Politics

Transparency Swarm

By Nisha Thompson

Last week we asked people to blog about why transparency is important to them.  There was a great response and here are just a few of the great posts that people wrote. There is so much great stuff that I will continue to highlight posts throughout the coming weeks. We want to encourage you all to continue writing about why transparency is important to you because your thoughts are fantastic to read and will continue to inspire as Public = Online gains more and more momentum.

Claus’ Random Thoughts by Claus Whiteacre

?Government secrecy allows waste, abuse, and fraud to flourish.
Transparency is a critical component needed for civic engagement in a Democracy.?

Punch It In! by Kate

?The idealist in me is wishing and hoping that someday, someday soon, it will be easy for me to track down the government information I?m looking for. I?m wishing and hoping that, with transparency, the political apathy demonstrated by so many in my generation and younger generations will be replaced by passionate interest. It is my personal opinion that what is happening in our local, state and federal governments is far more important than what Joe Sixpack posted on Facebook or what Jane Q. Public tweeted to her followers. If we could find a way to make government information as easily accessible as Facebook or Twitter, well, there?s no telling what kinds of amazing things could happen.?

Free Range Geek by Mike Ruch

?This is more to reiterate a point I already made once: Opening the doors of government will help chase out the roaches. ?

RobBettman.com by Rob Bettman

?Transparency before the fact creates and inspires community activism and unity. It also helps to increase proper representation and accountability.
Transparency after the fact helps in those areas and is needed, but it also contributes to apathy and is less important than transparency before the fact. ? because it is already too late ? the damage has been done.?
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I think that transparency is an arts issue because the numbers really are where the rubber meets the road. We should know where the government is planning to spend our money, as well as where they have spent it.?

SynchronousCity by Jason Lally

?Free data is not in of itself a good thing without the skills to interpret and extract value from that data.  Many would rather keep government data locked away in paper formats that are hard or expensive to get at.  Many organizations, including lobby groups are in a better position to manipulate that kind of data.  Data that is free and online will not rid us of spin altogether, but it will be easier to hold the spinners accountable. ?

Full post as published by Sunlight Foundation on March 23, 2010 (boomark / email).