[sudoroom] Stanford 3/11-12; Right to Info & Transparency in Digital age: Policy, Tools & Practices

[Eddan Katz]

> The Right to information and transparency in the digital age: Policy, Tools
> and Practices
> 
> Workshop organized by Liberation Technology Program at Stanford University,
> United States, 11.-12. March, 2013
> 
> Call for Papers
> 
> Access to information has become one of the most promising tools to combat
> corruption, increase people’s participation in (self) governance and thus,
> to strengthen democracy. Since the 1960s there has been a steady progress
> in the number of countries that have legislated access to information laws,
> and over eighty countries have such laws today. There have also been
> several social developments and innovations which embrace access to
> information, such as open constitution reform process in Iceland, open
> innovation challenges by the United States government, participatory
> budgeting processes in Germany, Finland and Canada and social audits in
> India, just to mention few. As a parallel development, the open data
> movement is evolving in several countries, pushed forward by both civil
> society and governments and incentivized by the global Open Government
> Partnership network. These practices are supported by open innovation and
> open design strategies, which the public sector is i
> ncreasingly adopting.
> 
> These open and participatory practices give tools for citizens to monitor
> governments, to hold them accountable, and to practice agency in the public
> sphere. The right to information and transparency movements can be
> considerably strengthened by creative use of information technologies – but
> realizing this potential requires us to revisit the design of RTI policies,
> tools and practices to update them to serve citizens in the digital age. In
> re-evaluating the tools for accountability, we should be mindful that
> increased use of accountability technologies suggests re-articulations of
> the power structures in modern societies, including new forms of social
> control, new spaces for public deliberation and new conceptualizations of
> participation in democracy.
> 
> The workshop will convene both practitioners and academics to discuss their
> work in the area and to examine the theoretical and practical implications
> of these phenomena. We seek to bring together people engaged in law,
> policy, social movements, administration, technology, design and of course,
> the use of technology for accessing information. We propose to go well
> beyond the issue of accessing information by looking at the use of
> technology to record, store, process and disseminate public information,
> and to create interactive spaces in the public sphere so that the full
> potential of ICT for transparency can be realized.
> 
> We welcome submissions focusing on intersection of technology, the right to
> information and participatory practices, which enhance transparency,
> including, but are not limited to, the following areas:
> 
> 1. Technology for transparency
> 
> - What are the design improvements and practices to improve digital tools
> that are used to record, store, process and disseminate information to
> empower right to information activists? How can, for instance, open design
> practices enhance transparency, access to information and participatory
> practices?
> 
> - How do social movements use technology, and can technology be empowering
> for the poor and the marginalized or will/is it be a tool for the
> privileged?
> 
> - What are the emerging power structures in digital democracy, and what is
> the role of technology in mediating and distributing power?
> 
> 2. Open data, open knowledge and open access
> 
> - What is the role of open data ecosystem in the right to information
> movement? What are the tools, practices and policies to encourage the use
> of open data?
> 
> - How do open knowledge, open access and open science practices serve
> transparency in society?
> 
> 3. Open innovation and transparency
> 
> - How does open innovation support transparency in governance, and
> strengthen right to information?
> 
> 4. Legal and policy considerations in the use of technology for right to
> information:
> 
> - What are the current limitations of right to information laws established
> based in the pre-digital age, and what kinds of legal changes are desirable
> in the digital age?
> 
> - What are the legal challenges to accessing information in digital format?
> 
> - What are the laws that prepare the context in which the right to
> information is exercised, and how should they change in the digital age?
> For example, how should public records laws and the system of recording and
> managing public information adapt to play a supportive role, and what are
> the best practices in public record management systems that will enable the
> effective use of technology by RTI activists?
> 
> - What are the challenges involved in using technology to make
> corporations, civil society organizations and other non-government
> organizations transparent?
> 
> 5. Role of media and journalism in transparency
> 
> - How do journalists use data to monitor governments? What are the
> challenges in using data for monitoring and reporting as it stands today?
> 
> - What kinds of tools, data formats or practices could enrich data driven
> journalism.
> 
> 6. Digital tools for transparency
> 
> - How can maps help citizens hold their governments accountable? How should
> information be designed such that government activities can be mapped?
> 
> - How could public agencies use videos and photographs to record their
> activities, and how can the citizen use such information effectively?
> 
> - How do citizens use modern surveillance and other monitoring practices
> for transparency?
> 
> - How can satellites be used to monitor governments?
> 
> - How can mobile phones be used to record and access information
> 
> - Can better visualization of data make a difference for the right to
> information movement?
> 
> - What is the role of crowdsourcing and co-creation in combatting
> corruption?
> 
> The deadline for submissions is 18th of January, 2013. Accepted presenters
> will be informed by February 1st, 2013.
> 
> The form of submission is either full paper (maximum 25 pages) or extended
> abstract (6 pages). The submissions should be sent to the following email
> address:vivekdse+rti at gmail.com**.
> 
> The workshop will be organized at Stanford University in March 11-12, 2013.
> The workshop is being organized by the Program on Liberation Technology at
> Stanford University, an interdisciplinary program at the intersection of
> political science, computer science and design engineering.
> 
> There is no fee for participating in the conference, and participants are
> expected to make their own travel and lodging arrangements.
> 
> For more information, please contact Tanja Aitamurto
> attanjaa at stanford.edu or Vivek Srinivasan
> atvivekdse at stanford.edu  .
>