[open-government] International Open Data Charter: Call for Comments

Sat Jun 27 17:26:28 UTC 2015

I was going to reply something similar to Ivan's response, but he said it
better :-)

Basically, transparency can be used as propaganda, especially when you are
transparent about things that aren't critical to the government's agenda.
Also, the devil is in the details, and I have seen MANY transparency
initiatives where, although comply with all the open data rankings and
surveys, in practice show very little that can be useful (so we really need
to think how to improve these rankings).

Alvaro Graves-Fuenzalida, PhD
Web: http://graves.cl - Twitter: @alvarograves

On Sat, Jun 27, 2015 at 10:21 AM, Ivan Begtin <ibegtin at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi Martin.
>
> Modern authoritarian states are different from classical dictatorship
> states. They mimic real democratic mechanisms or implements different types
> of balances of interests of society groups.
>
> Transparency and openness used in many ways. They used to improve
> attractiveness of the country for foreign investors, to fight corruption,
> to improve quality of life and to help innovative IT industry startups.
>
> Sometimes openness of authoritarian states could be high. For example,
> Russian government is not quite democratic but Russia is in top 10
> countries for it's open budget initiatives -
> http://internationalbudget.org/wp-content/uploads/OBI-2012-Rankings-English.png
>
> Same situation about procurement data. Russian government disclose nearly
> every government and local contract and tender announcement including all
> documents and meta information. It's about 2.6 million contracts per year
> and up to 5 terabytes of documents per year.
>
> Companies that re-use this data directly generate up to 30 millions euro
> per year and we even don't know yet number of companies that re-use this
> data indirectly.
>
> Sure I would like to see my country more democratic but still I should be
> honest and to keep in mind that paternalistic authoritarian governments
> still could be open.
>
> Best Regards,
>    Ivan Begtin
>
>
> 2015-06-27 19:21 GMT+03:00 Martín Szyszlican <martinsz at gmail.com>:
>
>> Hello Ivan, that's very interesting about not being imposing on the types
>> of government.
>> Is an authoritarian government inherently opposed to transparency? Why
>> would they do transparency if they don't want to empower their citizens?
>>
>> I share your other point about it being limited to governments and I
>> invite you to read my comments in the charter page.
>>
>> Thanks.
>> El jun 27, 2015 7:42 AM, "Ivan Begtin" <ibegtin at gmail.com> escribió:
>>
>>> Hi Daniel.
>>>
>>> Here are my comments about chapter:
>>> 1. "Democratic" will be a stopword for many non-democratic governments
>>> and societies. If goal of this chapter to promote democracy it's
>>> understandable, but if goal to promote openness and transparency it's not.
>>> Personally I prefer democracy over another types of government but I don't
>>> think that it should be part of this chapter. I suggest to focus on
>>> "quality of life" and government focused on improving life quality of the
>>> citizens.
>>>
>>> 2. I suggest not to focus only on countries and country governments. We
>>> have too many intergovernmental organizations that shouldn’t be ignored.
>>> UN, World Bank and others. Transpancy and openness of intergovernmental
>>> organizations is more and more important.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Best Regards,
>>>    Ivan Begtin
>>>
>>> 2015-06-27 12:50 GMT+03:00 Daniel Dietrich <daniel.dietrich at okfn.org>:
>>>
>>>> ** sorry for crossposting **
>>>>
>>>> Dear all,
>>>>
>>>> In consultation with a number of international organisations, the Open
>>>> Data Working Group of the Open Government Partnership is developing an
>>>> International Open Data Charter, with five principles for proactive release
>>>> of data by governments:
>>>>
>>>> - Open by Default;
>>>> - Quality and Quantity;
>>>> - Useable by All;
>>>> - Engagement and Empowerment of Citizens; and
>>>> - Collaboration for Development and Innovation.
>>>>
>>>> The Charter is primarily aimed at national governments who may adopt
>>>> the recommendations of and the technical guidelines accompanying the
>>>> Charter. The first public draft of the International Open Data Charter was
>>>> published in end of May at the International Open Data Conference in Ottawa.
>>>>
>>>> This draft Charter can be accessed here: <
>>>> http://opendatacharter.net/charter/>.
>>>>
>>>> Organisations and individuals are invited to submit comments directly
>>>> on the Charter page, before July 31.
>>>>
>>>> Please share this call for comments with all relevant individuals,
>>>> organisations, and networks.
>>>>
>>>> All the best
>>>> Daniel
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> Daniel Dietrich
>>>> Chairman & open data evangelist
>>>> Open Knowledge Foundation Germany
>>>> www.okfn.de | info at okfn.de | @okfde
>>>> Office: +49 30 57703666 0 | Fax: - 9
>>>> Mobile: +49 176 32768530
>>>>
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>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Best Regards,
>>>    Ivan Begtin
>>>
>>> Director of NGO "Informational Culture"
>>> email: ibegtin at infoculture.ru
>>> phone: +7 499 500 96 58, +7 910 426 68 83
>>> website: http://infoculture.ru
>>>
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>>>
>
>
> --
> Best Regards,
>    Ivan Begtin
>
> Director of NGO "Informational Culture"
> email: ibegtin at infoculture.ru
> phone: +7 499 500 96 58, +7 910 426 68 83
> website: http://infoculture.ru
>
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