TOL Blogs

Call for Participants: Interactive Tech Tools for Better Transparency

March 5th, 2008 by admin

Transitions Online and the Centre for Public Policy PROVIDUS are inviting applications for a year-long initiative that seeks to provide NGOs in the new member states of the European Union with web tools and strategies that will better enable them to promote transparency and good governance norms in their respective countries.

Participating organizations will learn the latest methods for encouraging their members and the larger public to engage in data collection and analysis—approaches that have already uncovered public wrongdoing in North America and Western Europe. They will also hear from experts on new ways to use and present this data, allowing their socially-useful research to reach a wider audience and have a greater impact on public policy.

The core project activities include:

• a training seminar in Prague in May, drawing together representatives from various NGOs in the region;
• three pilot projects to test the strategies discussed at the seminar;
• the creation of an e-learning course; and
• a closing evaluation meeting in Riga to share experiences and assess the lessons learned over the course of the year.

The pilot projects will take the form of blogs and online monitoring sites tracking key issues of importance, as well as a website aggregating the affiliated blogs and collecting feedback from participating organizations and the wider public. 

The pilot projects will be modeled after successful corruption-combating projects, such as:

• FollowTheMoney.org, a website tracking the sources and uses of money to influence officials in the United States; and
• OpenCongress.org, a non-partisan resource monitoring the development of legislation, issues before Congress, and Congress members’ votes.

Applications will be accepted from the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, Slovenia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, and Bulgaria. Interested individuals must be engaged (as employees, consultants, or volunteers) in non-profit organizations working in the areas of anti-corruption and good governance, or for other monitoring organizations (human rights, environmental degradation, etc.) that would benefit from the techniques promoted by this project. The May workshop will take place from 8 May (arrivals) until 11 May (departures). All expenses, including travel, will be covered by the organizers. To apply, fill out the online application form at http://tol.botnet.cz/form/19/. The deadline for applications is 21 March.

Transitions Online (TOL http://www.tol.org) is an international publishing and media development organization based in Prague, the Czech Republic, with a mission of improving the professionalism, independence, and impact of the news media in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, the Balkans, and the former Soviet Union. The Centre for Public Policy PROVIDUS is an independent, non-partisan policy institute based in Riga, Latvia, working in the following main policy areas: good governance, criminal justice, tolerance, and European policy. The project is sponsored by the European Commission, Directorate-General Justice, Freedom, and Security, and the Trust for Civil Society in Central and Eastern Europe.

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