On January 2009 President Obama signed the Memorandum on Transparency and Open Government. The
memorandum declares the new Administration¿s commitment to creating an unprecedented level of
openness in Government and establishing a system linking three principles: transparency public
participation and collaboration. Since then federal agencies in the United States and public
administrations around the world have embarked on open government initiatives and have worked
to redefine their relationship with citizens and with each other. On September 20th 2011
eight governments gathered in New York City to launch the Open Government Partnership a new
multilateral initiative to promote open government. The benefits attributed to open government
are many and by no means universally shared. They include the claims that open government leads
to more effective decision making and services safeguards against corruption enables public
scrutiny and promotes citizens¿ trust in government. However the speed of events and pressure
to implement has given rise to confusion and ambiguity. Although many of the initiatives have
been based on opening data and on promoting open action governments have followed different
directions and interpretations when it has come to implement them and development of open
government has become unequal and heterogeneous. This book provides a comprehensive study of
recent major developments of open government around the world and analyzes the importance of
open government efforts for public governance making it of interest to academics and
practitioners worldwide.
