[Okfn-irl] Next Steps for OGP in Ireland?
Nat O'Connor
noconnor at tasc.ie
Tue Jan 28 13:30:47 UTC 2014
Hi Flora,
Thanks for your enthusiasm for the idea of a civil society open government forum/network. I hope that this will help eliminate some of the communication/information flow problems, not least the line of communication between DPER and OGP activists.
Just to say, we certainly haven't sought to have any kind of special position. What DPER have said in their meetings with the ad hoc civil society group is that they need a point of contact in active civil society, rather than making public broadcasts of information. If we agree to create forum that might provide the missing link and also allow us to ensure information flows directly from officials to the forum, so that everyone on the forum can get it at the same time.
On a technical point, official email addresses don't seem to be compatible with google email lists, hence DPER emails keep having to be re-transmitted (as do my own), which doesn't help our smooth communications. I'd suggest that the 'forum' should ask everyone to mover over to a single list if they want to shadow that part of the OGP process.
Meanwhile, DPER has indicated that William Beausang would be available for the first joint meeting with civil society reps on Thursday 6th at 11:30.
Nuala will be in touch to confirm the preferred date for the initial civil society meeting in advance of the joint-meeting.
Kind regards,
Nat
From: daydreamer2105 at gmail.com [mailto:daydreamer2105 at gmail.com] On Behalf Of Flora Fleischer
Sent: 27 January 2014 19:47
To: Nat O'Connor; okfn-irl at lists.okfn.org; open-data-ireland at googlegroups.com; open-government-ireland at googlegroups.com; Nuala Haughey
Subject: Re: [Okfn-irl] Next Steps for OGP in Ireland?
Hi everyone,
I agree it's a good idea to come together as an ad hoc group and develop a network of CSOs and citizens. Thank you Nuala for setting up of the doodle poll - I encourage everyone to enter the times they can meet.
I do think people need to be able to participate online. So if anyone would like to put their names forward for the working groups or steering groups or would like to closer involved please add your name here. This will enable everyone to be aware who would like to lend their time and input to the OGP process and we can develop a team that engages regularly both with the government and civil society.
Just one comment I would like to make with regards to below quote - we need to work on the way of communication by government and public service with the public first opportunity we get.
I've had a suggestion from DPER that they may be in a position to meet civil society on or after Wednesday 5th February, so I would suggest a civil society meeting this week or early next week.
Thank you for sharing this information Nat. But overall it's disappointing to see communication by DPER seems to be first and foremost with one (or at least) limited amount of actors that are outside the government and despite the communications we have taken the time for last week. We have not received a response to those and it seems DPER is picking whom to work with. I don't think this can be considered as civil society engagement by the OGP principle. Maybe we can address when setting up a communication structure with the government services.
I am quite interested in making a difference that will lead to more open government, transparency, better data availability, accountability, etc. but is not possible if one has no input. Hopefully this will change through the government's commitment to sign up to the OGP.
Kind regards,
Flora
On Mon, Jan 27, 2014 at 1:43 PM, Nat O'Connor <noconnor at tasc.ie> wrote:
Dear Flora,
Thank you for your comprehensive email and your suggestions.
I wanted to share one piece of news with the group, and to make one suggestion.
As some people on the email lists may be aware, TASC recently advertised for a post to undertake an 'open government project', to raise awareness and to deepen capacity in civil society about how to use a range of tools (such as freedom of information, protected disclosures, etc.) that allow people to better inform themselves about public policy and strengthen their participation in Ireland's democratic processes. I'm delighted to say that we have appointed Nuala Haughey to this role, who work on the OGP consultation process as well as in Transparency Ireland. Nuala has a depth of knowledge about the issues involved and about how civil society organisations work. Nuala took up the post earlier this month and she will be taking a lead role in this area for TASC. We will be announcing more about this project in the coming weeks.
In the meantime, as a suggestion for the engagement with officials about Ireland's OGP Action Plan, it might be useful for those of us working on the civil society side to establish our own 'forum' or committee, so that a wider range of people can take part, and we can make sure that there is a good flow of information in both directions from the small number of civil society representatives who will be taking part in the joint steering group with officials. (A similar structure exists in homeless services, where a larger 'Homeless Forum' allows civil society organisations to share information and discuss priorities, whereas a smaller number have membership of official boards/committees).
To discuss this, I propose another meeting of the ad hoc civil society group that met in advance of other meetings with officials. This would also present an opportunity for everyone who wishes to represent civil society to put themselves forward and for us to discuss the best way of sharing information to/from the joint committee.
I have asked Nuala Haughey to seek availability from members of the ad hoc group who met before, and anyone from civil society is welcome to come along.
I've had a suggestion from DPER that they may be in a position to meet civil society on or after Wednesday 5th February, so I would suggest a civil society meeting this week or early next week.
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
Email: noconnor at tascnet.ie
Web: www.tascnet.ie
Blog: www.progressive-economy.ie
Research and Organisation Services Ltd. TA/ TASC. Registered Address: Hill House, 26 Sion Hill Road, Drumcondra, Dublin 9. Company No. 342993. CHY 14778.
From: daydreamer2105 at gmail.com [mailto:daydreamer2105 at gmail.com] On Behalf Of Flora Fleischer
Sent: 22 January 2014 18:03
To: Beausang, William; O'Connor, Evelyn; McCann, Conor; Martinez, Claire
Cc: <okfn-irl at lists.okfn.org>; open-data-ireland at googlegroups.com; open-government-ireland at googlegroups.com; admin at ogpireland.ie
Subject: Re: [Okfn-irl] Next Steps for OGP in Ireland?
Dear Evelyn,
Thank you again for sharing the Government's initial thoughts on the state of the OGP Action Plan as of Dec. 5th. We remain very eager to be involved and help develop an effective and progressive first OGP Action Plan for Ireland in useful collaboration with the Government partners assigned to this project. Please find below our concrete suggestions on what actions we would like to undertake to move the OGP Action Plan forward.
Link to the original Email
Suggestion for Next Steps:
* Meeting between civil society, government & public service representatives to kick off OGP process.
* All details for the process of co-creating Ireland's 1st OGP Action Plan to be discussed at a first meeting as soon as possible. We would suggest early next week if this suits. Alternatively please advise on a day that suits the relevant staff/ potential steering group members from the Government and Public Service.
* Establish a platform for regular and ongoing dialogue with Civil Society.
* Civil Society, Government and Public Service to decide on members of Steering Committee and enter names here
* Suggest at least three from each area
* Members of Civil Society should be able to attend each of the meetings to observe and take part if interested
* Share contact details of all Steering Committee members
* Discuss & initial recommendations for Civil Society process
* Please note that in line with OGP principles we would expect a strong commitment from both the Government and Public Service staff to drive and facilitate the Civil Society engagement process both online and offline.
* Decide which Civil Society engagement tools should be used (Civinomics, Crowdhall, Google Moderator, etc.). We can train how to use them.
* Initial recommendations on which of the 62 Action Plan Commitments and 5 Submissions should be included in Ireland's 1st National Action Plan - to be informed and voted on by civil society;
* Co-create project plan for the development of the 1st Irish OGP Action Plan and project plan for seeing through the achievement of these commitments during the next 2 years;
Suggestion for Methodology with regards to project planning the Irish OGP Action Plan and Civil Society Process
* SMART OGP Action Plan Commitments
* Decide on a number of commitments that can be achieved in 2yrs - as opinions vary this will need to be socialised widely to those who may be interested to input on this decision & should be open to the general public
* Options suggested by Government, Public Service and Civil Society to date:
* 1st option: Limit the number of commitments to 8-15 & go through them one by one making them smart.
* 2nd option: would be to include open data technology & innovation commitments as well as 8-15 commitments that civil society votes as vital to drive open government within Ireland.
* 3rd option: is to include open data technology & innovation commitments as well as 8-15 commitments - one per each area of health, education, election results, etc.
* 4th option: is to focus on implementing one main recommendation via the OGP Action Plan during the next 2 years. E.G. the open data technology & innovation challenge and build SMART actions around that. In parallel, one could set a target to deal with a further 3-4 points in 2015, 2016, etc.
* Review any previous experiences with making goals SMART and draw on expertise drawn from all areas civil society, government, public service
* Project Plan
* In order to be able to create a focussed, targeted and sound OGP Action Plan we suggest:
* To develop a project plan for the next 4 month outlining, actions, milestones, goals and resources assigned. The project plan will help to stay on track, ensure the process is open and indicate cycles of meetings and updates to be shared;
* Start work on a project plan for the 2 year period during which the OGP Action Plan commitments will need to be achieved.
Thoughts on civil society engagement:
* Most importantly we are at a point where the Government can still engage representatives of civil society in the process to ensure that the Action Plan is broadly based and the diverse resources and perspectives offered by CS can aid the government's process. Open engagement to whoever would like to participate is not necessarily something that civil society needs to organise single handedly and is raised herein to emphasize that this remains an opportunity to harness additional resources and truly demonstrate the power of the ethos behind open government itself. It should be in the interest of the Government to advertise as widely as possible and to make it as easy as possible for anyone to participate, preferably online and offline to get things started. If civil society manages to organize itself in addition to that - even better!
* To further discuss how the civil society process can be conducted, what role the Government and civil society should play we suggest to meet as soon as possible. This may be useful even if no mandate has been finalised by the Government, yet, as time is getting tight for putting a proper plan in place. In fact we would suggest to plan out the civil society meetings for the next couple of month to have a regular schedule in place.
Finally, would you be able to update the groups on the progress of the following items? This will help us to keep track and support as needed.
* Any update on the progress Government and/or the assigned public service staff have made regarding the drafting of the OGP Action Plan since the update you provided on Dec. 5th?
* Specifically we are asking for an update on the following:
* Signing up to the G8 Open Data Charter:
* Is there a timeline for when Ireland will sign up? We'd like to point out that according to the G8 Open Data Charter postcodes should be 'open'. Ireland's plan for only opening up Postcode Data for a charge contradicts this. Is the government working on a solution to open this data up as recommended by the G8 Open Data Charter? We have also noted that 'Signing up to the G8 Open Data Charter' is not part of the 'Action Plan for Public Service Reform 2014 - 2016'. Our recommendation is to have a written Government commitment to achieve this within the next 2 years.
* Establishing an Irish Open Data Board & Establishing a Steering & Implementation group
* The Action Plan for Public Service Reform 2014-2016 states that this process is ongoing. At this time is there any information how this board may be selected or elected? The plan also states these will be in place by Q2. As we will likely be in contact it would be great if you could share additional information. Thanks!
* Building an Open Data Platform
* The Action Plan for Public Service Reform 2014-2016 states that this process is ongoing and also for a platform to be in place in Q2 / 2014. We are recommending to use the CKAN portal which is open source and for which documentation exists for developers to be able to get this up and running fast. Could you please advise on current developments and next steps? Thank you!
Again, an initial meeting to start the organisation process seems to be the best way forward and we look forward to participate & work together on the drafting of Ireland's 1st OGP Action Plan.
Kind Regards,
Flora Fleischer
Co-Founder, OKF Ireland
m: +353851587423 I @daydreamer2105 | irl.okfn.org
Open data - the 21st century public library www.opendata.ie
On Wed, Jan 8, 2014 at 9:57 AM, McCann, Conor <Conor.McCann at per.gov.ie> wrote:
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] On Behalf Of Denis Parfenov
Sent: 08 January 2014 08:48
To: McCann, Conor
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
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 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 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 we discussed the importance of public deliberation online. Subsequently, we looked at suitability of four platforms 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 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 // 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> wrote:
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Nat O'Connor <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)" <William.Beausang at per.gov.ie>
Cc: admin at ogpireland.ie, communications at ogpireland.ie, okfn-irl at lists.okfn.org, open-data-ireland at googlegroups.com, open-government-ireland at googlegroups.com, "evelyn.o'connor at per.gov.ie" <evelyn.o'connor at per.gov.ie>, "Martinez, Claire" <Claire.Martinez at per.gov.ie>, "McCann, Conor" <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
Email: noconnor at tascnet.ie
Web: www.tascnet.ie
Blog: www.progressive-economy.ie
Research and Organisation Services Ltd. TA/ TASC. Registered Address: Hill House, 26 Sion Hill Road, Drumcondra, Dublin 9. Company No. 342993. CHY 14778.
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