10° Nexa Lunch Seminar - Transparency Decree: a FOIA or “just” Open Data?

Christian Quintili

(ActionAid)

Federico Morando

(managing director Centro Nexa)

Mercoledì 24 aprile 2013, ore 13.00 – 14.00

Centro Nexa su Internet & Società
Politecnico di Torino, via Boggio 65/a, Torino (1° piano)

Ingresso libero

Prenota qui

On 15th February 2013 the Italian Cabinet announced the approval of a Legislative Decree for the Review of the rules concerning the obligations of disclosure, transparency and dissemination of information by public administrations (the so-called “Transparency Decree”). The Decree states an (excessively?) ambitious principle of “total accessibility of information about the organization and the activities of public administrations”, in order to encourage distributed forms of control “on the pursuit of the institutional functions and the use of public resources”.

But, what will be the actual impact of the Decree? Is it over-ambitious and too demanding? Is it sufficient to guarantee actual transparency, fight corruption and promote efficiency? Does it include sufficient incentives and/or sanctions? Federico Morando, managing director of the Nexa Center for Internet & Society, and Christian Quintili, coordinator of the ActionAid Bologna office, will discuss these and related topics, focusing on the opening of data about public budgets and encompassing a specific perspective about freedom of information and human rights.

The Decree collates and strengthens several existing obligations concerning the proactive publication of pieces of information which are useful to monitor the activities of public administrations, increase their efficiency and fight corruption. The Decree also defines a right of “civic access”. In fact, this provision enables any citizen to require the publication of pieces of information which should already be public. This is admittedly something different from the right of access under FOIA-like laws (in the Italian case, the existing “FOIA” is law 241/1990 with its demanding requirements and limited scope).

This seminar is organized in collaboration with “Last-JD | Joint International Doctoral (Ph.D.) Degree in Law, Science and Technology” and will be held in English.

Biografie

Christian Quintili studied development cooperation and non-profit economics. He worked for 10 years for various Italian organizations dealing with international development, environmental sustainability, and Open Data. With ActionAid since 2007, he coordinates the ActionAid Bologna office since 2011. In his spare time he collaborates with data journalists for the www.eradellatrasparenza.it campaign.

Federico Morando is an economist, with interdisciplinary research interests focused on the intersection between law, economics and technology. His research activity at the Nexa Center mainly concerns new models of production and sharing of digital contents. From Dec. 2012, he leads the Creative Commons Italy project and he is a member of the Open Team of Regione Piemonte that launched and steers the development of the first Italian open government data portal. From Dec. 2008, in his position as the first Managing Director of the Nexa Center, he works closely with the Directors to define staff and project goals and to coordinate the Center’s fellows.