by David Sasaki | Jan 12, 2013 | English, Omidyar Network, Open Government, Transparency Digest, Work
The open government community lost a great thought leader this week. Aaron Swartz was always a controversial (and sometimes divisive) member of the transparency movement. For me he was a minor hero; so young, so smart, so capable, always willing to fight for what he believed in.
by David Sasaki | Jan 11, 2013 | English, Omidyar Network, Open Government, Work
Three years ago some colleagues and I launched the Technology for Transparency Network. Back then I thought it was a pretty good description of what we were after. Today I confess that I haven’t the slightest idea of the meaning of “technology for transparency.”
by David Sasaki | Aug 29, 2012 | English
Over the past week I’ve received a number of emails asking me what I think about Ivan Krastev’s recent TED talk, “Can democracy exist without trust.” So here is what I think about it. It’s a nice TED talk in the way that my buddy Evgeny...
by David Sasaki | May 11, 2012 | English, Work
This blog post is a summary of a $25,000 grant from Omidyar Network to the Mexican Institute for Competitiveness to support the convening of Latin American transparency networks in Mexico City on March 20, 2012 to discuss the opportunities, challenges, and...
by David Sasaki | Mar 29, 2012 | English, Open Government, Work
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...
by David Sasaki | Dec 12, 2011 | English, Open Government
A few months ago I wrote a geopolitical analysis of the newly launched Open Government Partnership (OGP), a multilateral network of reformers from governments and advocates from civil society organizations that are trying to expand the concept and implementation of...
by David Sasaki | Jul 11, 2011 | English
Tomorrow morning, representatives from more than 55 national governments meet in Washington DC to kick off what might be a multilateral, 21st century reboot of good old democracy-building, a term tainted by eight years of George W. Bush. Activists and international...
by David Sasaki | Mar 25, 2011 | English
In his review of Tim Wu’s The Master Switch, Evgeny Morozov writes: Net neutrality is a simple idea with powerful implications. A neutral net would, for example, prevent cable providers from slowing down their customers’ connections or, worse, banning them from...
by David Sasaki | Dec 19, 2010 | English
It seems to me that the real political task in a society such as ours is to criticize the workings of institutions that appear to be both neutral and independent, to criticize and attack them in such a manner that the political violence, which is always exercised...
by David Sasaki | May 19, 2010 | English
Over the past few months I’ve read somewhere around 200 academic papers related to transparency, accountability, and e-governance. Over that time I’ve reached several conclusions, all of which I am documenting in a series of posts on Global Voices. But the...