[open-government] Some food for thought on communicating open government / data

Tue Jul 6 21:07:30 UTC 2010

http://infovegan.com/2010/06/18/beyond-transparency/

<http://infovegan.com/2010/06/18/beyond-transparency/>A former Sunlight
Foundation staff member pondering the lack of take up by US citizens of
Sunlight's tools, understanding of and use of data, and their tendency
towards following characters on Fox.

I'm not sure completely agree with his analysis or solution, but it does
certainly gives lots to think about and reminded me of two things:

1. How last year people did 'get' the MP expenses issues, which were often
quite complex, and that this came as a surprise to the MPs themselves.
Several editions of BBC Question Time showed this clearly. Whilst perhaps
Parliament didn't respond and come to may be the best ways forward for
changing things and the media did hound MPs for minor misdemeanors. (I could
also argue that whilst they got MPs expenses the larger and more serious
story of what was happening in the banks, was not as widely discussed or
really treated that well by the media - partly as the sums involved were
much harder to conceive and it was much more abstract.)

2. That from a communications point of view, we forget The One Show, Daily
Mail, Sun, ITV, Sky, Five et al at our peril. These aren't the low hanging
fruit and not immediate targets, but if we can get things right they are the
key to a wider take up of what we're doing in the longer term.

Would appreciate any thoughts on this and the article, particularly as I
start to think through the challenges for communicating Where Does My Money
Go.

Best wishes,

Kathryn
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