Title: Data.gov: Selling the Government and Democratization of Information
Author: Alix Vance
Source: Scholarly Kitchen
Publisher: Society for Scholarly Publishing
Date (published): 25/05/2010
Date (accessed): 02/06/2010
Type of information: blog post
Language: English
On-line access: yes (HTML)
Abstract:
Last Friday marked the one-year anniversary of the Obama Administration’s Open Government Initiative (OGI). The occasion was honored with a cupcake and candle on the landing page of the newly re-designed Data.gov site and a widely disseminated announcement from the White House... Data.gov includes more than 250,000 datasets, up from 47 made available at launch. The impact of the OGI is not confined to the United States. At present, six nations outside the U.S. are also developing open repositories of government data...
The message from the Obama Administration is that the OGI signals a sea change for government information that will:
- Spawn a global movement to democratize access
- Enable global linking of data
- Foster innovation and transparency via the creation of “community developed” applications
...
Professionals will find or create the means to build utilities from these emerging global repositories of government data that will:
- Enable comparisons of data that has historically been unavailable, siloed, and non-standardized
- Deliver tools that surface previously hidden relationships between data points and suggest relational meanings
- Aid users develop new hypotheses and research entry points
Whether this translates to empowerment of the general public — or strictly adds to the use of charts and graphs in presentations and articles by researchers and in the media, which pass by the general citizenry — is an open question.
...
Pending questions:

Will the technology community remain fiercely committed to using open data to serve the public good?
Will commercial interests predominate?
Will the level of commitment and interest in the objectives of a global data program continue without institutional incentives?
Does the Administration have its own plans for making this type of information digestible for the general public?

Title: Cutting Through the Hype: Why Citizen Reporting Isn't Election Monitoring
Authors: Katrin Verclas, Anne-Ryan Heatwole
Source: MobileActive.org
Date (published): 31/05/2010
Date (accessed): 01/06/2010
Type of information: blog post
Language: English
On-line access: yes (HTML)
Abstract:
Recently, we’ve been seeing a lot of hype about citizen reporting with mobile phones during elections. It is often conflated with the term “election monitoring,” but this does a disservice to both citizen reporting and election monitoring, a discipline and field that has been around for some 20 years. These two approaches have markedly different goals, target audiences, and processes. We think it is time for readers to definititively understand what election monitoring is in contrast to citizen reporting, and what the role of mobile phone and mapping platforms are in regard to these two very different forms of engagement during elections. We aim to clearly differentiate between them once and for all.

We also urge the adoption of differing terms - citizen reporting during an election versus systematic election monitoring. Mobile phones, SMS, and mapping platforms play a role in both citizen reporting and election monitoring, of course.

We believe that more clearly distinguishing between citizen reporting during an election and the discipline of systematic election monitoring will better serve organizations that are considering using mobile technology for either of these engagement processes.

via http://twitter.com/AudienceScapes and http://twitter.com/mobileactive

Title: e-Brain Forum of Zambia : The National ICT4D Network in Zambia
Authors: Grace Zozi, Lee Muzala, Martine Koopman, Theresa Stanton
Pages: 8 pp.
Source: IICD Learning Brief
Publisher: International Institute for Communication and Development
Date (published): 19/05/2010
Date (accessed): 01/06/2010
Type of information:
Language: English
On-line access: yes (pdf)
Abstract:
The ICT for Development (ICT4D) national networks focus on the role of Information and Communication Technology in accelerating development in various sectors (education, health, rural livelihood and governance) in a country. This Thematic Learning Brief describes the lessons learned by the e-Brain Forum of Zambia, the IICD supported National ICT4D Network in Zambia It is intended for practitioners in the field who would like to learn from the experiences of this network as well as organisations that would like to implement a similar network.