Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Fioretti on Citizens in Open Government

Summary of a talk given by Marco Fioretti in Santander, Spain.

Fioretti correctly points out that far fewer citizens are interested in being members of an active thinking 'public' than one of the television-supplied 'masses'.


You can download the full talk at mfioretti.com. The main points were:

  • Using computers doesn't automatically make services more efficient
  • In and by itself, using only Free/Open Source software on government computers gives no openness: you can build the perfect police state using ONLY “Free as in Freedom” software
  • Publishing data online does very little good if it doesn't come with the right laws and practices

and, above all:

  • the crucial role EU senior citizens may play in acceptance of Open Government is really overlooked
  • Open Government done right destroys many more white collar public jobs than the economic crisis: will people accept it once they realize the impact on what is the biggest employer in many states?
  • Open Data work only if many more citizens are both willing and able to process numbers than it is the case today


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