Open government and government transparency are growing movements in the United States and globally.
In the opening remarks of Transparency Camp West '09, Sunlight Foundation co-founder, Ellen Miller quoted Justice Brandice saying "Sunlight is the best disinfectant."
If you're a little lost in the metaphor, that is understandable. The quest for government transparency encompass so many ideas, objectives and goals that it's hard to think that it would be possible to make meaningful change in a mere two day "un-conference."
But, it's a start.
The real overreaching goal of Transparency Camp West '09 is to "create a community of people who are engaged and armed with the knowledge of how to get government data out [to the public.]" If that goal is met, the event is a success. Though the the work that participants are doing at the two day event held at Google headquarters in Mountain View, California isn't as glitzy and sexy to cover as - oh, Comic Con or SXSW or Bonaroo - it is so vital to have a presence here.
At the launch of the day's events all attendees were asked to stand up, state their name and who they are "with," then in three words -no more or you'll be boo'ed - describe why they are attending Transparency Camp.
My three words: Report transparency globally.
It's hard to sit back and be the objective observer in a situation like this. There are amazing brains attending Transparency Camp including Susan Mernit (BitchBuzz contributor & Oakland Local co-founder,) Kalia Hamlin (She's Geeky un-conference,) Craig Newmark (Craigslist founder,) representatives from state, national and foreign government, thinkers from tech corporations (Yahoo! and Google amongst those) and academics from around the globe.
The impulse is to dig in and contribute my two cents on politics and community activism. However, it's a little daunting, too - as I'm fairly sure that I'm the least accomplished person here with the least amount of political organizing experience (though I do volunteer my little liberal ass off.) Though with sessions determined by the greater whole and driven by the participants, I'm sure that I will find a way to be active and useful somewhere on the huge "the big environmentally friendly foam board" schedule.
Stay tuned for my wrap-up exposing what I've learned here - posting to BitchBuzz tomorrow...
You can follow live Transparency Camp West coverage on Twitter @adorkablegrrl or #tcamp09
Image via transparencycamp.org