Tools for Transparency

SECRECY TRANSPARENCY
 Lack of Accountability  Participation
 Corruption  Oversight
 Waste  Feedback
 Cynicism  Trust

 Only partially available online
 Formatted as web page or PDF
 Hard to search
 Can’t subscribe
 Can’t visualize
 Can’t re-use

Publishing Structured Data Visualization
Feeds • Makes it easy to find new
• Ability to subscribe to patterns.
interesting data
• Data streams can be ‘mashed’
in new ways.
Collaborative Crowdsourcing
Organization • Combines skills and input of
• Tagging, Voting large numbers of people

• Governments publish
Governments data streams
publish data
streams
• 3rd parties create tools for
analysis and oversight
3rd
Issues are
Party
Citizens
monitor data
• Citizens collaboratively
resolved
Tools streams monitor their
government
• Citizens detect issues,
Issues are
detected
give feedback
• Issues are resolved

 Government has no incentive
▪ Usually has disincentive
 Don’t want a single
Why can’t the
monolithic solution
government do ▪ Want to allow evolution of best-
everything? of-breed tools
 Tools created by citizens, for
citizens
▪ Ensure participation

 Focus:
 US Congress
 California
Legislature
 Gives grants to
online
transparency
tools
 $3.5 M Seed

A recent US
Congress bill
Groups for Groups
bill against bill

Votes
Donations

Publishing Structured Data Visualization
Feeds • MAPLight makes relationship
• MAPLight is a mashup of between money and votes
data streams from different visible.
sources.
Collaborative Crowdsourcing
Organization • Thousands of journalists,
• Advocacy group tags advocates, and citizens can
donating companies as browse data and flag issues.
belonging to interest groups.

People submit project
ideas
Core team defines tools
Engine for Donation-
Based 3rd Party Tool
Development
Web development groups
bid for implementation
Supporters donate to
fund development

Travel and Hospitality Expense Access to Information Request
Database Front-End
• Make it easy to sort and • Make it easy to file an access
visualize expenses to information request
• Make it easy to screen new • Collect statistics on requests
expenses and response times
• Highlight the areas that
receive the most requests

Advisors Volunteers Money
• Technical • Planners • Donations
Domain Experts, • Organizers • Grants
Academics • Evangelists
• Advocacy Groups
• Journalists

Jennifer Bell
visiblegovernment.ca