[open-civil-society] Introducing open-civil-society

Tue Aug 9 10:22:26 UTC 2011

Hi

We are interested in both angles, but fundamentally as a policy and advocacy
organisation we want to see civil society being part of the shaping of the
agenda, as it is already happening in other areas of socio-technical
governance. The international Open Government Partnership is is a small move
in this direction, but it seems (please correct me) that participating
groups are providing content and advice, but not providing direction as an
organised caucus, as for example the CSISAC at the OECD.

 In UK, civil hackers have come to represent civil society as a whole in the
minds of politicians, and while this has meant an amazing farsightedness in
technical and licensing terms, it has kept the issue a bit isolated. There
are huge policy issues here. How is opening data going to really benefit
society, not just support "choice" in a mixed private public landscape of
public services?  Is the PDC charging for data the only option for high
value data? How can we finance open government data if the innovation it
spurns does not generate any income for the state because Google and other
tech companies pay taxes in Ireland and Luxembourg?

We are organising a half day workshop on the consultations - but with a view
to build longer term spaces-  in September and would like to get more people
form this list involved. We also want to widen the debate and are in touch
with the TUC and other organisations that have not yet taken a view. We
would like them to start looking at open data sympathetically and avoid
throwing the baby of transparency with the bathwater of cuts and
privatisations.

best, Javier

On 8 August 2011 18:02, David Kane <David.Kane at ncvo-vol.org.uk> wrote:

> **
> Thanks to everyone for the comments, really interesting discussion
> developing.
>
> Toby - you asked a specific question:
>
> > David K – do you see this group as focussing on how civil society uses
> public data? How civil society opens up its own data? Or both? clearly they
> are related and both needed, I just wasn’t sure what you were proposing.**
> ****
>
> I think both - but interested to hear what others think. I personally think
> you can't have one without having the other. I'm particularly interested in
> the motivations for opening up data - I think there are crossovers between
> why government should open data and why civil society should, but there are
> differences too, and particular arguments that apply to just civil society.
>
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>
>
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