{"id":16452,"date":"2013-06-15T15:07:43","date_gmt":"2013-06-15T15:07:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?guid=fdee1230ec184f0fe3fa7f53f2b0f838"},"modified":"2013-06-15T15:07:43","modified_gmt":"2013-06-15T15:07:43","slug":"speech-francis-maude-speech-on-transparency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?p=16452","title":{"rendered":"Speech: Francis Maude speech on transparency"},"content":{"rendered":"
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How can we realise the benefits of transparency and open data? Data has become valuable raw material this century. Thanks to new technology we can access it, aggregate it, reuse it and exploit it in new and innovative ways that have the potential to drive economic and social growth.<\/p>\n

Whereas in the past governments tended to hoard their data \u2013 today the world is opening up. We are at the beginning of a global movement towards transparency.<\/p>\n

And with all the challenges we face today \u2013 economic, demographic, security, climate change \u2013 it\u2019s never been more important that we are more informed, more linked up, more accountable and more efficient. <\/p>\n

But the benefits of open data won\u2019t just fall into our hands. It\u2019s not just about getting data out there it\u2019s about data that can be used and will be used effectively. <\/p>\n

An open future needs buy-in from all of us – with users, not governments, driving the release of open data, identifying what\u2019s valuable to them.<\/p>\n

So I\u2019m pleased to have this distinguished group here today. We will be harnessing the collective knowledge and experience in this room – and coming up with ideas for how the world can realise the benefits of an open data Age, and how we can ensure the benefits realised are for the many not the few. <\/p>\n

Transparency in the UK
\nTransparency is at the heart of the UK government\u2019s reforming agenda. In 2013 as the chair of the international Open Government Partnership we are promoting transparency as a means to fight corruption and drive prosperity all over the world. We have also made transparency a key theme for our presidency of the G8.<\/p>\n

And across the world transparency is having a huge impact in all kind of ways. <\/p>\n

In Mongolia they now publish all their mining contracts that were previously siphoned into the offshore bank accounts of a mafia clique. The result has been increasing investment in education and health.<\/p>\n

To support citizen engagement, the Budget department of the Philippine government has committed to releasing a yearly \u201cPeople\u2019s Budget\u201d, a summarized and layman version of the National Budget and the national budget process. <\/p>\n

Here in the UK we are leading by example. We believe opening up exposes what is inadequate – and drives improvement. We believe opening up offers people choices over public services that they\u2019ve never had before. <\/p>\n

We believe opening up will drive economic and social growth by putting vast tracts of valuable raw data in the public domain for businesses and entrepreneurs to work with. <\/p>\n

And we are committed to pushing more and more data out there. Today our web portal data.gov.uk<\/a> is the largest data resource in the world with over 40,000 data files. People can scrutinise their local crime statistics, they can compare GP practice performance in handling cancer cases, parents can judge how successful particular schools and colleges are at advancing pupils on to further learning.<\/p>\n

We are also releasing valuable datasets that will make travel easier and healthcare better, and create significant growth for industry and jobs in the UK. This includes:<\/p>\n