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

[Ivan Begtin]

Dear, Innovation institute.

I am glad that you have so much attantion to Russia. At the same time I see
so many myths in your words.
If you you will reread my text you will find that I was writing about
non-transparent USAID actions and not something else.

About Russian transparency you should differ transparency of sensitive
historical military data and transparency for people. So yes, our military
and special services institutions aren't transparent and not going to be.
And they are not transparent not because they can't but since we don't have
"social request" for it here in Russia. That's why if you want to get this
information you will have to use your politicians to request your data and
nothing else will work.

And about transparency in Russia. Tell me, does every EU country have
government finances transparency like in UK? All contracts are published,
all government obligation disclosed? All all information about officials
income is available. No?
At the same time we have it all in Russia. Our Federal Treasury publishes
all government contracts data as open data. All of russian federal officials
publish income statements online. And so on. We have much more data
available than many EU countries the difference is not in government,
difference is in people.

We don't have yet enough activists to transform this data to open data and
use all this data for common good.
 At the same time I see how it's changing and I am one of the persons who
change it. For example I have open data about russian budget but I don't
have enougth time right now to prepare it for
http://wheredoesmymoneygo.org/ project.So
probably russian government is not transparent since I am lazy or busy? Yes,
it is.

So about transparency and Russia. Earlier I wrote a post for Epsiplatform
"Unqualified transparency"
http://www.epsiplatform.eu/guest_blogs/unqualified_transparency and problems
that I mentioned in this article actually based on culture of working with
information and not something else. Actually most data in Russia is closed
or not too good for opendata since officials just don't understand opendata
value and not because they want to hide it.

And since you speak russian take a look to these projects -
http://zakonoproekt2011.ru/ and http://zakon-fom.ru/node/134. First was
created by Russian President administration and second one by Federal
Government and was announced 3 days ago. Both project dedicated to collect
peoples opinion about drafts of laws and other government documents. Anybody
can comment, vote and propose new editions for paragraphs. Right now I am
convincing developers of both projects to open data related to discussion
and to create methodology not only for discussion but and to implementing
laws too.


-- 

Best Regards,
  Ivan Begtin

email: ibegtin at gmail.com
twitter: ibegtin <http://twitter.com/ibegtin>
facebook: facebook.com/ibegtin
personal website: ivan.begtin.name


2011/7/21 innovation institute <innovation-navigator at chello.at>

> 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: ibegtin at gmail.com****
>
> twitter: ibegtin <http://twitter.com/ibegtin>****
>
> facebook: facebook.com/ibegtin****
>
> personal website: ivan.begtin.name****
>
> ** **
>
> ** **
>
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