Radical transparency
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Radical transparency is a phrase used across fields of governance, politics, software design and business to describe actions and approaches that radically increase the openness of organizational process and data. Its usage was originally understood as an approach or act that uses abundant networked information to access previously confidential organizational process or outcome data.[1][2]
History and uses
Modern usage of the term radical transparency coincided with increased public use of
Contexts
Radical corporate transparency
Radical corporate transparency, as a philosophical concept, would involve removing all barriers to free and easy public access to corporate, political and personal (treating persons as corporations) information and the development of laws, rules, social connivance and processes that facilitate and protect such an outcome.[6]
Using these methods to 'hold corporations accountable for the benefit of everyone' was emphasised in Tapscott and Ticoll's book "The Naked Corporation"[7] in 2003. Radical transparency has also been explained by Dan Goleman as a management approach where (ideally,) all decision making is carried out publicly.[8] Specific to this approach is the potential for new technologies to reveal the eco-impact of products bought to steer consumers to make informed decisions and companies to reform their business practices.
In traditional
Radical political transparency
Heemsbergen[11] argues that radical political transparency consists of actors outside of the structures of government, using new media forms, to disclose secrets to the public in ways that were previously unavailable and that create new expectations around how information should be used to govern. A prominent example of these evolutions of democracy was seen in the creation of Hansard in parliaments of the Westminster system, which started in pirate markets of pamphleteers illegally sharing the 'secrets' of what was said in British Parliament.[12] Hansard is now institutionalised in many parliaments, with full records of discussions in parliament recorded and published, while the texts of proposed laws and final laws are all, in principle, public documents.
Since the late 1990s, many national parliaments decided to publish all parliamentary debates and laws on the Internet. However, the initial texts of proposed laws and the discussions and negotiations regarding them generally occur in parliamentary commissions, which are rarely transparent, and among
Radical transparency has also been suggested in the context of government finance and public economics.[13] In Missed Information,[14] Sarokin and Schulkin take the concept even further, advocating for hypertransparency of government decision-making, a situation where all internal records, emails, meeting minutes and other internal information is proactively available to the public. Hypertransparency reverses the current Freedom of Information model of access only upon request, instead making all information available by default unless withheld for limited exemptions such as personal information or national security.
Radical educational transparency
A radically transparent approach is also emerging within education.
See also
- Corporate transparency
- E-democracy
- Open business
- Open government
- Open society
- Open source governance
- Open education
References
- ^ a b Hammond, Allen (March–April 2001). "Digitally Empowered Development". Foreign Affairs. Archived from the original on December 20, 2011. Retrieved April 15, 2012.
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(help) - ISBN 9780300176766.
- ISBN 9780201577938.
- ^ Anderson, Chris (November 26, 2006). "The LongTale: In Praise of Radical Transparency". Archived from the original on May 12, 2012. Retrieved April 15, 2012.
- ^ Heemsbergen, Luke (2008), Radical Pockets of Digital Democracy: Deleuzian Grandeur?, Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, August 28–31, 2008
- ^ Bernardi, Richard A.; LaCross, Catherine C. (April 2005). "Corporate Transparency: Code of Ethics Disclosures". The CPA Journal. Archived from the original on January 9, 2012. Retrieved December 25, 2011.
- ^ Tapscott, D., & Ticoll, D. (2003). The naked corporation: How the age of transparency will revolutionize business. New York: Free Press.
- ^ "Ecological Intelligence – Daniel Goleman". Archived from the original on 2023-06-07. Retrieved 2023-12-15.
- ^ Thompson, Clive (March 2007). "The See-Through CEO". Wired. Archived from the original on December 28, 2011. Retrieved December 25, 2011.
- ^ Gould, Emily (June 12, 2010). "Faith in Facebook". Newsweek. Archived from the original on January 23, 2011. Retrieved December 25, 2011.
- ISBN 9781800437623. Archivedfrom the original on 2021-08-17. Retrieved 2022-04-05.
- ^ Hansard, Thomas (1829). Hansard's parliamentary history vol. xvii A.D. 1771–74. In Appendix to, Memoir of Brass Crosby, esq. alderman of the city of London, and Lord Mayor 1770–1771. London: R. Jennings.
- ^ David Brin. "Radical Transparency". Archived from the original on January 17, 2015. Retrieved January 16, 2015.
- ISBN 978-0262034920.
- ^ Baltzersen, R. K. (2010). Radical transparency: Open access as a key concept in wiki pedagogy Archived 2013-02-15 at the Wayback Machine. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 26(6), p.791-809. Retrieved May 13, 2013
Further reading
- Roose, Kevin (April 10, 2011). "Pursuing Self-Interest in Harmony With the Laws of the Universe and Contributing to Evolution Is Universally Rewarded". New York Magazine.
- Rock, David. "Why Radical Transparency Is Good for Business." Psychology Today. October 15, 2012.
- Brin, David. "World Cyberwar And the Inevitability of Radical Transparency." Metroactive. July 6, 2011.
- The Transparent Society: Will Technology Force Us to Choose Between Privacy and Freedom? - by David Brin
- Radically Transparent: Monitoring and Managing Reputations Online - by Andy Beal and Judy Strauss
- Clare Birchall, podcast, 'Why WikiLeaks might not be as radical as it thinks'
- Clare Birchall (ed) 'Secrecy and Transparency', Theory, Culture & Society, 7-8, Dec 2011.
- Clare Birchall, '"There's been too much secrecy in this city": The False Choice between Secrecy and Transparency in US Politics', Cultural Politics, March 2011.
- McStay, Andrew. Privacy and Philosophy: New Media and Affective Protocol. New York: Peter Lang. 2014.