{"id":8233,"date":"2018-03-12T11:02:40","date_gmt":"2018-03-12T15:02:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/sjc\/?p=8233"},"modified":"2018-03-12T11:02:40","modified_gmt":"2018-03-12T15:02:40","slug":"students-get-firsthand-lesson-open-government","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/sjc\/2018\/students-get-firsthand-lesson-open-government\/","title":{"rendered":"Students get firsthand lesson in open government"},"content":{"rendered":"

Working with international organizations and the federal government is one of the major learning objectives for students enrolled in Open Government and Communication (COMS 4406).<\/p>\n

Undergraduate students in Carleton\u2019s Communication and Media Studies program had the opportunity to have their work published last semester as part of the Open Government Partnership Blog Series<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Open Government Partnership (OGP)<\/a> is a multilateral initiative that aims to secure concrete commitments from governments to promote transparency, empower citizens, fight corruption, and harness new technologies to strengthen governance. It started with 8 founding countries in 2011 and today includes 75 member countries, including Canada.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Samantha Pitre, fourth-year undergraduate student<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cThe blog was a way to get students to connect theory with practice,\u201d said Dr. Mary Francoli<\/a>, who teaches the course. \u201cIt also helps to build a community of people who are familiar with openness and open communication, how and who we communicate with, access to information, and the ways that government information is communicated to citizens and citizens are engaged into government processes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fourth-year students Samantha Pitre and Anna Hum took the course last semester and had their blog posts published on the OGP website.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy post<\/a> was inspired by a guest lecture we had from Mike Gifford, an advocate for open source who discussed the importance of addressing the biases built into software,\u201d said Samantha. \u201cIn seeing numerous stories about the potential net neutrality changes in the United States and the apprehension in response from the public and large media companies, I was interested in finding out more and applying this to a Canadian context to show how abolishing net neutrality would really limit the possibility for an open and collaborative democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n

For her blog post<\/a>, Anna drew inspiration from previous work experience on an information management team in the federal government.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Anna Hum, fourth-year undergraduate student<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cI was on a team that was implementing one of the commitments Canada pledged to in the most recent action plan submitted to the Open Government Partnership, to provide enhanced information management and open government skills within the public service,\u201d said Anna. \u201cAt the time I didn’t think of it beyond face-value, I was just doing my job and could see the benefits from our work first-hand within the department. However, with this class, I was able to reflect and see the larger picture of how my team\u2019s work was connected to larger government priorities.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to working with the OGP, students in COMS 4406 also had the unique opportunity to conduct research for the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat.<\/p>\n

The Treasury Board provided the class with five research questions related to open government. Students then worked in groups to devise proposals for how they would approach each questions. After conducting their research and to cap off the semester, the groups trekked to the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat offices on Elgin St. to present their findings.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe way the class was organized was unlike any of the other classes I\u2019ve taken during my undergrad,\u201d said Anna Hum. \u201cI think it\u2019s pretty surreal to think that a federal agency may actually be taking my advice on how they proceed with their work considering I haven\u2019t even graduated yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

– – –<\/p>\n

\u201cOpen government is a quickly growing international movement, but it\u2019s not so much embedded in the university curriculum,\u201d said Dr. Francoli. \u201cWhen we started this class on open government and communication here at Carleton, it was kind of a unique thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

A leading researcher in the field of open government and open data, Dr. Francoli started working with the OGP in 2011 and is part of the organization\u2019s international expert panel.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Mary Francoli, Associate Professor<\/p><\/div>\n

At the most recent OGP international summit, held in Argentina last November, Dr. Francoli delivered a short research talk on how vulnerable populations, including indigenous communities in Canada, have very specific and important needs for access and that are not adequately protected.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are a range of issues that are very important to Indigenous communities when it comes to access to information, such as land claims and grievances,\u201d explained Dr. Francoli, \u201cbut some of that information can be very hard for people to get.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr. Francoli recounted how Canadian senator Charlie Angus has used access to information requests to uncover how federal policy over the years has harmfully impacted indigenous communities.<\/p>\n

\u201cExamples like this highlight how you can learn things by having access to information requests fulfilled,\u201d said Francoli. \u201cSo to have indigenous populations looking at new access to information legislation and really vocally saying that they aren\u2019t good is really problematic.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr. Francoli is also conducting research for the Official Language Commission on how and whether bilingualism fits into the open government partnership process in Canada, as well as how language politics play out in other OGP countries who are also officially multilingual.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes bilingualism is perceived as an opportunity, other times as a barrier to implementing certain sorts of commitments,\u201d said Francoli,\u201d but it\u2019s also a core part of ensuring there\u2019s greater, open, and more inclusive access to information. Which is why I think bilingualism an important part of the open government discussion that hasn\u2019t really been brought to the table yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

Because the emphasis of COMS 4406 is connecting theory with practice. Dr. Francoli is hoping to hold next year\u2019s course in Winter 2019, in order to have the course coincide with an upcoming Ottawa-hosted OGP summit and structure some of the assignments around it.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a student in the class, first you do some readings about access to information, or open data or civic engagement, and we talk about the democratic theory behind that,\u201d said Dr. Francoli. \u201cAnd then you connect all that to a government organization or agency and the students begin to see what some of the barriers are and how some the literature they\u2019ve read plays out in the real world.\u201d<\/p>\n

For more information on courses offered through the Communication and Media Studies program, <\/em>please see the Undergraduate Calendar.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Working with international organizations and the federal government is one of the major learning objectives for students enrolled in Open Government and Communication (COMS 4406). Undergraduate students in Carleton\u2019s Communication and Media Studies program had the opportunity to have their work published last semester as part of the Open Government Partnership Blog Series. The Open […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[35,36],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nStudents get firsthand lesson in open government | School of Journalism and Communication<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Working with international organizations and the federal government is one of the major learning objectives for students enrolled in Open Government and\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/sjc\/2018\/students-get-firsthand-lesson-open-government\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" 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