Carl Malamud

“ Transparency is a slippery word; the kind of word that, like reform, sounds good and so ends up getting attached to any random political thing that someone wants to promote. But just as it's silly to talk about whether "reform" is useful (it depends on the reform) , talking about transparency in general won't get us very far. Everything from holding public hearings to requiring police to videotape interrogations can be called "transparency"—there's not much that's useful to say about such a large category. ”

“ The pipeline of leak to investigation to revelation to report to reform has broken down. Technologists can't depend on journalists to use their stuff; journalists can't depend on political activists to fix the problems they uncover. Change doesn't come from thousands of people, all going their separate ways. Change requires bringing people together to work on a common goal. That's hard for technologists to do by themselves. ”

“ When we say "Code" we mean more than the source code that our computers run on or the protocols that define the Internet. By Code we mean any rulebook, be it the governing protocols for the Internet or the laws and regulations that are the operating systems of our democracies. Likewise, swaraj is the principle of self-rule, that a government is owned by the people and ruled by our common will. ”

“ Transparency can be a powerful thing, but not in isolation. So, let's stop passing the buck by saying our job is just to get the data out there and it's other people's job to figure out how to use it. Let's decide that our job is to fight for good in the world. ”

“ The Internet is a miracle that has changed the world, but it has so much more potential, and we see far too many people who are technical like us spending their days working on a new app or the pursuit of more ad clicks.
So much of the world of business focused on gaining private advantages through arbitrage and monopoly as the world becomes ever more unequal. We hope more of our colleagues will take the time to do public work and to be inspired by the ideas of Gandhi to help make our world a better place, a world focused on public good not just on private gain. ”

“ Imagine a team of people coming together to tackle some issue they care about—food safety, say. You can have technologists poring through safety records, investigative reporters making phone calls and sneaking into buildings, lawyers subpoenaing documents and filing lawsuits, political organizers building support for the project and coordinating volunteers, members of Congress pushing for hearings on your issues and passing laws to address the problems you uncover, and, of course, bloggers and writers to tell your stories as they unfold. ”

“ So far we've seen baby steps—people copying what they see elsewhere and trying to apply it to politics. Wikis seem to work well, so you build a political wiki. Everyone loves social networks, so you build a political social network. But these tools worked in their original setting because they were trying to solve particular problems, not because they're magic. To make progress in politics, we need to think best about how to solve its problems, not simply copy technologies that have worked in other fields.
Data analysis can be part of it, but it's part of a bigger picture. ”

“ That money doesn't come from the sky. The question isn't whether some transparency is better than none; it's whether transparency is really the best way to spend these resources, whether they would have a bigger impact if spent someplace else.
I tend to think they would. All this money has been spent with the goal of getting a straight answer, not of doing anything about it. Without enforcement power, the most readable database in the world won't accomplish much—even if it's perfectly accurate. So people go online and see that all cars are dangerous and that all politicians are corrupt. ”

“ In general, you should be skeptical whenever someone tries to sell you on something like "reform" or "transparency." In general, you should be skeptical. But in particular, reactionary political movements have long had a history of cloaking themselves in nice words. Take the Good Government (goo-goo) movement early in the twentieth century. ”

“ First, computers and networks are what we do. In our world, we all do what we can. But our real answer is that access to knowledge is a building block, democratizing information is a means to an end, a foundation on which all can build. ”

“ We own our governments in a democracy, and unless we engage in public work, unless we educate ourselves and our rulers, we will cede our position as trustees of our world.
We have included a large number of photographs in this book. This book is a mashup. This is because we are inspired by the photographs, we love looking at the old photos contained in the Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi and in the archives of the Ministry of Information. All knowledge builds on what is already there, and we have built this book on material that is on the net for free access by all. ”

“ They would do what it takes to accomplish their goals, not be hamstrung by arbitrary divisions between "technology" and "journalism" and "politics."
Right now, technologists insist that they're building neutral platforms for anyone to find data on any issue. Journalists insist that they're objective observers of the facts. And political types assume they already know the answers and don't need to investigate further questions. They're each in their own silo, unable to see the bigger picture.
I certainly was. I care passionately about these issues—I don't want politicians to be corrupt ”

“ You've done nothing to solve the real problem; you've only made it seem more hopeless: all politicians are corrupt, all cars are dangerous. What can you do?
An Alternative
What's ironic is that the Internet does provide something you can do. It has made it vastly easier, easier than ever before, to form groups with people and work together on common tasks. And it's through people coming together—not websites analyzing data—that real political progress can be made. ”

“ They're given the power to investigate who's breaking the law and the authority to punish them. Transparency, on the other hand, simply shifts the work from the government to the average citizen, who has neither the time nor the ability to investigate these questions in any detail, let alone do anything about it. It's a farce: a way for Congress to look like it has done something on some pressing issue without actually endangering its corporate sponsors.
Interpreting Databases for the Public
Here's where the technologists step in. "Something is too hard for people?" they hear. ”

“ Now inquiring citizens can find out who's funding their politicians and how dangerous their cars are just by going online.
The wonks love this. Still stinging from recent bouts of deregulation and antigovernment zealotry, many are now skeptical about government. "We can't trust the regulators," they say. "We need to be able to investigate the data for ourselves." Technology seems to provide the perfect solution. Just put it all online—people can go through the data while trusting no one. ”

“ Without an open rulebook, the Internet we have today would have been very different. We believe all our infrastructures should be based on open and transparent rules, ones that allow anybody to understand how the system works and how to make it better. ”

“ Universal access to knowledge is a human right, but we must do more than just consume knowledge, we must all contribute to the common pool. We are both technical people. We have worked in telecommunications and computers all our life. ”

“ Sure, perhaps they can make small changes—this politician gets slightly less oil money than that one, so I'll vote for her (on the other hand, maybe she's just a better liar and gets her oil money funneled through PACs or foundations or lobbyists) —but unlike the government, they can't solve the bigger issue: a bunch of people reading a website can't force car companies to make a safe car. ”

“ The goo-goo reformers moved elections to off-years. They claimed this was to keep city politics distinct from national politics, but the real effect was just to reduce turnout. They stopped paying politicians a salary. This was supposed to reduce corruption, but it just made sure that only the wealthy could run for office. They made the elections nonpartisan. ”

“ Such a principle is a core principle of democracy, it is what we mean by democratizing information, removing barriers to entry.
We believe that in a society with true code swaraj, there is room to strive even further, to achieve aspirational goals such as universal access to all human knowledge. The Internet has taught us that an open system can grow beyond our wildest dreams. ”

“ But such things seem totally off the radar of most transparency activists; instead, giant corporations that receive billions of dollars from the government are kept impenetrably secret.
Generating Databases for the Public
Many policy questions are a battle of competing interests—drivers don't want cars that roll over and kill them when they make a turn, but car companies want to keep selling such cars. If you're a member of Congress, choosing between them is difficult. On the one hand are your constituents, who vote for you. ”

“ Power in New York was controlled by one man, a man who had consistently lost every time he'd tried to run for office, a man nobody thought of as being in charge at all: Parks Commissioner Robert Moses. ”

“ Democratizing information may seem an airy goal to some, one not worthy of pursuit by serious people in these times of trouble. A skeptical editor might well ask how we can focus on computers and networks when people are starving and our planet is destroyed? ”

“ They can measure their success by the number of lives that have been improved by the changes they fought for, rather than the number of people who have visited their website. They can learn which technologies actually make a difference and which ones are merely indulgences. ”

“ Perhaps even more useful than putting government documents online would be providing access to corporate and nonprofit records. A lot of political action takes place outside the formal government, and thus outside the scope of the existing FOIA laws. ”