A video from the recent events in Greece

The war in Athens, Greece from dimitris meletis on Vimeo.

6-Question Campaign to Monitor access to information by Access-info.org

I reproduce the article from access-info.org

Original Post Stable Link: http://www.access-info.org/en/budget-transparency/200-6-question-campaign

Global Monitoring Finds Widespread Violations of Right to Information

4 October 2011, Ottawa – The largest global monitoring of the right of access to information in practice, the Ask Your Government! 6 Question Campaign has found widespread violations of the right to information with only 1 in 4 requests resulting in provision of full information.

480 requests for budget information were submitted in 80 countries by a global network of civil society organisations. No information at all was provided in response to over half of the requests and 38% of the requests elicited no response from the government body to which the request was sent (mute refusals).

The poor results come in spite of the fact that requesters made multiple resubmissions of the six questions, totalling 1061 formal requests made in the 80 countries, accompanied in many cases by phone calls, additional letters, faxes, and e-mails, and in some countries personal visits to the relevant public authorities.

As they presented the findings of the Ask Your Government! 6 Question Campaign in Ottawa during at the 7th International Conference of Information Commissioners, human rights organisations Access Info Europe and the Centre for Law and Democracy called on governments to improve respect for the right to information in practice.

Country Ranking Chart by Results

Full Report for the Ask Your Government! 6 Question Campaign

Detailed Results Chart by Country

 

Tracking public bodies and private coorporations

The existence of a non countable number of public bodies and institutions and the even more chaotic amount of private firms and coorporations leads to the issue of who is who. The difficulty to detect the identity of each institution, its derivation and operations causes an issue of lack of transparency on the first hand and another for researches who cannot easily get access to the 'correct' institution for their work.

Assuming that i want to get electricity data for OECD countries. It will be difficult to be aware of all the various OECD electricity companies that issue their data, e.t.c.

Two sites attempt to illuminate on the aspect by providing useful details and information on the identities of the public institutions and private companies.

Public Bodies: Provides identity information about public institutions worldwide. Launched in Summer 2011 is constantly updated with new data on institutions that operate in a good range of countries.

Open Coorporates: The site which allow user to extract information and trace the derivation of a constantly updated number of companies.

TI Bulgaria Reports Alarming Rate of Potential Vote-Sellers - by novinite.com

Original Article Stable Link: http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=133068

 

I REPORT THE ARTICLE

Diana Kovacheva, Executive Director of the Bulgarian branch of Transparency International has said that the current share of potential vote-sellers among Bulgarians threatens to skew election results amid a low turnout. Photo by BGNES

12% of Bulgarians would sell their vote according to a study of the local unit ofTransparency International presented Wednesday by Program Director Katya Hristova.

When asked if they would sell their vote, 12% of Bulgarians said they would use the opportunity, while 1% said that they could not decide.

In Greece, 'corruption pervades every corner of life' - by Jon Henley

I repost the newblog post by the Guardian

Original article stable link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/oct/20/europe-breadline-corrution-pervades-corner

AT THE BOTTOM I INCLUDE MY COMMENT

Jon Henley is travelling through Portugal, Spain, Italy and Greece to hear the human stories behind the European debt crisis. Here Leonidas Pitsoulis describes Greek corruption

Many Greeks have extremely low levels of personal debt – by western standards. Photograph: Angelos Tzortzinis/AFP/Getty Images

Leonidas Pitsoulis, 43, returned to Thessaloniki seven years ago after leaving at 18 to study and then teach in America and at the LSE in London. Coming back as an adult after leaving as a teenager was an eye-opener, he said.

International Statistical Sites - by Harvard Center of International Development

Stable Link of the Catalog's source: http://www.cid.harvard.edu/ciddata/stats.html

 

I REPRODUCE THE SOURCES

Google Ngram Viewer

Google Ngram Viewer is a section of Google I discovered yesterday and i was fully unaware of its existence before. Ngram allows any user to perform chronological trend searches on keyword for their frequency of use on the internet.

These kind of searches and this trend information on keywords, terms, names, locations, etc, might be useful for qualitative research on political events/concepts and their popularity (frequency of online queries) over the years.

I certainly advice you to experiment with the platform, and who knows you might get inspired for new researches by it!

Dealing with data

Having acquired a small experience from dealing with small and medium size datasets, i should admit that most of the data i have encountered have originated from Greece where the art of econometrics is still premature, hence the data quality is disputable and the time series tend to be quiet messy.

Given the fact that datasets derived from various sources most of the times need to be 'beautified' and processed so as to be useful and interpretable, softwares that allow and ease the task of purifying the data are quiet useful.

Recently, i encountered the FREE software provided by GOOGLE called Google Refine. Its goal is exactly to clear and purify the datasets so as to constitute a database that will be user-friendly and more interpretable by the user. Google Refine which I openly recommend as the main pre-analysis software that I use to smooth the data and fix errors before applying econometric methods and analyses, tends to be my newest friend in the daily data treatment adventures. It works within the google Chrome browser without the need to upload any data online, hence preserving the privacy and the secrecy of any research.

Having purified the datasets, I have been taught to use STATA (I just bought v.12) as my statistical processing software. I think that Stata is the most complete, powerful, and dynamic statistical programme in the market.

Information on Greek Strikes and disruptions

Two sites attempt to summarize and offer up-to-date information on anyone interested in Greek disruptions and strikes. The latter tend to be quiet numerous after the sequence of austerity measures imposed by the Greek government. As a result, living in Greece, or even worse being a tourist while not possessing the information about public disruptions might lead to plan disruptions and other inconveniences.

Hence, the following two sources resolve the asymmetry of information by offering the exact details of the body (union, sector, etc) that will pursue action.

• Apergia (Strike): Written in Greek but may be translated in many languages by clicking on the button at the very top of the home page. The site is exceptionally informative as it summarizes all the details for each labour action to a weekly schedule which is coloured depending on the type of action. Pretty good!


• LivingInGreece: This site can be found entirely in english and other languages. It doesn't summarize various actions as the previous one, into a weekly schedule, however, it provides the most analytical and updated detail of the action plans. Due to the fact that labour action plans tend to be altered even at the last-minute I suggest checking this site for the last second changes so as not to be captured by surprise!

NOTE: By no means I don't believe that strike actions are negative for an economy (especially when a whole society is destroyed by the financial measures introduced by the government) and I think that massive awareness can be raised by attending (in a self protected and careful way) a demonstration in Greece.

Parliamentary Informatics

I reproduce part of the text from wikipedia (stable link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parliamentary_informatics)

Parliamentary informatics is the application of information technology to the documentation of legislative activity.

Sources of Parliamentary Information by Country:

United Nations

The website Undemocracy gives hyperlinked access to transcripts of the General Assembly and Security Council of the United Nations, with parsed voting records.

Australia

OpenAustralia.org is a community-funded site which was launched in June 2008 and automatically collects and publishes in an easy-to-read format the transcripts of all Australian Government House of Representatives and Senate debates, questions, discussions and notices. OpenAustralia.org also made available the Register of Senators' and Members' Interests online for the first time ever in Australia.

Austria

The National Council of Austria is covered by meinparlament.at

UK Data Only

Thanks to the wide range of data sources from the United Kingdom, i decided to offer a unique section on these:

• Higher Education Statistics (UK)


• UK Data Archive (UK)


• Data.Gov (UK)


• Office for National Statistics (UK)


• UK National Statistics (UK)


• Department for Work and Pensions (UK)


• The Home Office (UK) - Data for Crime, Migration etc


• Census (UK) - Access data from the 1971, 1981, 1991, 2001 censuses


• Mimas (UK) - Using Data to build applications


• National Archive (UK) - Online access to archived digital datasets and documents


• Education.Gov (UK) - Educational Datasets from the Ministry of Education


• Deparment for Business Innovation and Skills (UK) - They currently offer an interesting set of data with estimates on business population estimates, and trade union statistics.


• Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs (UK) -Datasets on Food consumption pattern etc


• OpenSpending and OpenSpending2(UK) - An open data initiative offering statistics on public spending in the UK (national and local statistics)


• British Election Study


• UK Data Service


• UK Polling Report Holding rich opinion polls archives


• Police: Crime and other incidents


• Local Elections Results and Turnout


• UK Electoral Commission

Data Archives Worldwide

Economic and Social Data Service (ESDS) offers an explanatory map with sources of data archives worldwide.

The map can be accessed on http://www.esds.ac.uk/findingData/map3.asp

 

Open Data Initiatives Mapping

I managed to retrieve two exceptional maps (the one is currently under open construction) where all the worldwide open data initiatives are depicted:

 

• CTIC Open Data Map A finished dynamic map constantly updated containing supra/sub and national open data sources


• Open Data Census (by Tim MacNamara): An attempt to depict all the open data sources (under construction)

Silver blasts Standard & Poor’s, “whose advice has more often than not led investors toward the losing side of bets” - by Royal Statistical Society

The Article was retrieved by the Royal Statistical Society

As turbulence in global financial markets continues in the wake of the downgrading of US debt by Standard & Poor’s (S&P), statistician Nate Silver has made a withering critique of the agency's "fundamentally flawed" ratings.

Objective statistical measures have been proved to be more reliable than S&P's ratings, in part says Silver because ratings changes are serially correlated – a move either way is likely to be one of a successive series. Hence the ratings are "inefficient about how they incorporate new information."

He opines: "No competent brokerage firm would ever convey that kind of information to investors. If I signal to you that I’m likely to accept a cheaper price tomorrow than I am today, nobody would buy at today’s price."

In Why S. & P.’s Ratings Are Substandard and Porous, published in his fiverthirtyeight column in the New York Times, Silver uses various analytical approaches to test the ratings' reliability and to "reverse-engineer" them to determine how S&P reaches its conclusions.

He notes that S&P takes account of GDP, sovereign debt, debt:GDP ratio, inflation rate, annual and long-term deficits but "also places very heavy emphasis on subjective views about a country’s political environment … these political factors are at least as important as economic variables in determining their ratings".

Silver says that S&P's ratings "have an extremely strong relationship" withTransparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index, a governance indicator which has been criticised in some quarters as too subjective. Using regression analysis on S&P's ratings, he concludes that "the subjective Corruption Perceptions Index is more closely related to the S&P ratings than any of these economic fundamentals."

Making the point that he doesn't necessarily disagree with downgrade of the US rating, Silver comments on S&P's historic ratings of debt-worthiness for countries including Ireland, Spain, Iceland and Greece. He concludes these gave "no insight … about which countries in Europe were relatively more likely to default."

Using a country’s ratio of net debt to GDP – a poor measure in objective terms – "would have been a better predictor of default," he says, citing research from Carmen M. Reinhart published by the US National Bureau of Economic Research which found that objective, statistical indicators significantly outperformed S&P ratings as predictors of default.

As recent events show, there is a relationship between credit agencies' ratings and market sentiment and investors' behaviour. But Silver finds that "S&P ratings tend to lag, rather than lead, the market … in cases where the market’s view of default risk is misaligned with S&P’s, S&P is a good bet to change their rating to catch up to market perception".

He tests this by putting S&P ratings for countries from June 2009 into a regression equation with credit default swap prices - which indicate market perception of default risk – from the same date. The credit default swap prices proves to be "a statistically significant predictor" of S&P’s 2011 rating, implying "that the markets pick up on salient information about the countries’ default risk before S&P does".

Taking this a step further, "Evidence from the past five years suggests that it may be worthwhile to adopt a contrarian investing strategy that specifically bets against S&P’s ratings," says Silver. S&P does influence market perceptions but actual debt prices are a "compromise between daft investors who take S&P’s ratings to be gospel, and savvier ones who have conducted their own analysis and have concluded that the country is at significant risk of default. By betting against S&P’s ratings, you’re taking the side of the smart investors — and getting a subsidy from the suckers who think S&P’s price is right."

In conclusion, Silver writes that "relying on the consensus of the market is almost certainly better than relying on Standard & Poor’s, whose advice has more often than not led investors toward the losing side of bets. The fact that billions of dollars in wealth are tied up in the judgments of a company with such a poor record is all the proof you should require that the global financial system is in need of reform."

Original Link: http://www.rssenews.org.uk/articles/20110809_1

Are women less corrupt than men? - by Farzana Nawaz

The article is retrieved by the Transparency International Blog 

Author: Farzana Nawaz

The 2011 Nobel Peace Prize has put women’s rights in the spotlight. Gender and corruption have been on Transparency International’s radar from sometime. Our global corruption survey found that women perceive higher levels of corruption than men, but were less likely to report it. Last month Transparency Rwanda published a survey on gender-based corruption in the workplace. Last year we published a working paper on the issue.

In this article, published on the Anti-Corurption Research Network last year, Farzana Nawaz, programme coordinator in the Research and Knowledge Group of the TI secretariat, introduces the issue and some of the problems dealing with the gender angle.

Gender and corruption is a surprisingly recent issue in anti-corruption scholarship. The first wave of research into the gendered dimensions of corruption focused on whether women are more or less corruptible than men, and whether the promotion of women in public life can be an effective anticorruption strategy. A second line of enquiry examined the impact of corruption on women as a group, building on the growing evidence that corruption has a disproportionate impact on vulnerable groups in society. Both of these strands of research have already generated a wealth of policy-relevant insights that advance our understanding of the interplay between corruption and gender.

Are Women Less Corrupt than Men?

Several early, mainly econometric contributions to this discussion claimed that there is indeed a link between higher representation of women in government and lower levels of corruption. An influential study of 150 countries in Europe, Africa and Asia by the World Bank, for example, came to the conclusion that women are more trustworthy and less prone to corruption, a finding later corroborated by additional research from the World Bank.

However, the concept that women inherently possess greater integrity has been challenged. Anne Marie Goetz argues that this idea fails to account for the ways in which gender relations may limit women’s opportunities to engage in corruption, particularly when corruption functions through all-male networks and forums from which women are excluded. Read more.

Link of the original article: http://blog.transparency.org/2011/10/07/are-women-less-corrupt-than-men-and-other-gendercorruption-questions/ 

Open Data for the city of Stockholm, Sweeden

A new open initiative came to light today. It concerns the city of Stockholm, Sweden which launched its open data platform.

The site is only found in Swedish hence it might be a bit difficult for a non swedish speaker to navigate. However, the site administrators have clarified that soon the portal will be fully translated to English so as to address the foreign audience.

The City of Stockholm Open Data initiative can be accessed from here

City Data as summarized in European Public Sector Information (PSI) Platform

The table below containing sources of open city data has been copied by European Public Sector Information (PSI) Platform

 

Country, County, State or Municipality		PSI Portals		Coverage		Status		Launched
European Union
France
Rennes Metropole		data.rennes-metropole		Rennes Metropole		API Open		2010
Ireland
Fingal		data.fingal.ie		County		Beta		November 2010
Italy
La Regione Piemonte		dati.piemonte.it		Piemonte Region		Beta		May 2010
Spain
Asturias (Government of the Principality)		Datos de Asturias		Region		Open		February 2010
Basque Region		Open Data Euskadi		Region		Open		April 2010
Zaragoza		Zaragoza Conjunto de Datos		City		Open		2010
Catalunya		dadesobertes.gencat.cat		Region		Open		November 2010

List of City-wide Data sites

These are a list of cities with data catalogues as retrieved on  DataGovLoop:

Powered by Socrata

 

 

Witness - Children of the Riots

As the financial crisis weighs heavily on Greece, the country seems trapped in a cycle of violence. But discontent over the misuse of power has long been simmering. Greek youths reflect on how the killing of a teenager by police changed their lives.

Open Data - Catalogs and Projects

Given the enormous incline in the promotion of the use of open data  i found useful to list a few main portals where open data can be accessed and current projects that make use of open data can be found.

List of websites that contain catalogues with sources and projects of open data:

• TheDataHub: The best tool for searching open data sets


• Open Government Data: Useful, constantly updated catalogue of open data sites


• Open Knowledge Foundation: An organisation for the promotion of open data regime. Contains lists of active projects


• DataCatalogs.org: Search for Open Datasets, Open Data Sites and Projects


• DataLibre.Ca: A list of Open Data Links and Resources from Canada (Contains International resources as well)


• PublicData.Eu: A European Initiative for gathering and distributing Open public data and promoting projects


• Linking Open Government Data (LOGD): Thorough database with advanced search options

Access Info Europe - AsktheEu.org

AsktheEU.org:

New one-stop portal makes requests for EU documents easy

Brussels/Madrid, Wednesday 28 September 2011 - on 28 September 2011, the 9th
International Right to Know Day, pro-transparency human rights group Access
Info Europe will be unveiling the AsktheEU.org web portal by which the
public can ask for information from EU bodies.