![[Dispatch] #LimaAssembly: Enhancing Government Transparency and Accountability through Technology Platforms](https://i0.wp.com/davidsasaki.name/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Screen-Shot-2012-10-16-at-5.18.PM_.jpg?resize=600%2C197&ssl=1)
A Critique and Defense of Civic Participation
Last week I was at the Digital Cities conference in Buenos Aires, a convening of civil servants in charge of city open data programs and the technologists and NGOs that use the data. One after another government representative claimed that the ultimate goal of their...
Two Maps and 21st Century Exploration
The following text was written for an art installation at the new Skylink Terminal of Vienna Airport. The title of the installation, Zeitraum, is a German portmanteau combining zeit (time) and raum (place), and roughly translates to “period of time.”...
Fiscal Transparency (is Not Enough)
OpenSpending.org has simple goal that is extraordinarily difficult to achieve: wherever you may live, you enter in how much you earn per month, press a button, and poof, a stunning visualization of where your tax money goes. Let’s say I’m a British...
Niños Incomodos and Video for Advocacy in Mexico
Last month I caught an interesting tweet from Alejandro Ramírez, the CEO of the 4th largest cinema chain in the entire world: Ramírez was celebrating the fact that De Panzazo, an excellent documentary about the state of the country’s education system, was seen...
Helping Politicians Keep Their Promises
Politicians love to make promises. Here in Mexico, presidential contender Enrique Peña Nieto even spent the morning of the first official day of campaigning at a public notary’s office where he signed his name next to his first three campaign promises. But...![[Report] Parliamentary Power to the People](https://i0.wp.com/davidsasaki.name/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Screen-Shot-2012-03-29-at-1.46.PM-1.jpg?resize=974%2C675&ssl=1)
[Report] Parliamentary Power to the People
Brazil-based transparency and freedom of information scholar Greg Michener has authored the first major report on the use of online platforms to understand and monitor parliaments in Latin America. Commissioned by the Open Society Foundations, “Parliamentary...Transparently Advocating for Transparency
Update: I have removed the “within 15 days of the signing of a grants agreement” from the commitment. For a variety of reasons it may not be possible to publish the related information so soon after the agreement has been signed. At times, such as in the...
Back to My Printing Press
I started blogging at el-oso.net in December 2003. I didn’t expect it to last long; mostly I wanted to keep a travel diary for a road trip around Mexico, and I figured, why not keep it on the Internet? Several months later I realized that I still had more to...
Conference-Slutting Toward Good Governance
2012 looks a lot like a convenient excuse for the Latin American diplomatic jet set to rack up their American Express rewards points while in Cartagena, Brasilia, Puerto Vallarta, Los Cabos, Rio de Janeiro and elsewhere. Looking through a less cynical filter, 2012...Latest Photos
