Advancing Transparency and Accountability

The words transparency and accountability are often used as clichéd sayings by politicians or the public. In practical terms, it means the ability to know which enables the ability to take action. What we don't know, we can't act on.

Citizens are criticized for their apathy when they don't weigh in on the topics of the day or quite often simply don't bother exercising their right to vote. The role of the citizen is to live their lives. The more challenged the economic environment they live within, the more difficult that is to do. When a political system isn't designed for them to be efficiently engaged, they do precisely what we would expect: they disengage. They focus on their family and their everyday lives.

If we give them better information, they will take part more readily. But weakly researched media articles or TV segments aren't enough. Information from communications professionals or those whose career relies on staying in the public's good graces cannot be considered reliable. Even our best journalists are reduced to minimalistic coverage when they're given just hours to turn in a story. They simply cannot get access to the information they need quickly enough to do any better.

Transparency is not only measured by whether or not information is available. The cost, accessibility, and efficiency matter just as much. A freedom of information request that costs thousands of dollars is a barrier. The existence of years of council meetings is of minimal value except to those committed to tens of hours of research. The availability of information has little value if people do not know it exists, or cannot locate it.

Civic Lookout is making one initial contribution to transparency. We are making the CBRM council videos for the past five years searchable. Hundreds of hours of video contain within them an abundance of information about the discussions and decisions of council. These videos were simply too time consuming and difficult to navigate before now. Even the best journalists could not utilize them effectively in their research. This project has the opportunity to make that information more accessible. Specific topics can be located across years of council meetings within seconds to tens of minutes. Prior to Civic Lookout, this was next to impossible. No media agency has the time availability to traverse the history of CBRM council in such a manner.

Using modern information technology capabilities, such limitations are being collapsed. And we're entering a new era when the ability to know and the ability to act are greatly enhanced.