Recently, the Global Open Data Initiative sought input from the community to learn more about the needs and challenges associated with open data. What follows is a summary of our most interesting findings about the global state of open data.
Continue readingApply for TransparencyCamp 2014 international!
Be a part of the TCamp experience: Apply now for an international travel stipend to attend TransparencyCamp and the international program on May 29-June 2!
Continue readingFree webinar series: How technology can enhance political finance transparency
Money is an inescapable part of political campaigns all around the world. Join us for a free webinar series to learn more and uncover the influence of money in elections.
Continue readingAnnouncing Sunlight’s international lobbying disclosure guidelines
With more and more civil society organizations in the open government universe recognizing that “thorny issues” -- such as political finance transparency or surveillance -- need to be tackled somewhat more vehemently, we are eager to seize the momentum and start a hopefully constructive dialogue around an embarrassingly under- or unregulated area: lobbying disclosure. A few weeks back, with the support of our friends at the Open Knowledge Foundation, we took the first steps to create a community of interested advocates, activists and academics, and launched a public working group around the world of influence.
Today, we are excited to announce our draft lobbying disclosure guidelines and invite the community to provide input on these recommendations.
Continue readingThe Global Open Data Initiative Needs Your Input
Open Data has enormous unfulfilled promise to change how governments work and to empower citizenship. As more governments and issue... View Article
Continue readingThe EU lobbyist register needs fixing
After a summer of debate, the EU working group responsible for reviewing the joint lobbyist register of the European Commission and European Parliament is poised to make recommendations for the future of the register. Strong regulations can shed light on how lobbyists shape the policy making process in the EU. However, the register in its current form is “unsustainable, misguided and simply not credible” -- according to a detailed report by the ALTER - EU, a coalition of about 200 civil society groups, trade unions, academics and public affairs firms concerned with the increasing influence exerted by corporate lobbyists on the political agenda in Europe.
The Sunlight Foundation applauds efforts to create more transparency around lobbying in the EU and encourages everyone to sign the petition launched by the ALTER-EU coalition.
Sunlight Teaming Up With the Open Knowledge Foundation to Create New Lobbying Transparency Working Group
The Sunlight Foundation and the Open Knowledge Foundation are teaming up to convene a new global group on lobbying transparency. We want... View Article
Continue readingIndia’s FOI Anniversary Spurs Political Finance Transparency
The eighth anniversary of India’s freedom of information law, the Right to Information Act (RTI), could become an important milestone in the country’s transparency agenda. The 2005 sunshine law has already made a tremendous impact on how Indian decision makers respond to public scrutiny efforts, and this year has seen a heated public debate around the finances of political parties with the anniversary creating momentum to rethink (and maybe even redesign) the country's current political finance transparency landscape.
Continue readingGlobal Open Data Initiative moving forward
The Global Open Data Initiative is a coalition of civil society organisations working together in the area of open government data and open government.
Our basic goal is that citizens will have full and open access to the government data that is needed in order to build effective government and governance.
The Global Open Data Initiative will serve as a guiding voice internationally on open data issues. Civil society groups who focus on open data have often been isolated to single national contexts, despite the similar challenges and opportunities repeating themselves in countries across the globe. The Global Open Data Initiative aims to help share valuable resources, guidance and judgment, and to clarify the potential for government open data across the world.
How do other countries perform when it comes to procurement transparency?
The first thing to admit is that the title of this post might be a bit misleading. While in the last few months Sunlight was indeed busy researching procurement transparency on many different levels, we’ve never had the intention (or the power) to do holistic international research on procurement transparency, nor did we want to rank countries based on their performance. This would have been an endless - and probably pointless - effort. Our motive behind mapping the global landscape of procurement disclosure trends was to find best practices, powerful online tools and also to gain inspiration for Sunlight’s recently released open data guidelines for procurements.
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