A paper to sum up the discussion on this blog

I prepared a paper which sums up all the issues discussed so far in this blog.
It contains a first proposal for benchmarking eGov transparency. It is aimed at both eGov and web2.0 practictioners.
I just put it on GoogleDocs, you can find it here.
Look forward to your feedback.

Obama Tech Plan: Transparency is key

Some important evidence supporting transparency as key features of e-government:

“The Plan calls for citizen engagement in the work of federal agencies
and demonstrates respect for the intelligence and expertise of the
American people. He calls for opening up the closed practices of
government and using new technology to enable genuine citizen
participation and engagement in our democracy.”

Cairns Blog: Barack Obama Unveils Unprecedented Plan for Open Government

what are the most important data to be made public?

One of the key issues to discuss is the definition of public data.
The 8 principles state that this is different in every country. Is there a shared definition, or at least a minimal definition, at international level? is there a list / taxonomy of data?

Let’s start a list - I largely draw on existing projects:
- air pollution data
- planning applications (privacy concerns?)
- public spending data (incl. structural funds, agricultural funds)
- legislative documents (also draft?)
- MPs votes
- party donations
- maps (to be better specified)
- citizens feedback / satisfaction surveys
- external consultancies

Feel free to add your favorite data or tell your priorities.

Paul Johnston’s proposals on benchmarking egov2.0

Interesting contributions to the discussion by Paul Johnston of Connected Republic (a Cisco initiative). He makes some specific proposals on indicators to measure transparency in one of his latest posts.

Is benchmarking useful or misleading for e-government?

I received valuable objections on benchmarking from people of “The Connected Republic”, an initiative launched by Cisco.

I agree with the objections, but still think benchmarking has done more good than bad.

See here

Can really transparency be the key eGovernment goal?

Beside proposing it, I also have some doubts about transparency as new “killer value” of eGovernment.

First, I cannot forget that the very first episode of “Yes, Minister” was called “Open Government”. And it made fun about this rethoric - that was more than 20 years ago.

Secondly, I wonder if this is just for the people really interested in public affairs, which is not the majority of the population. Putting services online appears more concretely useful than providing information about the in-working of government.

Thirdly, it’s much more difficult to deal with for government than putting services online. It could make government ungovernable.

So I am not sure that citizens and government are so keen on transparency.

But I also have strong arguments in favour.

First, just have a look at the “The Power of Information” review carried out for the UK Cabinet. It capture most important points.

Secondly, transparency may appear not very concrete, but can be a strong driver of innovating public services, maybe the most important one in absence of competition. Just think what would be the impact of publishing the mortality rates of different hospitals.

Thirdly, government are not monolithic institutions. There are innovative people inside, including politicians, who want change and can use transparency for their advantage.

Fourth, transparency happens also outside government control. Citizens can publicly complain on blogs, and there is always www.wikileaks.org .

UPDATE: Fifth, government can benefit to better understand complex multi-dimensional problem by making data available for analysis by more people.