30th April 2020 – Northern Ireland, Points of View
From the Board of the Northern Ireland Open Government Network Part 1 – Transparency in a Time of Crisis What is the role of Open Government while we face an unprecedented crisis? The COVID-19 pandemic has changed our normal way of life; it is placing substantial strain on the fabric of government, public services and…
27th February 2020 – Points of View
This article was originally published in The Political Quarterly on 20 January 2020. Marilyn Stathern, in her famous article on the ‘Tyranny of transparency’, asked: ‘what does visibility conceal’? While openness can shed light on some areas, it can also create shadows and shade to hide in. One of the biggest fears for transparency campaigners…
10th January 2020 – News
The Northern Ireland Open Government Network (NIOGN) cautiously welcomes the proposed document ‘New Decade, New Approach’ from the British and Irish Governments. The aspirations set out in ‘New Decade, New Approach’ could change many lives, the document outlines some major proposals and could have a positive impact on the culture of politics in Northern Ireland,…
1st December 2019 – United Kingdom
There are many issues dominating the campaign for the 2019 General Election. We have collected a few different resources and put them together to help give you, the voter, information about party policies on these issues: Manifesto Tracker (IfG): https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/manifesto-tracker Find out where to vote and candidates in your area: https://democracyclub.org.uk/ If you have…
25th November 2019 – News
Colm Burns, Chair of The Northern Ireland Open Government Network and Sue Gray, Department of Finance Permanent Secretary Awards of between £300 and up to £5,000 are available to fund the development of apps or other interactive visualisations that make innovative use of data on the Open Data NI portal. Organisations and individuals hosting engagement…
10th October 2019 – Points of View
This blogpost was written by Dr Judith Townend. Dr Judith Townend is a senior lecturer in media and information law at the University of Sussex. She was commissioned by Spotlight on Corruption to prepare a proposal to guide the Open Government commitment to open justice. You can download the report here: Docx | pdf Justice…
8th October 2019 – Points of View
Blogpost originally published here on 4th September 2019, authored by Ben Worthy. How well can we monitor what is happening at Westminster? What happens when we do? This project looks at how new data sources and web platforms have made it easier to monitor Parliament and its members. At the touch of a button, we…
25th September 2019 – Points of View
This blogpost was written by Professor Karim Murji (University of West London) and Asif Afridi (BRAP) Earlier this year, a blogpost made the case for high quality data on ethnicity to understand and address inequalities in the public sector. While we are sympathetic to that call, our research suggests that data quality in itself is…
19th September 2019 – News, United Kingdom
Originally published on 9 September 2019 on the 360Giving website, written by David Kane. Grants from government are a crucial part of the voluntary sector’s funding mix – but surprisingly, it’s very difficult to find out how much these grants are worth or where they go. NCVO’s latest UK Civil Society Almanac has a figure…
20th June 2019 – News, Northern Ireland, Points of View, Scotland, United Kingdom, Wales
From 28-30 May, Canadian civil society and the Canadian Government hosted the Open Government Partnership Global Summit in Ottawa. This year’s Summit had a particular focus on participation, inclusion and impact. Over 2,000 delegates, over 100 sessions, and 130 countries (including all the UK nations) came together to learn and share their knowledge, experiences and…