Due to their great usefulness in disseminating information, digital tools, especially internet portals, have been widely used as part of transparency practices by political institutions. Initially, portals presented information in static formats and with a specific focus, which limited the possibilities for analysis by society.
Currently, most government portals have started to make information available in open data format. This data can be defined as pure data in standardized formats that allow processing by various types of software. In this way, citizens and interested entities can access public data and, with it, develop intelligent applications that allow for a more effective understanding of the performance of politicians and the detailed expenditure of public bodies, as well as the results of public policies, in a simple and automatic way over the Internet.
Successful initiatives in this area have promoted the continuous south africa mobile database improvement of the quality of government information, created and institutionalized a culture of open government and instruments and tools that facilitate the use and understanding of data. In addition, they have designed the provision of information taking into account the desires and needs of their users.
In Brazil, the 1988 Federal Constitution provides for freedom of information as a fundamental right (Art. 5, XXXIII), which constitutes an important guideline for appropriate State behavior and as a basis for forming public opinion, which is essential for the proper functioning of the Democratic State.
The obligations of the public administration are provided for in Art. 37, § 3, II, and Art. 216, § 2, which provide for the participation of citizens in direct and indirect public administration, access to government acts and consultation of government documentation.
Within the scope of the Judiciary, Art. 93, X, requires that the administrative decisions of the courts be motivated and taken in a public session.
Following these guidelines and in tune with the desires of 21st century citizens, in 2011, Brazil became the 89th country in the world to adopt a law on access to public information. Law 12,527/2011 only came into force in May 2012, since the text provided for 180 days of implementation.
The culture of open data
In conjunction with the Access to Information Act, several initiatives have emerged with the intention of disseminating the culture of open government and facilitating the use and understanding of public data by citizens. Some of the initiatives include: the Partnership for Open Government (PGA), the creation of the National Open Data Infrastructure (INDA), and the holding of Hackathons.