[open-government] A story about russian transparency, open data and USAID

Thu Jul 21 15:30:15 UTC 2011

Dear Ivan,

You are surprised as RUSSIAN on that outcome? We
all know how this country works. Are you really
that naiv?

We are happy that the Russian institutions opened
SOME archives containing data from first and
second world war. And even most data of that time
is kept secret. 

In NONE oft he EU countries the most sensitive or
valuable data will be made available. Please stop
dreaming.

Kind regards from Vienna - we had 10 years of
Russian occupation/liberation and we do know that
mentality quite well.

We do love Russia and I even do speak that
language. But TRANSPARENCY and Russia are not
compatible at all.

Von: open-government-bounces at lists.okfn.org
[mailto:open-government-bounces at lists.okfn.org] Im
Auftrag von Ivan Begtin
Gesendet: Donnerstag, 21. Juli 2011 12:40
An: open-government at lists.okfn.org
Betreff: [open-government] A story about russian
transparency, open data and USAID

Hi everyone.

Not a long time ago Justin Arenstein shared a
story about Tech Camp in Vilnus and understanding
of open data by it's participants. As you may
remember I was sceptical about DepOfState and
USAID ability to engage technical people.

So now I have a story to share on same topic.

Here in Russia USAID is going to lauch
Code-a-thon. It's something like 2-days hackaton
for transparency, civil engagement and so on. It
was announced on behalf of Medvedev - Obama
comission, officially known as U.S.-Russia
Bilateral Presidential Comission.  

Before launching this Code-a-thon in Russia they
decided to initiate teleconference between russian
and US experts to discuss most important topics
and ideas related to Russian transparency. So
happened that they invited me too since I already
created too many open government projects here in
Russia. 

And my impressions about that:

1. Lot's of US officials and no one Russian
official. I've seen at least one person from
Department of State and 4 persons from USAID, but
no one Russian official presented. 

2. Likely they invited at least 2 persons from
Russian Yandex IT company, but all others russian
experts were just civil activists from
Transparency International and similar
organizations who just don't really understand
tech topics, open data and so on.

3. At the same time open data was one of key
topics of discussion and I actively explained them
that it's nearly impossible to get any good
results from contest or hackaton without having
open government data and being focused on problem
solving.

4. One guy from USAID had a long speech using
words "transparency" and "accountability" too
much. About 20 mentions of each word. 

5. Some of US experts were actually impressive.
Especially Tom Lee from Sunlight Foundation.

6. During teleconference of of organizers from
SecondMuse created mindmap with all topics that
were discussed. It was about :

- Open Data

- Voting transparency

- Education

- Citizen Reporting / Engagement

- Urban planning

- Public Financial Transparency

- Corruption Awareness

And about final results

1. Since no one Russian official was during this
meeting actual status of Codeathon and this
discussion is unknown.

2. Actually event it's not transparent. Nothing
appeared on public, except of what I wrote in this
text. No video, no meeting minutes and so on. I
don't really undestand such type of transparency.

3. Discussion was 14 jule and 19 jule they sent
all persons who was invited a mind map with topics
that were discussed. Mind map was made using
Mindmeister service that keeps all history of
changes. And it was easy to find that topics -
"Open Data" and "Corruption Awareness" were
removed by guy from SecondMuse who initially
created this mindmap. Two days ago I asked persons
from USAID who organized this event from Russian
side about "is it technical mistake or where is a
reason for USAID to avoid such topics?" and
haven't got any answer.

>From my personal opinion, nor USAID, nor
Department of State personell ready to understand
what is open data and value actual transparency. I
think that they avoid such topics since they don't
understand them and I think that they use
"transparency" only as a word for speeches and not
as something important to implement.

So it's not so much diffrent in comparison with
Russian officials.

-- 

Best Regards,
  Ivan Begtin

email:  <mailto:ibegtin at gmail.com>
ibegtin at gmail.com

twitter:  <http://twitter.com/ibegtin> ibegtin

facebook:  <http://facebook.com/ibegtin>
facebook.com/ibegtin

personal website: ivan.begtin.name
<http://ivan.begtin.name/> 

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