16th October 2017
(via ScopeNI) Written by Nick Garbutt Why can’t local people get to decide how money invested in their communities is spent? Like all powerful ideas it is simple, obvious and hard to contest. After all residents know what the needs of a community are because they live there. They are therefore just as much experts…
3rd October 2017
Collaboration between government and civil society is at the heart of the Open Government Partnership. Without it, trust will go wanting and success hampered by the lack of a strong guiding coalition maintaining the sense of urgency and vision we need. Success will not occur overnight, but we must work to improve this partnership. Last…
28th September 2017
Today (28 September) is International Right to Know Day, so what better way to mark the occasion than to hear from the Convener of Campaign for Freedom of Information in Scotland, Carole Ewart. I met up with Carole a few weeks back to hear her thoughts on access to information in Scotland and the role…
29th August 2017
Increasing transparency, participation, and collaboration throughout government requires significant change. Moving away from traditional approaches to policy design and methods of working to more democratic alternatives requires us to think and behave differently, whilst not getting too frustrated with the long road ahead. Many of us are champions and change agents of open government, committed…
28th August 2017
In being a member of the Open Government Partnership, Scotland is seeking a culture of governance that follows the principles of transparency, accountability and participation. This is the lifeblood of open government and we all know the importance of getting it right. Scotland was also one of the first governments to sign up to the…
11th August 2017
By Emma Harvey (Scottish Government) and Paul Bradley (Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations) Last year, Scotland was accepted to be part of the Pioneer Tier of the Open Government Partnership, a pilot program consisting of 15 subnational governments with action plans to open up government throughout 2017. This handed Scotland a unique opportunity to show…
28th July 2017
Having returned from the Open Government Partnership in Washington – where CSOs and governments were promoting their use of tech to progress open government commitments – Shelter Scotland’s recent one day event aimed at bringing charities and the tech community together felt particularly relevant to the OpenGov Network. Tom Youll, one of the event hosts,…
24th July 2017
This post talks about some of the things I’ve been working on over the last five months, my initial thoughts about the network and forum in Scotland and invites you to support me in building this community of open government champions across Scotland.
7th July 2017
Written by Colm Burns, NI Open Government Network Chair When it comes to Brexit, who’s speaking for us? The short answer is “no one”, because our political parties have chosen to abdicate this responsibility. The DUP and Sinn Féin are clear on one thing: they have diametrically opposing positions when it comes to Brexit. Alliance,…
30th May 2017
Written by Colm Burns, NI Open Government Network Chair Scotland and Wales have clearly set out their position on how they see their roles during the period before and after the U.K. leaves the EU. On the day the Great Repeal white paper[1] was published, both the Scottish government[2] and the Welsh Government[3] released strongly…