“Digital Transparency in Government: What We Have and

What We Need”

Beth CateAssociate Professor

School of Public and Environmental Affairs, Indiana University

SUNSHINE WEEK SYMPOSIUM

WHAT WE HAVE

• FOIA.gov• FOIAonline• Open Government Initiative/Open Government

Partnership– FOIA Modernization Advisory Committee– Presidential/NARA Directives on electronic mgmt of records,

including email by 2016• Data.gov• State and city portals leading the way• Civic hacking and growth in publicly developed APIs, data

standards

WHAT WE NEED

• Embedded ethos of openness• Appreciation of the difference between open

data for efficiency or stimulus, and openness for accountability

• Common FOIA portal and core regulation• Tools for effective data use– Access (including net neutrality), data literacy

Service enhancement v. Accountability

“Predictably, agencies responding to [the OGI] mandate have tended to release data that helps them serve their existing goals without throwing open the doors for uncomfortable increases in public scrutiny.”

– Yu and Robinson, “The New Ambiguity of ‘Open Government,’” 59 UCLA L. Rev. Disc. 178, 198 (2012)