Towards a Better Accessible world? Public Sector Information in a Digital World

摘要

Government information plays a fundamental role in the well-functioning of 21st century's democracies (see f.i. Barber, 1984). Easily accessible government information is seen as an absolute requirement for the maintenance of the competitiveness of industry and the well-functioning of society in general and democracy in particular. Governments around the world have realised the importance of access to public sector information and have developed over the past 20 years a framework of access legislation. However, research indicates that the knowledge and accessibility of government information by citizens and companies still faces serious problems. Access rights as such don't seem to be enough to obtain an informed society, accessibility is needed as well. As a result, governments are under pressure to develop new frameworks that should make their information more accessible for citizens. Since the massive growth of the World Wide Web in the mid nineties, governments world-wide have enhanced ICT and e-government as the ultimate solution to the problem of accessibility. Although the many advantages, the use of ICT has confronted governments with new issues (for an interesting overview see: van de Donk, W., Snellen, I.Th.M. & P.W. Tops 1996). This paper presents work in progress by order of the Flemish government (Belgium) (Maris & Steyaert, 2001). The aim of the project is to develop a legal framework to enable the Flemish government to become more transparent. A short overview of the literature concerning different aspects of access and accessibility of government information is presented. Based on this literature a framework is developed that should lead governments towards more transparency. This framework is used to compare the situation in different countries (Singapore, The Netherlands, Sweden and Flanders).