Part 2: Open Government ; International audience ; The purpose of this work is to explore the main differences and similarities between open government policies developed since 2009 by the US and the EU, two major powerhouses in what concerns eGovernment-related policies. For that purpose, the authors analyzed the information on webpages and main policy documents as available to any ordinary citizen. The results show that both the US and EU policy share the same core concepts and goals. However, while the US opted to formulate an autonomous policy under a unifying 'open government' umbrella term, the EU choose to incorporate the goals and principles into an already existing eGovernment development effort, emphasizing 'public services innovation' instead. As a consequence, in the US case it is easier to identify and understand the policy main goals, and to find policy-related information online. Furthermore, the US policy seems to have had a bigger external impact and recognition.
Part 2: Open Government Data and Transparency ; International audience ; Dataset portals such as Data.gov and Data.uk.gov have become flagship initiatives of open government and open data strategies. These portals aim to fulfill the open government objectives of promoting re-use of public sector information to develop new products and services, and increasing transparency for public officials' accountability. This work focus on the latter and its aim is to propose a set of requirements as part of a framework to assess whether dataset portals are indeed contributing to a higher degree of transparency focusing on accountability. Previous studies on internet-based transparency (including Internet Financial Reporting – IFR) were analyzed, from which several requirements were derived concerning the data types sought after, the public entities covered, the information seeking strategies adopted and the desired qualitative characteristics of data. The rationale behind our proposal is that dataset portals developed under the open government principles should, at least, be able to fulfill the informational and operational requirements identified in the 'traditional' transparency assessment literature.
International audience ; In 2009, a unique Portuguese electoral cycle comprised european, local, and national elections. During the three month non-stop campaign period, more than a hundred experienced bloggers, supporters of the three main political parties, created three non party-sponsored blogs. These blogs were the focal point of the political blogosphere during that period and ceased their activities at the end of the electoral campaign, thus providing a unique opportunity to better understand the political blogosphere. Web mining techniques were used to obtain data concerning the visits to those blogs (from Sitemeter) and the blog's content itself (posts, comments, and links). Data suggests that blog readers don't look for different points of view, blog commentators usually limit themselves to one blog, bloggers do not comment on other blogs other than their own, and relatively few links exist between all three blogs. These results undermine the idea that the political blogosphere can enhance the deliberative character of the public sphere.
Part 2: Open and Smart Government ; International audience ; A key objective of open government programs is to promote public accountability by using Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to release data on the internal working of public agencies. However, it is not clear how actual accountability (such as sanctions or rewards) may be achieved from the data disclosed. Nor it is clear how ICT in general should support it. To better understand how ICT can support open data initiated accountability processes in achieving their goal, this paper considers the three phases (information, discussion, and consequences) usually used to describe such processes. Defining ICT support for these major phases is a difficult effort, since each phase encompasses different tasks and support requirements. This paper aims to address this problem by providing a detailed account of the tasks associated with the whole public accountability process. This may be used by those responsible for open government programs to design and deploy comprehensive ICT support platforms using a task-technology fit perspective.
Local policy issues usually exhibit a high degree of complexity and uncertainty and are often characterized as "ill-structured" problems. Problem Structuring Methods (PSMs) rely on stakeholder representation and workshop format procedures to support policy making processes. We consider public participation as a way to reduce uncertainty and to improve the democratic legitimacy of those processes, and we propose a new model for e-participation (information and communication technology supported public participation), employing collaborative writing processes to produce agreed documents. These documents may then be used as formal input into the policy making process, thereby incorporating the citizens' views on those issues. A public participation support system has been developed according to this model. ; http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/B6V8S-4KH47KK-1/1/c502afcb47e9b3e23188f5e39d369301
Purpose This paper aims to analyse extant literature on open data, distinguish and categorize the strands of public accountability research and use the results to provide better clarity in the concept of open data-driven public accountability.
Design/methodology/approach Systematic review of 135 open data articles and 155 accountability articles from the e-government reference library. A multi-stage analysis results in 12 articles which are categorized using Bovens' (2007) accountability theory of information, discussion and consequences. Conceptual development, using the literature analysis, forms the final section of the paper.
Findings Research demonstrates that a range of open data topics has been advanced. However, just 12 articles exist that simultaneously address open data and accountability theory. Of the total 155 public accountability articles, the preponderant focus is on the information (N = 25) and discussion (N = 7) stages of the accountability process. Just one article focuses on the complete accountability process. To address this problem, the characterization of open (government) data-driven public accountability establishes conceptual crispness and clarity.
Originality/value Public accountability theory on open government has become overshadowed by social and economic value perspectives. This paper clarifies and advances the open data-driven public accountability perspective. It takes stock of public accountability research, delimits the key issues and questions and highlights the next steps needed for developing scholarship.
O objetivo deste trabalho é analisar de que forma as entidades da Administração Local em Portugal (municípios e entidades do setor empresarial local – SEL) aproveitam (ou não) o potencial de divulgação de informação da Internet, tornando-a assim um instrumento ao serviço da transparência destas entidades perante o cidadão. Para isso, recorreu-se a um modelo de avaliação (índice de transparência) que tem em consideração princípios de open government data propostos por diversos investigadores e entidades. O modelo, que avalia a visibilidade, o formato de apresentação e o modo de disponibilização de um conjunto de itens de informação nos sítios web das entidades analisadas, foi aplicado (em 2010) a 306 municípios portugueses e a 190 entidades do SEL. Os dados mostram que o grau de transparência das entidades avaliadas é genericamente baixo, sobretudo no caso do SEL. Nomeadamente, evidenciam que a forma como a informação é disponibilizada não tende a promover a sua análise pelos cidadãos.
We compared movement patterns and rhythms of activity of a top predator, the Iberian lynx Lynx pardinus, a mesopredator, the red fox Vulpes vulpes, and their shared principal prey, the rabbit Oryctolagus cuniculus, in relation to moon phases. Because the three species are mostly nocturnal and crepuscular, we hypothesized that the shared prey would reduce its activity at most risky moon phases (i.e. during the brightest nights), but that fox, an intraguild prey of lynx, would avoid lynx activity peaks at the same time. Rabbits generally moved further from their core areas on darkest nights (i.e. new moon), using direct movements which minimize predation risk. Though rabbits responded to the increased predation risk by reducing their activity during the full moon, this response may require several days, and the moon effect we observed on the rabbits had, therefore, a temporal gap. Lynx activity patterns may be at least partially mirroring rabbit activity: around new moons, when rabbits moved furthest and were more active, lynxes reduced their travelling distances and their movements were concentrated in the core areas of their home ranges, which generally correspond to areas of high density of rabbits. Red foxes were more active during the darkest nights, when both the conditions for rabbit hunting were the best and lynxes moved less. On the one hand, foxes increased their activity when rabbits were further from their core areas and moved with more discrete displacements; on the other hand, fox activity in relation to the moon seemed to reduce dangerous encounters with its intraguild predator. ; This study was funded by six research projects of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (PB90-1018, PB94-0480, PB97-1163, CGL2004-02780/ BOS, CGL2004-00346/BOS and CGL2008-02871/BOS; with FEDER co-financing) and one of the Spanish Ministry of the Environment, National Parks Research Programme (project 17/2005), a grant of the Ministry of Education and Science–C.S.I.C. (Proyectos Intramurales Especiales, DG-2606-PC), and the Junta of Andalucía (Excellence Project, RNM-5090). V. P. was the recipient of a grant from the Spanish Secretaría General de Universidades, Ministry of Education (Salvador de Madariaga Program); A. K. received a postdoctoral grant (no. 132828) from the Academy of Finland. M. M. D. received a post-doctoral fellowship from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation and a post-doctoral grant (no. 140367) from the Academy of Finland, and J. V. L. B. received a post-doctoral fellowship from the Spanish Ministry of Education. The Regional Government of Andalucía partly funded the supplementary feeding programme of lynx (LIFE-02NAT/8609). ; Peer reviewed
Publisher's version (útgefin grein) ; Birds of prey, owls and falcons are widely used as sentinel species in raptor biomonitoring programmes. A major current challenge is to facilitate large-scale biomonitoring by coordinating contaminant monitoring activities and by building capacity across countries. This requires sharing, dissemination and adoption of best practices addressed by the Networking Programme Research and Monitoring for and with Raptors in Europe (EURAPMON) and now being advanced by the ongoing international COST Action European Raptor Biomonitoring Facility. The present perspective introduces a schematic sampling protocol for contaminant monitoring in raptors. We provide guidance on sample collection with a view to increasing sampling capacity across countries, ensuring appropriate quality of samples and facilitating harmonization of procedures to maximize the reliability, comparability and interoperability of data. The here presented protocol can be used by professionals and volunteers as a standard guide to ensure harmonised sampling methods for contaminant monitoring in raptors. ; European Raptor Biomonitoring Facility COST Action (CA16224) is supported by COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) and funded by the Horizon 2020 Framework Programme of the European Union. Silvia Espín is financially supported by Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (Juan de la Cierva-Incorporación contract, IJCI-2017-34653). ; Peer Reviewed
