Niamh Webster
Written 20 posts
Open government and participation at the Scottish Government
Guest blog: Protecting and promoting information rights: a fine balance
12th July 2019
Why 2018 was the year of awakening, why the Cambridge Analytica story really matters and why we should care that Google controls our history: a guest blog from Suzanne Legault, LLB, BCL, Former Information Commissioner of Canada (2009-2018). We heard Suzanne speaking and thought she posed significant questions and challenges to the open government…
Roundtable on open data and data literacy
19th June 2019
A short update from the team leading on open data in the open government action plan. They recently held a Roundtable meeting on Open Data and Data Literacy. See the notes from the meeting attached below. The Scottish Government chaired a roundtable meeting on Improving Open Data and Data Literacy in Edinburgh, 26 April 2019…
Participation from all angles #ArchiFringe event
18th June 2019
Our first ever Architecture Fringe event, ‘Participation From All Angles’ was a conversation about how people are involved meaningfully in shaping the world around them – be it policy, buildings or spaces. As you might imagine, bringing together people who work in all different sectors and on all sorts of different things, the conversation…
Lessons learned from co-creation of Action Plan
10th June 2019
It’s always important to reflect on your work, to step back and see what the successes and failures might have been. Thanks to our external independant facilitators, we are pleased to launch a short report evaluating the co-creation process of our action plan, produced with thanks, by SCDC (the Scottish Community Development Centre). In developing…
10 things we learned in Canada – Global Summit of Open Government Partnership
6th June 2019
The open government team have spent this week in Ottawa, Canada at the global summit on open government. It would be impossible to summarise everything from our conversations with hundreds of people from across the globe and workshops led by reformers in government and civil society activists. So instead we’ve picked out…
Chatting open government with Obama
15th April 2019
Our Niamh Webster from the Open Government Team shares her experience from her nomination to attend the Obama town hall Europe in Berlin – and meeting Barack Obama. Watch the event recording here I’ve just spent a sunny weekend in Berlin being star struck and making new friends across the continent at the Obama town…
About us – The Open Government Team
4th April 2019
What does the Open Government Team at the Scottish Government do? We are responsible for delivering the Scottish Government’s programme of reforms on open government, in line with the ambition to become more open and accessible. We work to fulfil our commitments as part of Scotland’s membership of the Open Government Partnership. OGP is an…
If a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it, does it matter?
4th April 2019
In achiveing global goals, does measuring progress towards them, and being explict about them, really matter? Doreen Grove, Head of Open Government at Scottish Government tell us about her time in Tunisia last week exploring progress in open government progress in achieving Sustainable Development Goals 16. I have just spent three days in the…
The first citizens’ jury held on healthcare in Scotland: a guest blog
22nd February 2019
A guest blog written by Erica Reid, Chair of the Oversight Panel of Our Voice Citizens’ Jury. She shares their experience of trying a new approach to involving people in decision-making. This include her personal reflections on attending a meeting where the primary purpose was to hear the public presenting their views to healthcare professionals…
Open Government Action Plan – Official publication documents
30th January 2019
We are delighted to be publishing Scotland’s second Open Government Action Plan on 31st January 2019, with the Cabinet Secretary for Government Business and Constitutional Relations, Michael Russell and the Open Government Network. Available now Read the new Action Plan summary This is a shorter summary in Plain English for improved accessibility. This gives you…