Tag Archives: transparency

Prosecution and the art of social media writing: reflections on McAlpine v Bercow

Posted on May 24, 2013 by lawrence serewicz

Today, the High Court ruled that Sally Bercow had defamed Lord McAlpine through a tweet, which could be understand to accuse him of sexually abusing boys in care. It follows that, for these reasons, I find that the Tweet meant, … Continue reading →

Posted in censorship, good writing, privacy, transparency, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

FOIA, equality, justice and the future of democracy

Posted on May 7, 2012 by lawrence serewicz

We should not be surprised that powerful people, in particular politicians and political leaders, do not like FOIA.  Aside from the issue of political and public accountability, which raise important democratic principles, the FOIA challenges the political and social hierarchies.  … Continue reading →

Posted in FOIA, Government, public sector, transparency | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Can social media reduce the cost of responding to foi requests?

Posted on April 7, 2012 by lawrence serewicz

In the recent written evidence to the Justice select committee reviewing FOIA in the UK, the “cost” of FOI has been discussed.  Often, the witnesses want to cut this cost by limiting the number of requests. I would argue that … Continue reading →

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The dark side of open data: politicized data.

Posted on September 21, 2011 by lawrence serewicz

As more data becomes available at a national and a local level, we have to be aware of the danger that it will become politicised.  The data will become politicised in two senses. First, all politics are local.  The more … Continue reading →

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Open data and transparency: are we buying a vacumn cleaner?

Posted on September 4, 2011 by lawrence serewicz

Consider the following story: When vacuum cleaners were just hitting the wider market in 1930s, a salesman visited a home in rural Texas. The new vacuum cleaner salesman knocked on the door on the first house of the street. A … Continue reading →

Posted in Government, linked data, local government, open data, public sector, transparency, Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Open data and transparency: are we buying a vacumn cleaner?