E-government is the use of technological communications devices, such as computers and the Internet, to provide public services to citizens and other persons in a country or region. E-government offers new opportunities for more direct and convenient citizen access to government and for government provision of services directly to citizens.
As an ethic that spans science, engineering, business, and the humanities, transparency is operating in such a way that it is easy for others to see what actions are performed. Transparency implies openness, communication, and accountability.
The Sunlight Foundation was an American 501(c)(3) nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that advocated for open government. The organization was founded in April 2006 with the goal of increasing transparency and accountability in the United States Congress, the executive branch, and in state and local governments. The foundation's primary focus was the role of money in politics. The organization sought to increase campaign finance regulations and disclosure requirements. The Sunlight Foundation ceased operations in September 2020.
Open data is data that is openly accessible, exploitable, editable and shared by anyone for any purpose. Open data is licensed under an open license.
Open government is the governing doctrine which maintains that citizens have the right to access the documents and proceedings of the government to allow for effective public oversight. In its broadest construction, it opposes reason of state and other considerations which have tended to legitimize extensive state secrecy. The origins of open-government arguments can be dated to the time of the European Age of Enlightenment, when philosophers debated the proper construction of a then nascent democratic society. It is also increasingly being associated with the concept of democratic reform. The United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 16 for example advocates for public access to information as a criterion for ensuring accountable and inclusive institutions.
The International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) is a global campaign to create transparency in the records of how aid money is spent. The initiative hopes to thereby ensure that aid money reaches its intended recipients. The ultimate goal is to improve standards of living worldwide and globally reduce poverty. The IATI also publishes a standard to be used by organizations, allowing different datasets to be combined and shared.
Open data in Canada describes the capacity for the Canadian Federal Government and other levels of government in Canada to provide online access to data collected and created by governments in a standards-compliant Web 2.0 way. Open data requires that machine-readable should be made openly available, simple to access, and convenient to reuse. As of 2016, Canada was ranked 2nd in the world for publishing open data by the World Wide Web Foundation's Open Data Barometer.
The Open Government Initiative is an effort by the administration of President of the United States Barack Obama to "[create] an unprecedented level of openness in Government.". The directive starting this initiative was issued on January 20, 2009, Obama's first day in office.
The Open Government Partnership (OGP) is a multilateral initiative that aims to secure concrete commitments from national and sub-national governments to promote open government, empower citizens, fight corruption, and harness new technologies to strengthen governance. In the spirit of multi-stakeholder collaboration, OGP is overseen by a steering committee including representatives of governments and civil society organizations.
Uchaguzi is a joint initiative spearheaded by Ushahidi in 2010 to monitor the Kenyan constitutional referendum. Ushahidi collaborated with the Hivos Foundation, the Constitution and Reform Education Consortium (CRECO), INFONET, and the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) to develop an ICT platform, which enables citizens, the civil society, election observers, law enforcement agencies and humanitarian response agencies to monitor election incidents of significance using any technology at their disposal.
Open Government Data (OGD) Platform India or data.gov.in is a platform for supporting Open data initiative of Government of India. This portal is a single-point access to datasets, documents, services, tools and applications published by ministries, departments and organisations of the Government of India. It combines and expands the best features of India government's India.gov.in and the U.S. government's data.gov project.
The Open Government Partnership (OGP) is a new multilateral initiative introduced by the United States Government that aims to secure concrete commitments from governments to promote transparency, empower citizens, fight corruption, and harness new technologies to strengthen governance by means of Open Data Platforms. In the spirit of multi-stakeholder collaboration, OGP is overseen by a steering committee of governments, civil society organizations and the developer community.
National Information Technology Agency (NITA) is a public service institution established by Act 771 in 2008 as the ICT policy implementing arm of the Ministry of Communications of the Republic of Ghana. NITA is the agency responsible for implementing Ghana's IT policies.
Civic technology, or civic tech, enhances the relationship between the people and government with software for communications, decision-making, service delivery, and political process. It includes information and communications technology supporting government with software built by community-led teams of volunteers, nonprofits, consultants, and private companies as well as embedded tech teams working within government.
The Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI) - is a Georgian non-governmental organization which tends to support the development of an informed and empowered society for democratic governance. IDFI promotes human rights and good governance by raising civic awareness through sound informational reports, research and recommendations; Advocates for initiating & implementing reforms of policies, laws and practices to enhance democratic governance.
Fiscal transparency refers to the publication of information on how governments raise, spend, and manage public resources. More specifically, it means publication of high quality information on how governments raise taxes, borrow, spend, invest, and manage public assets and liabilities.
Proactive disclosure is the act of releasing information before it is requested. In Canada, this refers to an environment where information is released routinely through electronic means with the exception of information that the government is required to protect due to privacy risks. This could refer to information regarding citizens' social insurance numbers or military operations.
Access to public information and freedom of information (FOI) refer to the right of access to information held by public bodies also known as "right to know". Access to public information is considered of fundamental importance for the effective functioning of democratic systems, as it enhances governments' and public officials' accountability, boosting people participation and allowing their informed participation into public life. The fundamental premise of the right of access to public information is that the information held by governmental institutions is in principle public and may be concealed only on the basis of legitimate reasons which should be detailed in the law.
The Union Cabinet of India approved the National Data Sharing and Accessibility Policy (NDSAP) on 9 February 2012. The objective of the policy is to facilitate access to Government of India owned shareable data and information in both human readable and machine readable forms.
Open government principles are an integral part of anti-corruption policy and governance reforms implemented in the Republic of Azerbaijan. Two National Action Plans on Promotion of Open Government were adopted with Presidential Decrees respectively in 2012 and 2016.
