- “Government that is not transparent is more prone to corruption and undue influence because there is no public oversight of decision making.” – Columbia news, views & reviews post April 26, 2011 [NOTE: The Columbia news, views & reviews post references and redirects readers to Sunshine Review. “In July 2013, Ballotpedia acquired content from the nonprofit Sunshine Review as a starting point to launch a municipal government project. Readers of Sunshine Review will still get the same top-quality material about transparency, budgets and pensions. Now they’ll be given an enhanced experience with the addition of election-related material provided within Ballotpedia’s pages. The content that was acquired includes more than 30,000 pages. Some of that content will become part of our existing portal areas; others will remain as stand-alone pages. Sunshine Review was a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to state and local government transparency. The Sunshine Review wiki collected and shared transparency information and used a ’10-point Transparency Checklist’ to evaluate the content of every state and more than 5,000 local government websites. Sunshine Review collaborated with individuals and organizations throughout America, according to its website, ‘in the cause of an informed citizenry and an accountable government.’
- The previous bullet leads to a post that identifies the information that would ideally be displayed on the ideal government Website. Take a look at two local Websites – Columbia’s and Penn Township‘s. Which provides more open and easier to access information? Penn Township’s Website is powered by a provider called CivicPlus, which claims “Having a website that citizens aren’t using doesn’t help anyone. LET’S FIX THAT! Let’s make your job easier. Let’s help citizens help themselves. Let’s build a website they will use. And let’s GUARANTEE it so you can sleep at night. We guarantee to build a website that increases your citizen participation by 50% OR we’ll give 100% of your money back.” Actually there are several Website providers that help municipalities build open, easy-to-navigate, transparent, easy to manage Websites. According to Columbia’s budget, $1,000 is allocated to the Website.
- “+myConnections: Engage your community – connect to news, events and information you care about.” This line is atop the Penn Township Website; increasingly, we’re seeing this citizen connectivity portal at local government Websites. Some governments believe that citizens ought to be able to communicate with governing bodies.
Columbia news, views & reviews 