[OpenSpending-discuss] OpenSpending online community meeting, *today* - 19th Jan, 6pm GMT

[Lucy Chambers]

Thank you to those of you who have just been talking to us as part of the
online meetup - apologies for internet problems spoiling our party!

*Topic: What role can accountants play in Open Spending Data Projects?
*
In the short time we were able to speak, we discussed:

* Looking at public sector accounts: how to distinguish the bodies that are
managing their money well from those who are in serious financial trouble?

* The issue that it is often not clear if one wants to look for a
particular type of spending, where to look

* (Briefly) How can we extract financial accounts from databases such as
COINS? (Lisa's FOI
request<http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/cash_flow_and_balance_sheet_for#incoming-243777>
)

*Notes: *

* The Audit Commission used to publish information (in a form useful mostly
to other accountants); it would be useful to have analysis juxtaposted with
the data

* It would be useful to have a 'how to find out about a certain type of
spending' guide as well as a representation of information flows [e.g.
flowchart] would be useful as a precurser to a 'performance measurement'
guide.
  * Guide should be plain language and targeted at the layman.

Suggested further actions [Please add] :

* LC to involve the Open Economics Group in this discussion
* Establish next steps for (initially via: mailing list)
** Guide on how to find out about a certain type of spending
** Information flows
** Performance Measurement
In terms of a) Specifications of these resources b) People to involve in
the discussion
* Lisa to set up a call for PESA chat


*Unfortunately, we didn't get chance to discuss: *

* How can we have a transparent estimation of financial cross dependencies
and structures of interest worldwide to handle the giant financial networks
as recently published: (Forbes
article<http://www.forbes.com/sites/brendancoffey/2011/10/26/the-four-companies-that-control-the-147-companies-that-own-everything/>
)

But this is a very interesting question and we should continue this in
another call.

I'll get the meeting notes on a wiki page we can keep adding to as soon as
my internet starts playing nicely. Let's continue the discussion here for
the time being!

All the best and thanks to those who made it,

Lucy











On Thu, Jan 19, 2012 at 6:12 PM, Martin Keegan <martin.keegan at okfn.org>
wrote:
>
> > It's that time again, the OpenSpending community call will take place
this
> > evening, 6pm GMT via Skype.
>
> Hello,
>
> Lucy advises me that she is having some difficulty with her Internet
> link, so has not been able to initiate the Skype conference call for
> the community online meetup tonight; she'll hopefully be back ASAP.
>
> Mk




--
Lucy Chambers
Community Coordinator
Open Knowledge Foundation
http://okfn.org/
Skype: lucyfediachambers
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