Open government = better politics?

Earlier this year, I blogged about the Internet & Society Co://aboratory, a new thinktank here in Germany that brings together independent Internet experts from academia, civil society and the private sector. Google initiated the group and funds its organisation. The Co://aboratory was set up to contribute to the public debate in Germany about how the Internet transforms our daily lives - and how we can ensure it continues to be an engine of innovation and economic growth. Back in July, the Co://aboratory released its first report on the state of online innovation culture.

Now, the second circle of 38 experts has published a second paper, entitled Open Statecraft - Better Politics Through Open Government? It examines how the Internet can enable citizens to participate more in the political process. It asks whether open government concepts from other countries can be transferred successfully to Germany - and discusses whether more open policy-making also leads to better policy.

The report includes data from a specially commissioned Dimap survey of more than 1000 German voters (full results downloadable here), which shows that:

• Nearly three-quarters of Germans want to be more involved in making decisions at a national level. Within this group, 85% of 25-34 year olds want to participate more in the political process via the Internet - as do 73% of 55-64 year olds.
• Supporters of the German opposition parties are more in favour of open government initiatives than supporters of the current federal government coalition.
• 69% of people said they would want to participate if - for example - municipalities were to let local residents vote on planned projects or investments
• The question whether to open up access to government data - and more specifically, whether national and state authorities should make all of their (non-personally identifying) information publicly available - is still not clear to the wider public. 45% were in favour of open data, but 44% opposed the idea.

On the face of it, it probably isn’t that surprising that German citizens want to be more involved in political decision-making. But it is interesting - especially given recent debates about the Internet in German society - that a high proportion of people, across age groups, want to get involved in the political process via the web. There are already numerous examples around the world of how the web can bring citizens, activists and politicians into closer and more productive dialogue - and Google supports and encourages this trend, both by organising events and through tools such as Google Moderator.

It’s surprising that people do not yet fully understand the benefits of opening up access to public sector information. It seems there is a need for better information about just how useful public data reuse can be - whether you’re talking about raw weather modelling data, public transport schedules or platforms that enable cool visualizations of public data (Mapnificent, Google Public Data Explorer).

The Co://aboratory is now undertaking its third initiative, due out in March 2011. This report will look at how the concept of copyright can be updated to better reflect the challenges and opportunities of the information age. In the meantime, please do take a few minutes to explore the Co://aboratory website and read the reports.

[BTW: if you’re not a German speaker, you might want to use Google Translate to take a closer look at some of the links I’ve included in this post.]

Posted by: Dr Max Senges, Public Affairs and Internet Policy, Google Germany