Transparency.com: The Use of Online Resources

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Over the past two decades, online tools and search engines have grown from infant industries into powerful and widespread methods of communication. Now that such resources are available to the general public there has been an increased call for government to use these resources to disclose more of its practices. Already, policy makers have responded to the changing times with the passage of the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 from Senators Barack Obama and Tom Coburn to make information about federal spending more accessible to the public through www.USAspending.gov, and The Office of Management and Budget has established www.Results.gov to display performance data. Meanwhile, private organizations have developed some of their own tools to make searching for information easier. Yet as technology promises to continually progress, the challenge for policy makers is to keep pace with online capabilities.

To explore how these online resources are improving government transparency the Mercatus Center at George Mason University is pleased to present a panel discussion featuring leading practitioners and scholars in this field. The panel will address important questions such as: 

• How can the internet be used to increase government accountability and what specific tools are available?

• What are the challenges currently facing this field and what improvements can be made?

• How are private organizations and government agencies taking advantage of this technology?

• How do these developments change the way individuals view government?