[open-government] Entrenching OpenData as Gov Policy

[Pranesh Prakash]

Dear Javier and all,

On Monday 04 July 2011 06:37 PM, Javier Ruiz wrote:
> Having prepared materials for conferences and summits could help, but the
> main issue is that we don't yet have a developed narrative connecting the
> dots between Internet and social media as a tool for emerging democratic
> mobilisation and open data as a pillar of digital democracy.

Could you please elaborate on this idea of digital democracy?

I think the twin narratives of transparency and civic engagement in 
governance as means of achieving accountability are what should be 
highlighted rather than open data itself.  Open data, as I see it, is a 
way of achieving those objectives given that a large percentage of 
governmental functioning is—and, in the South, is becoming—digitized.

> The process of consensus building for putting open data in a top level
> agenda of international organisations needs both a strategy of concentric
> rings starting with civil society groups and an opportunity during a lull in
> firefighting. This is a substantial undertaking if you want to deliver.

I feel it is always good to have a positive agenda (such as open data) 
to counter the many negative items on the "e-" agenda of many such 
multilateral and plurilateral organizations.  It is the same story even 
at other fora (such as WIPO) where it is very useful to have a 
development agenda (exceptions and limitations for visually impaired 
persons, for libraries and archives, etc.) to counter the 
ever-increasing expansion of copyrights.

As you very aptly put it, there is a strong need to go beyond 
firefighting and put forth a positive agenda.

- Pranesh

-- 
Pranesh Prakash
Programme Manager
Centre for Internet and Society
W: http://cis-india.org | T: +91 80 40926283

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