-day global Open Government Partnership summit in London (31st Oct/1st Nov), which was preceded for those who could attend by civil society meetings and open data meetings earlier in the week. Secondly, there has been a major public dispute about FOI fees and a real risk that the amended FOI Act will increase the barriers to FOI usage through higher costs associated with non-personal FOI requests, which runs counter to the goals of the OGP.

The summit provided lots of useful information and examples of how OGP is working in other countries; the pitfalls as well as the success stories. It was good to see your colleagues Evelyn O'Connor and Claire Martinez there. I heard Minister Howlin speak supportively about OGP at the European Caucus and when addressing the panel on whistleblower protection. There seems to be a vibrant international movement for OGP - but one limited by resources and still in its fragile early stages.

In relation to the dispute about FOI up-front fees, I would be remiss if I didn't say that many activists are angry and feel a lack of trust, which extends in some cases to the wider OGP process. I personally believe that up-front FOI fees are a barrier to democratic participation and should be abolished.

But OGP is about more than FOI, and it is important that Ireland puts in place a robust process for civil society engagement with Government about our first OGP Action Plan, and its implementation and annual renewal. This process should be solid enough to permit us to have a serious debate with Government about the merits and demerits of FOI fees, without allowing this issue to block further progress on the other 70 proposed actions from the OGP consultancy process.

I hope this proposal is of use in moving things forward. I would welcome your comments on it and I look forward to hearing from you.

Kind regards,

Nat

Nat O'Connor MA PhD
Director
TASC - Think-tank for Action on Social Change
Second Floor, Castleriver House, 14-15 Parliament Street
Dublin 2, Ireland

Tel:     +353 1 6169050<tel:%2B353%201%206169050>
Email: noconnor at tascnet.ie<mailto:noconnor at tascnet.ie>
Web:   www.tascnet.ie<http://www.tascnet.ie>
Blog:   www.progressive-economy.ie<http://www.progressive-economy.ie/>
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