Who we are and how to join the conversation
OGP Civil Society Forum
We are an ad hoc group of civil society members and individuals who take a keen an active interest in Ireland’s Open Government Partnership (OGP) membership. At the core of the OGP is the idea that government and civil society work together to ensure more open government. A Civil Society Forum has come together to encourage Irish participation in the OGP and to ensure the endurance of OGP.We include engaged citizens from many walks of life as well as the following organisations: Active Citizen, An Taisce, Open Knowledge Foundation Ambassador Ireland, TASC, Transparency International Ireland, The Wheel.
The Civil Society Forum meets on occasion to discuss progress on Ireland’s first OGP National Action Plan, and regularly conducts discussion online through the official OGP civil society mailing list, Dgroups mailing list and a Google Group.
Please feel free to join the discussion. The Forum is open to all, individuals and groups alike.
From February to April 2014, the Civil Society Forum held regular meetings to discuss the expectations and implications surrounding the OGP and the Irish NAP. The ideas and proposals arising from these meetings would feed back into the Joint Working Group meetings with civil servants. Because of the loose nature of the Civil Society Forum, attendance varied. Among the wider group of participants were: Anne Colgan (chair), Ivan Cooper (The Wheel), Donal Ó Brolcáin, Flora Fleischer (OKF Ireland), Nuala Haughey (TASC, TI Ireland), Ingo Keck, Angela Long, Nat O’Connor (TASC), Antoin Ó Lachtnain (Digital Rights Ireland), Denis Parfenov (Active Citizen/OKF Ireland), Edward Stevenson.
The Forum actively encouraged input from all Irish people by consistently using online tools like google Docs and social media. It has always tried to work in a transparent and inclusive way. All minutes of meetings and working documents are online.
To reinforce the transparent approach of the Forum, a temporary administrator was recruited (February -May 2014) and funded by the government. The administrator worked out of TASC‘s office and was charged with maintaining a good flow of information about OGP processes and acting as a point of contact for all OGP stakeholders. There is no longer a Civil Society Forum administrator so for more information on the Forum or any other aspect of OGP, please access the above mentioned organisations involved with the Forum or put your query to the wider OGP audience through the mailing list.
Joint Working Group
Volunteers from the Forum are also members of a Joint Working Group. Government officials and Forum volunteers make up the Joint Working Group, which was set up in February 2014 to develop Ireland’s first OGP NAP. Between February and April 2014 this group held weekly meetings to discuss proposals and priorities for a draft National Action Plan.
The civil society members of the JWG are: Andrew Jackson (An Taisce), Anne Colgan (Co-chair), Antoin Ò Lachtnain (Digital Rights Ireland) Denis Parfenov (Active Citizen/Open Knowledge Foundation Ireland), Flora Fleisher (Open Knowledge Foundation Ireland) Nuala Haughey (TASC/TI Ireland).
The government officials on the JWG are: Conor McCann (Department of Public Expenditure and Reform – PER), Donal Enright (Dept of Environment,Community and Local Government), Evelyn O’Connor (PER), Claire Martinez (PER) William Beausang (PER).
Funding
The Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, which is driving Ireland’s OGP membership, has provided funding for part-time administrative support for the Forum, including the upkeep of this website. This funding runs from February to May 2014.
TASC has been asked by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform to moderate this site until the end of May 2014.
Other Useful Links
Paul Maassen, civil society co-ordinator for the whole Open Government Partnership, globally.
http://www.opengovpartnership.org/open-government-declaration
https://groups.google.com/forum/?hl=en#!forum/open-government-ireland
www.accessinitiative.org/
http://www.freedominfo.org/tag/open-government-partnership/
http://www.opengovernment.org.uk
http://www.involve.org.uk/open-government-partnership/
http://www.openthegovernment.org/taxonomy/term/1194
http://www.opendata.ie
Here’s the spelled-out version of any acronyms used in this website:
- DPER= Department of Public Expenditure and Reform
- EU= European Union
- G8= Group of eight industrialised nations (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the UK, the US)
- IRM= Independent Reporting Mechanism
- ODI= Open Data Ireland
- OG = Open Government
- OGP= Open Government Partnership
- OSCE=Organization for Security and Co-Operation in Europe