Amy Gahran

December 7-8, 2007—This weekend, 30 open government advocates gathered to develop a set of principles of open government data. The meeting, held in Sebastopol, California, was designed to develop a more robust understanding of why open government data is essential to democracy. The Internet is the public space of the modern world, and through it governments now have the opportunity to better understand the needs of their citizens and citizens may participate more fully in their government. Information becomes more valuable as it is shared, less valuable as it is hoarded. Open data promotes increased civil discourse, improved public welfare, and a more efficient use of public resources. The group is offering a set of fundamental principles for open government data. By embracing the eight principles, governments of the world can become more effective, transparent, and relevant to our lives. - Amy Gahran

"UNICEF Innovations Unit is spearheading the RapidSMS project, an Open Source platform for SMS application development. UNICEF, the Millenium Villages Project, and others have successfully used RapidSMS to augment malnutrition prevention programs in Malawi and Kenya, document the status of refugees in Somalia, promote women’s literacy in Senegal, distribute malaria resistant bednets in Nigeria, and more. We will present the lessons on using ICT for international development learned through these deployments, and discuss how SMS can be used to make government and quasi-governmental efforts, like international development, more efficient and accountable." - Amy Gahran