eTransparency Lasse Berntzen Vestfold University College Norway

Main argument Transparency is (and should be) embedded in legislation – EU, National, Regional, Local Electronic transparency supports transparency embedded in the legislation, by making the information more available, more accessible and the retrieval more effective. The provision of e-Transparency is therefore a technical solution supporting a legal principle.

What is the relevant legislation? Freedom of Information Acts (FOI) and Anti-corruption Acts – U.S. Sunshine Act Administrative Acts – Local Government Act Special legislation – Environmental Information Acts – Statistics Acts The legislative body has given the citizens certain rights to access government information (not only written information).

A framework for analysis Study of current legislation in order to identify what kinds of transparency exists. The following seven categories were found: – Document transparency (that documents should be available for inspection) – Benchmarking transparency (that information should be available for benchmarking and statistics) – Meeting transparency (that meetings should be known and open to the public) – Disclosure transparency (the right to ask for information) – Process transparency (access to information about how decision making is done) – Data transparency (open data sources) – Decision maker transparency (that decision makers should inform about their stakeholder interests and their agendas)

Examples of e-Transparency (1) Document e-transparency Online records of incoming and outgoing mail Online case documents Online records of decisions/minutes Benchmarking transparency Online annual reports, financial statements Links to relevant statistics collected by Eurostat and national statistics bureaus and other government agencies responsible for collecting and publishing statistical information Online results of user surveys (Remember, the access to this information is granted by legislation, this is an enhancement – availability, accessibility and efficiency)

Examples of e-Transparency (2) Meeting transparency Time and place of meetings Online meeting agendas Online proceedings (webcasts) Disclosure transparency Questions by On-line (real-time) questions (net-meetings or chat) Discussion forums/blogs where citizens can ask questions

Examples of e-Transparency (3) Process transparency Description of political decision making process Data transparency Open data sources (providing data in open formats) Decision maker transparency Online list of elected representatives Online voting records Online meeting calendar of political leaders and government chief executives

eGovMon project Partial funding by Research Council of Norway Automatic assessment of municipal web-sites –Accessibility, Transparency, Efficiency and Impact –22 Norwegian municipalities as partners Using learning algorithms to assess transparency Existence of online meeting agendas, mail records, case documents, webcasts of meetings etc. Why? Reduce time spent on manual assessment, increase frequency of assessments