Create a Transparent and Connected Democracy

While Europe is looking for a solution to the Irish No to the Lisbon treaty many say that the lack of transparency and democracy is seen as one of the main problems of the EU.

A post by Bente Kalsnes lead me to very interesting proposals by Barack Obama tackling exactly these issues. Obama's ideas about how technology and the internet can increase transparency about policy making are so re-freshing and so relevant not only for the US but also for Europe that I'd like to list here some of the main points:

• Making government data available online in universally accessible formats to allow citizens to make use of that data to comment, derive value, and take action in their own communities. [See also this related blog article about Goverment 2.0 - the government as a platform]
  
  
• Lifting the veil from secret deals in Washington with a web site, a search engine, and other web tools that enable citizens easily to track online federal grants, contracts, earmarks, and lobbyist contacts with government officials.
  
  
• Giving the American public an opportunity to review and comment on the White House website for five days before signing any non-emergency legislation.
  
  
• Establishing pilot programs to open up government decision-making and involve the public in the work of agencies, not simply by soliciting opinions, but by tapping into the vast and distributed expertise of the American citizenry to help government make more informed decisions.
  
  
• Bringing democracy and policy deliberations directly to the people by requiring his Cabinet officials to have periodic national online town hall meetings to answer questions and discuss issues before their agencies.
  
  
• Employing technologies, including blogs, wikis and social networking tools, to modernize internal, cross-agency, and public communication and information sharing to improve government decision-making.

A must read for Commissioner Wallström and DIGIT, the European Commission's internal IT service: Obama Barack - Create a transparent and connected democracy