Posted by
Jennifer Bell on
URL: http://civicaccess.416.s1.nabble.com/maybe-OT-values-of-CivicAccess-tp1420p1430.html
Hi Michael,
I'm curious: what makes you think the values of Civic Access are being shanghied?
I know this wasn't the point of your post, but regarding 'I Believe in Open', that particular pledge came from a personal experience I had in University. I voted for a party based on a promise I thought had been made, which was then never implemented. At the next election, there was no mechanism for me to understand what had happened with the promise, or why it had not been followed through on. While there may have been good reasons for it not being kept, the lack of easily-accessable information made me mistrustful of the process of politics in general.
The way I saw that pledge being implemented was as a concrete system for capturing and reporting on election promises. Part of that reporting could include a 'why not' section, so that at least people would be able to understand the reasons -- and so are perhaps less likely to become dissilusioned with their representatives.
Generally, with 'I Believe in Open' we were (and are) trying to appeal to a general voter. I had at least one radio interview where that pledge was all the interviewer wanted to talk about... they didn't really understand or care about the access to data issue.
About 8% of voters, like you, did not agree with that particular pledge, which is reflected in our statistics. Interestingly, almost all of the politicians who replied agreed.
Jennifer Bell
http://visiblegovernment.ca--- On Thu, 11/20/08, Michael Lenczner <
[hidden email]> wrote:
> From: Michael Lenczner <
[hidden email]>
> Subject: Re: [CivicAccess-discuss] maybe OT - values of CivicAccess
> To: "civicaccess discuss" <
[hidden email]>
> Received: Thursday, November 20, 2008, 6:12 PM
> Oops. I forgot a "not" :-)
>
> On Thu, Nov 20, 2008 at 6:03 PM, Michael Lenczner
> <
[hidden email]> wrote:
> > It seems like a neutral point, but personally I do
> ___not___ support this part
> > of the pledge. I respect the thoughts of people who
> would and I'm
> > happy to ally with them on the question of getting
> access to
> > information, but I do not want my participation here
> to be construed
> > as support for this type of policy.
>
>
> And I hope this isn't being perceived as overly
> critical. I initially
> resisted using this as an example, but I was concerned
> about my
> ability to make my point understood. My hat is off to
> Jennifer for
> the wonderful work she did getting access to info raised as
> an issue
> in the last elections.
>
> mike
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