Between Knowing and Understanding

Transparency – from the outset it hardly seems a danger to democratic governance. After all, isn’t it kind of the foundation of a democracy? Principles of accountability and the freedom of information seem, to me at least, to go hand in hand with transparency. Democracy is after all “A government of the people, by the people, for the people” (or so I’ve heard) so don’t ‘the people’ have a right to know exactly what in going on? The aptly named “Transparency Movement” (1) represents this very idea that those in power be held accountable by making data available to the public through networked technologies and on the surface it does seem like an undeniably positive development. But, as with most issues that come up in this course, things aren’t quite as black and white as I would have first thought. Reading Lessig’s (2) article, Against Transparency: The perils of openness in government, I can’t help but agree that there is a big difference between making data available and understanding the meaning of this data. Transparency may well be equating to greater accountability, but at what cost?

The Power of Knowledge

Disclosure is anathema to corruption – that seems to be the premise of the whole ‘Transparency Movement’. Where money and power are involved there are always conflicts of interest, corruption beneath the surface just waiting to be uncovered, or so we assume. If the motives of those in power are under more scrutiny than ever before then surely this openness and accountability will encourage a more genuine political environment? At least that is the premise of the movement.

According to Brandeis;

“Sunlight is … the best of disinfectants”. (3)

And as Lessig points out;

“As political disinfectant, silicone beats sunlight hands down.” (4)

Digitizing data streamlines time consuming bureaucratic processes and network technologies ensure that virtually everyone has access to this data. The question is what are we actually going to do with this unprecedented access to data?

The Gap between Knowledge and Understanding

“Sunlight may well be a great disinfectant. But as anyone who has ever waded through a swamp knows, it has other effects as well” writes Lessig. (5)

The problem isn’t technical. It is the way in which this new-found access to knowledge is used. Just because data is now readily available does not necessarily mean that we will take the time or effort to understand it. Those in power are more accountable than ever before, but at the same time there has never been such a risk of misinterpretation and misrepresentation. As Lessig demonstrates, accusations of corruption are simply too easy to substantiate. To manipulate raw data into vague or suggestive ‘evidence’ which while on the surface seems like the ‘truth’, may have no real legitimacy is the fundamental problem of open transparency.

Bridging the Gap

When I consider this notion of transparency, projects like the Futurefarmers’ They Rule (6) are what immediately come to mind. The They Rule site tracks the links between the most powerful US companies, their board members and the government. Like this visualization of the Bush Administration;

http://theyrule.net/map_175 (7)

Its simple visual representations of complex data seem to epitomize this open and publicly accessible means of accountability which underpins the transparency movement and it is by no means a new development.

Regardless of its problems, transparency is an inevitable byproduct of the networked society. It seems that the time to debate its merits has come and gone, and the efforts of all involved would be better spent learning to adapt. Those in power, whether in governments, business, medicine etc, must all come to terms with the realities of the scrutiny transparency brings because in many ways it is already here, whether they like it or not.

References:

1. Lessig, Lawrence (2010) ‘Against Transparency: The perils of openness in government.’<http://www.tnr.com/article/books-and-arts/against-transparency?page=0,0>
2. ibid
3. ibid
4. ibid
5. ibid
6. Future Farmers 2011, They Rule, <http://www.theyrule.net/> 
7. Future Farmers 2011,  Bush Administration, They Rule, <http://theyrule.net/map_175>