It’s not just Britons and Europeans who are invested in the outcome of the referendum: Several American companies are lobbying hard to keep Britain in the EU.
Continue readingOpenGov Voices: For lobbying in the U.K., it’s time for a change
Without significantly more transparency around lobbying, the realm of influence in British politics will remain murky and mysterious.
Continue readingDo U.K. campaign laws miss the mark on transparency?
Recent legislation in the U.K. promises increased transparency in elections, but will it really shine a light on the money of special interests?
Continue readingMicro-targeting is America’s latest political export
As seen in this year's U.K. elections, data mining and micro-targeting are catching on. Here's why that might be troublesome for transparency advocates.
Continue readingG8 Open Data Charter Action Plan: Open data by default, but you may have to pay
Although the G7 is moving towards "open data by default," they show hesitations and difficulties to guarantee their data will be free of charge. Here are our detailed analysis on the G8 Open Data Charter Action Plan.
Continue readingHow unique is the new U.S. DATA Act?
Where does the DATA Act stand in the international context? We took a look at some of the innovative approaches from other national governments.
Continue readingSunlight Joins Effort Across the Pond as Britain Tries to Rein In Influence Buying
A heated debate over proposed lobbying legislation is underway in Great Britain, where lobbying reform legislation has been offered as a result of a scandal in which Members of the House of Lords apparently offered assistance to fake solar energy lobbyists in exchange for payment.
Prime Minister David Cameron proposed lobbying reform legislation in 2010, but it took the scandal to muster enough outrage to spawn reform efforts.
Much of the outcry over the bill is focused on provisions that would limit the amount of money third parties could spend on elections. But even more fundamentally, the bill fails to do what it set out to do—that is, shine a light on the activities of lobbyists. The bill is so poorly and narrowly crafted that it may result in less transparency than is currently provided by the UK’s voluntary (and woefully incomplete) lobbyist registry.
Guess who’s coming to TCamp13: countdown to TCamp edition
“Guess Who’s Coming to TCamp” is a mini-series we started last year to introduce some of the faces you'll see at TransparencyCamp. We're now in the homestretch before TCamp 2013, and are highlighting some more international guests and TransparencyCamp scholars joining us in Washington, DC on May 4 and 5.
For the last two years, we invited a number of advocates, journalists, policy makers, developers and others from all over the world to join us for TCamp and a series of informal meetings in the days before TransparencyCamp. This year, we opened up the process for participants outside the U.S. and invited people to join us through an online application process. We had an overwhelming response to the program with over 400 applicants. Thanks to our generous funders, we will welcome 23 people from a wide range of countries. Here`s our map:
Last week we brought you Oluseun Onigbinde from Nigeria, Juha Yrjola from Finland and Pamela Mutale Kapekele from Zambia. Today we'll learn a little bit about Fabrizio Alfredo Scrollini Mendez from the UK (via South America), Amira Khalil from Egypt, Bibhusan Bista from Nepal, Thejesh Gangaiah Nagarathna from India, and Vadym Hudyma from Ukraine.
Continue readingForeign Transparency Policies the US Government Could Learn From
The White House blog recently wrote about Obama’s trip to India and mentioned that US-based organizations could learn from Indian... View Article
Continue readingThe U.K. Goes Open Source
Here is some big news (a couple days late)! United Kingdom Cabinet Office Minister (for digital engagement) and Member of... View Article
Continue reading
59063
