Open Government Partnership – National Freedom of Information Coalition

A thought exercise for Civil Society within the OGP

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Open government is about enabling citizens to participate in the decisions that affect their lives, and making government more transparent, responsive and accountable. The Open Government Partnership has emerged as a leading platform in realizing that ambition, with civil society being the principal partner in realizing it. Governments that join OGP have to meet minimum requirements around openness and are monitored closely. What if – in the spirit of partnership – civil society was asked to meet some minimum level of openness? What would it look like?

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US to craft open source policy by next year

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After delivering his address at the annual United Nations General Assembly meeting last week, President Obama dropped a tidbit of interest for open data advocates: he promised to produce an open source policy by the end of 2015.

Speaking before the three-year-old Open Government Partnership, Obama promised to expand the second Open Government National Action Plan, which was unveiled by the administration in December.

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United States vows to modernize FOIA, expand open data in updated national action plan

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From FierceGovernmentIT: The United States says it will expand open data and modernize the Freedom of Information Act as part of six new transparent government commitments made in an updated national action plan released by the White House Oct. 31.

The United States issued the commitments during the Open Government Summit in London. This year, the annual event brought together 1,000 delegates from more than 60 countries to discuss open government plans.

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Opinion: Open data’s business value isn’t that important

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From Sunlight Foundation: The recent Open Government Partnership meetings in London have provided a good opportunity to assess the direction of our community. The latest comes from Jonathan Gray, and the title — Open government should be about accountability and social justice, not the digital economy — more or less speaks for itself:

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Open Government Partnership 2013 in London

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From NFOIC: COLUMBIA, Mo. — The National Freedom of Information Coalition (NFOIC) is among open government groups that are urging the Obama White House to renounce and reform secret law practices that have enabled controversial and overreaching National Security Agency (NSA) surveillance programs.

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The Open Government Partnership comes to London

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From Reuters: Next week, the Summit of the Open Government Partnership (OGP) will be held in London. Established in 2011, under American and Brazilian leadership, the OGP is a group of 60 countries, including the US, the UK, Brazil and 6 African countries (Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, South Africa, Tanzania) that have made a commitment to work with civil society to promote more transparency, participation and accountability. In its first year OGP achieved a staggering amount and has continued its impressive record into 2013.

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3 thoughts on the White House’s last-minute call for transparency input

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From NextGov: White House Deputy Chief Technology Officer Nick Sinai posted a call for comments this week, seeking input for an updated version of the Obama administration’s National Action Plan for Open Government.

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Web foundation launches study on open data

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From IT News Africa:

Speaking at an Open Government Partnership reception recently, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, founder of the World Wide Web Foundation (Web Foundation) and inventor of the Web, unveiled the first ever in-depth study into how the power of open data could be harnessed to tackle social challenges in the developing world.

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Russia to join Open Government Partnership

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From RT:

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OGP transparency officials chosen to hold ‘government’s feet to fire’

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From The Guardian:

The Open Government Partnership (OGP) has officially unveiled the senior advisors that will oversee transparency commitments made by member countries to coincide with the launch of the Open Data Institute (ODI).

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Read More… from OGP transparency officials chosen to hold ‘government’s feet to fire’