technology

Political Finance Database | International IDEA: The political finance database provides a breakdown of different laws relating to public finance, and it allows us to identify specific texts across laws based on region or a topic.

Omidyar Network: A philanthropic firm that invests on market based efforts to social and political change. They have also invested in a number of initiatives to extend transparency by the use of technology.

Data.gov: The home of data from various parts of US Federal government. Data is provided in open formats and it includes various tools to analyze data from across departments and also to build applications on the basis of the large volume of federal government datasets.

Making open data real: A public consultation: Outlines some of the challenges in making making public sector information available in the ‘open data spirit’. It discusses the current set of laws in the UK and EU that govern open data related issues, and outlines some of the challenges for future discussion.

www.radiojamming.info: Website dedicated to Jamming of radio broadcast by various countries with cool photographs and sound recordings of jammed broadcast.

Open Data: Empowering the Empowered or Effective Data Use for Everyone?: In the context of digital-divide, will open data empower the empowered, asks this article.

Transparency tools: Extensive list of ICT tools that could be used by organisations that work towards promoting greater transparency and accountability in governments.

ICTs for Development Blog: A blog by University of Manchester’s Centre for Development Infomatics that has leading scholars on ICT for development.

Information and Communications for Development 2009: Extending Reach and Increasing Impact: This report by the World Bank takes an in-depth look at how ICT – particularly broadband and mobile – are impacting economic growth in developing countries.

Apps4Africa: A contest to build mobile based technologies that could be used for social purposes in Africa

Sunlight Foundation: The foundation is, “a nonpartisan nonprofit that advocates for open government globally and uses technology to make government more accountable to all. We do so by creating tools, open data, policy recommendations, journalism and grant opportunities to dramatically expand access to vital government information to create accountability of our public officials”. The website is a great source of information on open data policy, political financing and a range of other topics in the intersection of technology and transparency.

Google SMS Channels: An SMS based newsletter service where subscribers can opt in to receive SMS messages and free messages can be sent by the publishers of these lists. This can be a great tool to use for those involved in monitoring of village level expenditure, etc.

Government 2.0 Taskforce, Australia: A task force set up by Australian government to examining ways of making proactive disclosure of digitised information, to promote digital innovations in government, and promote online engagement.

Human Rights Project in the Cyberspace:

Communications & IT – United States Access Board: US Access Board creates regulations for equal access for people with disabilities. This page provides provisions pertaining to equal access in the domain of ICT.