Liberals promise open government in cyber-space
Liberals promise open government in cyber-space
The Canadian Press
Right to Know Coalition of Nova Scotia (RTKNS) is a non-profit organization. Through advocacy and education, RTKNS encourages the use and development of freedom-of-information legislation to foster a better informed and more politically active electorate in Nova Scotia and to improve the quality of public and private decision making in the province.
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10:01 a.m.
Labels: Environment Canada, Federal government of the United States, Open Government
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Labels: Open Government, Twitter
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Melissa Davenport will tell you that the recent controversy surrounding Mayor Adrian M. Fenty’s unwillingness to disclose information about a variety of things, including the cost of his trip to Dubai, didn’t motivate the founding of the D.C. Open Government Coalition.
“Our effort is not pegged to any administration,” she told me earlier this week. “We happen to believe the best mechanism for holding the government accountable is openness.”
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5:18 p.m.
Labels: Government, Open Government, transparency, United States
Opening government on Day One Keywords: Barack Obama; FOIA; FOIA enforcement; FOIA reform; open meetings; Open Records President Barack Obama, on his first full day in office, sent a strong message of his intention to run a transparent government, directing agencies to release information to the public when possible and rolling out a new White House Web site geared toward communication and transparency. Obama issued two presidential memos -- one on Transparency and Open Government and another specifically on the Freedom of Information Act -- instructing federal government agencies to operate under principles of openness and transparency. In this announcement at his first White House press conference, Obama committed to changing the course of the previous White House policy that asked federal government agencies to find ways under the law to keep information from getting out to the public. He instructed the attorney general to provide official guidance to agencies on implementing this policy change within 120 days. The new WhiteHouse.gov also discusses Obama's commitment to making his administration "the most open and transparent in history," and various means of communicating information to the public. That this message was issued on Day One is a huge step toward opening access to the federal government. And it is crucial that this message came from the very top. However, the public will need to be no less diligent in utilizing the laws to request information and continuing to hold this new administration accountable just as any other. — Corinna Zarek, 3:36 pmImage by Kevglobal via Flickr
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11:33 a.m.
Labels: Barack Obama, Freedom of Information Act, Freedom of information legislation, Open Government, transparency, White House, Whitehouse.gov
"Without the FOI, the establishment would have been able to hide even more than it does now. Instead of making it harder for people to get information from public bodies on how they are run, it should be made easier."-- Norwich North UK MP Ian Gibson (Oct 2006) on raising FOI fees
If the public is "to participate more [in government] than just via the ballot box, then they need proper access to information"-- Joanne Caddy, (Nov 2001), "Why citizens are central to good governance", OECD Observer,