News from the OpeningParliament.org community:
In Ukraine, Chesno has had a busy month. In early September, Speaker of the Parliament Rybak pledged more transparency and openness in parliamentary proceedings during a civil society meeting led by Chesno. Then, Chesno called on the parliament to pass access to information legislation, highlighted the failure of one-third of MPs to file parliamentary inquiries, reported on the barring of journalists from committee meetings, and examined so-called “independent” MPs. Chesno also released a new series of studies on MPs who vote outside of party lines. This high level of activity came even as one of their employees was assaulted.
Also in Ukraine, Transparency International Ukraine called on the parliament to pass bill 0947, which would increase access to information, as well as a potential anti-corruption bill.
In Switzerland, Politnetz.ch developed a new webpage to publicize data around parliamentary voting, in addition to a new survey for the German national elections in partnership with the national broadcasting network. Politnetz.ch, along with local partners, has also expanded its parliamentary monitoring to cantonal parliaments, including St. Gallen and Basel-Stadt. The organization recently won a Grimme Online Award and called for e-voting. OpenData.ch covered efforts by the Swiss government to increase the availability of government data.
In the United States, Code For America updated readers on its Code for the Caribbean project. A recent article by Good magazine discussed how civic innovation fellowships can “go global”, touching on Code for America’s work. The Participatory Politics Foundation (PPF) announced a new “AskThem” platform to facilitate questions-and-answers and petitions with public figures. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) officially endorsed the Declaration on Parliamentary Openness.
In Mexico, Impacto Legislativo published two interesting articles, looking at access to information in the country disaggregated by region, and the other on what to expect from Congress in the upcoming session. Fundar discussed potential ways forward for political reforms. Also in Mexico, Vision Legislativa released a map to highlight the composition of the lower chamber and looked at the relationship between quality of life issues and politics.
In the United Kingdom, Indigo Trust featured the work of the PMO mySociety as a case study on increasing citizen engagement with government. mySociety recently featured profiles of users of their websites What Do They Know, Write to Them, and Fix My Street. They also noted alternative uses of the PMO platform Pombola, highlighted efforts improving freedom of information requests in Uruguay, and released a calendar of events for those who want to get in touch in person.
In Zambia, 13 different CSOs urged the government to ensure that an access to information bill is presented during the next session of parliament.
In Australia, the OpenAustralia Foundation published a lengthy post examining the potential for visualizing party policy preferences. The Global Mail expanded on the visualizations, and the code is available on Github here.
In France, Regards Citoyens reported on the progress of a draft law on transparency. Last week, the Sunlight Foundation worked with Regards Citoyens to provide an update on the state of lobbying transparency in France.
Other related news:
A new Transparency International report finds that two-thirds of parliaments and legislatures “fail to exercise sufficient control” over defense industry corruption.
Nearly 130 civil society organizations from over 60 countries have signed a declaration on budget transparency, accountability, and participation (BTAP).
In Uruguay, DATA facilitated a “data exploration” forum and an event on the new OGP partnership.
In China, Feng Gao reports on the current progress of open data in China, including on Beijing and Shanghai’s open data portals. A TechPresident article summarized other open data efforts in the country.
In Canada, Member of Parliament Tony Clement detailed steps taken by the government to make Canada’s government more open.
In Macedonia, the PMO MOST Citizen’s Association released a final report on domestic election monitoring during the 2013 local elections.
In Zimbabwe, the Zimbabwe Independent discusses the challenges facing the new parliament after the 2013 elections.
In Jordan, MPs rejected a recommendation from the parliamentary legal committee to impose financial penalties on those who violate the parliament’s by-laws.
In the United States, the Monkey Cage blog highlighted social media research on compromise in the U.S. Congress. Meanwhile, a new study suggests that fact-checking may influence political behavior.
Resources:
The multi-donor Making All Voices Count initiative (previous OpenParl coverage here), which aims to strengthen ties between citizens and governments, opened the first call for proposals. CSOs can apply for funds in the areas of innovation, scaling, and research and evidence by November 8, 2013.
The Nonprofit Tech for Good blog published best practices for online fundraising, especially as it relates to small NGOs in developing countries.
OGP and the World Bank Institute introduced a webinar on the OGP Access to Information Working Group. Resources from the webinar are available here.
Liam James Currie of Queen’s University published an academic paper on “The Role of Canadian Municipal Open Data Initiatives: A Multi-City Evaluation.”
Cynthia Warringa van Genderen, a researcher at the University of Leiden, released a comparative legal survey of access to information around the world, titled, appropriately, The Right to Know.
Events:
October 31 - November 1: The Open Government Partnership (OGP) summit will take place in London, England. Participants must pre-register by August 26 to be considered for funding. OGP recently announced a “Bright Spots” Competition to share success stories in open government. Winners will be invited to present at the OGP annual conference.
Note: The Open Knowledge Foundation will collaborate with OGP to host a civil society pre-conference on October 30.
November 23 - 29: The World Forum for Democracy will host a conference on “Re-wiring Democracy: Connecting Institutions and Citizens in the Digital Age” in Strasbourg, France.
Recent Blog Posts:
Limited progress on lobbying transparency in France (October 4)
Case Study #6: Parlement & Citoyens (October 4)