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Open Government Partnership Australia (Canberra, Thursday February 22 2018)

Australia’s first Open Government National Action Plan 2016-18 comprises 15 ambitious commitments that promote transparency, empower citizens, fight corruption, and harness new technologies to strengthen governance. This website contains information on our Plan and progress towards its implementation.

Details in

https://ogpau.pmc.gov.au/2018/02/12/open-government-forum-meeting-22-february-2018

This may be of interest to the Accountability Round Table group as they are interested in combating corruption.

Proposed (Initial) Strategy of Designing Open Democracy

Rationale & Vision Designing Open Democracy so far has centered on the niche topic of “Democratic System Reform” and is a gathering of minds to think about ways that our current system could be improved, without endorsing any particular system.

While this topic is very interesting, we are at a juncture where we are trying to work out exactly what is group is and what we are trying to do. We are also aware that there are other groups with similar goals and we want to carve out a niche which teams up with rather than double ups existing efforts.

This could go in any number of directions: * A. Are we just fans of the idea who just want to talk about it for our own enjoyment? or * B. Are we trying to actually change the current system?

Making politics work- Real representation and accountability

Rand Strauss thoughts on real representation:

I know little about Australian politics. But I think it's similar to politics elsewhere- it was never designed.

In general, representative democracies are dependent on representatives (people who know what constituents want) being accountable (serving constituents, reporting to them and being judged by them.)

The main component here is "accountability" which is a relationship. Actually, there are two important relationships, the one between the politician and the voters, and the one(s) between each voter and all voters together.

Relationships require communication. We don't have a communication system that supports either of these, and we've never designed one (until now- see below).

What are the Proposals for Reform? (Wednesday, January 25 2017)

This is a historical post from meetup.com, first meeting: https://www.meetup.com/DesigningOpenDemocracy/events/236606653/ , second meeting: https://www.meetup.com/DesigningOpenDemocracy/events/237420885/

Meeting Notes

  • First Meeting https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wWn0GLrhoHocJgKWwoM8w4csAAI9cmrDEf376ZuoU84/edit

  • Second Meeting https://docs.google.com/document/d/18adzCQwlS08v9AYkeOL6m0JxDWTjzsemI8UEfCuq9x4/edit

  • in podcast
  • 2 min read

Inaugural Designing Open Democracy Meeting (Monday, December 19 2016)

This is a historical post from meetup.com where we sent the first message after our very first meeting at 19/12/2016

Hello Everyone!

Thanks very much to all who were able to attend the first Designing Open Democracy Meetup!

Below, I wish to give everyone a summary of what was discussed for those who were unable to make it, here's a summary of what occurred:

  • Introduction of attendees; background of their interest and involvement in democracy reform
  • Basic concepts of democracy (direct, representative, deliberative and majoritarian)