Points of View

Faces of the UK Open Government Network – Prateek Buch, Evidence Matters

3rd August 2015

Open government can be an abstract idea. We want to give people a better idea of what it is, and who is in the UK Open Government Civil Society Network. We’ve asked some existing members of the network to give us their thoughts on what open government means to them, why it’s important, where they have…


Anti-Corruption: Why open governance matters | Transparency International UK

19th July 2015

Rachel Davies, Advocacy Manager at Transparency International UK and OGN Steering Group member, has written a blog post reflecting on the launch of the process to develop the UK’s third OGP National Action Plan: ‘Corruption hurts the poorest in society, in the UK and abroad. We need to ask ourselves: what kind of society do…



New Discussion Paper: “Democratising the Data Revolution” | Open Knowledge

10th July 2015

Open Knowledge have published a discussion paper on democratic engagement with data: “What will the “data revolution” do? What will it be about? What will it count? What kinds of risks and harms might it bring? Whom and what will it serve? And who will get to decide? Today we are launching a new discussion…


Stop FOI restrictions | Campaign for Freedom of Information

9th July 2015

From the Campaign for Freedom of Information: “The Government is likely to be considering three sets of new restrictions to the FOI Act. These are likely to involve: (1) preventing the disclosure of government policy discussions (2) strengthening the ministerial veto (3) making it easier for authorities to refuse FOI requests on cost grounds The…


Enhancing Accountability through Open Government? Learning about and Leveraging OGP | Politics, Governance and Development

22nd June 2015

Brendan Halloran has posted some interesting reflections about OGP on his blog following last month’s Africa Regional Meeting. This section on civil society leveraging OGP particularly chimed with me: “Throughout the meeting in Tanzania, civil society members asked themselves the question: is participation in OGP worth it? And if not, when does the time come to walk…



Faces of the UK Open Government Network – Andy Williamson, Democratise

11th May 2015

Open government can be an abstract idea. We want to give people a better idea of what it is, and who is in the UK Open Government Civil Society Network. We’ve asked some existing members of the network to give us their thoughts on what open government means to them, why it’s important, where they have…