The federal government on Thursday took the unprecedented step of releasing the names of 55 colleges and universities under investigation for their handling of sexual violence or harassment complaints. On the list are some of the most prestigious schools in the nation, such as Harvard, Amherst and Princeton.
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Read More… from Federal Government Releases Names of Schools Under Sex Assault Investigations
From participatory budgeting in Porto Alegre to social audits in Andra Pradesh to tracking snow ploughs in Chicago, many of the most iconic examples of open government innovation have been created not by national governments, but by cities, states or provinces. This is perhaps not surprising, since local authorities are often responsible for the tangible public services, from road maintenance to education, and sanitation to policing, that form the most immediate relationships between government and citizens.
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Former Kirkland Reporter editor Carrie Rodriguez received the Washington Coalition for Open Government’s Key Award for winning disclosure of public information that Federal Way city officials had wrongly withheld. Rodriguez is currently the editor of the Federal Way Mirror.
Coalition President and Kirkland City Council member Toby Nixon presented the award to Rodriquez on April 24.
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There's no doubt the UK is leading the way in open government data. Almost 17,000 datasets are now available on the data.gov.uk website – and the benefits of sharing data with the public are obvious: according to theOpen Data Institute, it has the potential to increase custom for services and products, ease information sharing with other organisations, reduce maintenance cost and encourage innovation.
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If the NSA spying scandal last year exposed anything besides how controversial the parameters of “national security” are, it’s that our government isn’t as transparent as we thought. Even President Obama said he didn’t know that the U.S. Department of Defense intelligence agency was monitoring the cellphone of German Chancellor Angela Merkel for as long as 10 years.
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After the National Day of Civic Hacking drew 11,000 participants last June, lead sponsor Intel decided to take a deeper look at a few promising applications. The goal, according to Brandon Barnett, director of business innovation at Intel Labs, is to conduct practical experiments on how innovation takes place in and across business teams, and to see how large datasets can be used as fuel for new products and services.
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Read More… from Intel probes the private-sector side of open government data
The sentencing of former Bell, California, city manager Robert Rizzo to 12 years in state prison after being found guilty of 69 charges of public corruption underscores the critical need for local government transparency and advocacy of a culture of ethics within local organizations, according to the International City/County Management Association (ICMA) and its official California state affiliate, CAL-ICMA.
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The Office of Government Information Services (OGIS) is a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) resource for the public and the government. Congress has charged us with reviewing FOIA policies, procedures and compliance of Federal agencies and to recommend changes to FOIA based on what we see. Our mission also includes resolving FOIA disputes between Federal agencies and requesters.
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The Chicago Tribune reports that advisers to Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel were closely involved with the development of certain scenes in CNN's "Chicagoland" documentary, which aired its final eighth episode Thursday evening.
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Read More… from ‘Chicagoland’ Producers Worked With Mayor Emanuel’s Team On Doc via FOIA requests
Come June, you can send a message about transparency. Vote yes on Prop. 42. Tell local governments it's their responsibility to build — and pay for — a culture of openness. You can also strip from Gov. Jerry Brown, and any of his successors, the ability to gut the public records act by cooking up another cockamamie, disingenuous scheme to turn out the lights.
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Read More… from Op-Ed: Prop. 42 (CA) is chance for voters to make transparency a priority
