http://www.sebastian-haselbeck.de personal blog and website Thu, 07 Oct 2010 15:01:06 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v= http://www.sebastian-haselbeck.de/government-2-0-are-rumors-of-its-death-premature/comment-page-1/#comment-96 Katja Stepanets Thu, 07 Oct 2010 15:01:06 +0000 http://www.sebastian-haselbeck.de/?p=160#comment-96 Well-done, Sebastian! Good point about leaving all the "trendy stuff" aside and looking at the essence of what is going on/need to be done. As you pointed out, in order for the move towards open government to be successful, change must take place at different levels within a society: there must be a political will, bureaucracy should not resist new ways of doing things, society (or at least a geeky part of it) must demand more openness. To drive such a change is definitely not an easy endeavour, because it's indeed fundamential. Although interested in the topic in general, politicians do not feel enough pressure from the society to push for open data initiatives (what does require siginificant investment), for example; and I don't believe that the general public realizes the benefits that open data can bring... Ultimately, all this goes back to the fact that the current government is inefficient. I'm also curious about what will happen next, as people get disappointed with the quality of data that the government provides (I liked Ellen Miller's (Sunlight Foundation) speech at the Gov 2.0 Summit 2010). I'm optimistic, however, as I believe that one cannot stop the progress and we will be moving towards a more transparent government. But maybe not that as fast as it has been assumed so far. Well-done, Sebastian! Good point about leaving all the “trendy stuff” aside and looking at the essence of what is going on/need to be done.
As you pointed out, in order for the move towards open government to be successful, change must take place at different levels within a society: there must be a political will, bureaucracy should not resist new ways of doing things, society (or at least a geeky part of it) must demand more openness. To drive such a change is definitely not an easy endeavour, because it’s indeed fundamential. Although interested in the topic in general, politicians do not feel enough pressure from the society to push for open data initiatives (what does require siginificant investment), for example; and I don’t believe that the general public realizes the benefits that open data can bring… Ultimately, all this goes back to the fact that the current government is inefficient.
I’m also curious about what will happen next, as people get disappointed with the quality of data that the government provides (I liked Ellen Miller’s (Sunlight Foundation) speech at the Gov 2.0 Summit 2010). I’m optimistic, however, as I believe that one cannot stop the progress and we will be moving towards a more transparent government. But maybe not that as fast as it has been assumed so far.

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