Dean Thompson: U.S. government, Romania cooperate towards ensuring access to government information

The U.S. government is currently working with partners from around the world, Romania included, to ensure access to government information through the Open Government Partnership, U.S. Charge d'affaires a.i. Dean Thompson on Friday told the Open Data Day Conference organized by the government of Romania together with the Open Data Coalition, under the aegis of the American partnership.

Photo credit: (c) Simion MECHNO / AGERPRES ARCHIVE

They say that information means power. For a long time, the authorities have kept a lot of information. But over time, the methods of collecting information and the ways in which they can be accessed became much more sophisticated. (...) The U.S. government cooperates with partners from around the world, Romania included, to ensure access to government information through the Open Government Partnership. The results obtained so far have been downright revolutionary. In my country, the government makes efforts to render the Americans in all the regions capable of contributing to public services in a variety of ways, said the U.S. official.

According to him, amateur researchers help the scientists concerned about the environment to follow the adaptation of the trees to climate change by carefully observing tree budding in spring and the moment when leaves change their color in autumn. Amateur researchers have also created platforms that collect information about the outbreak and spreading of diseases, or about landslides, where warnings are issued about disease-spreading environments and the causes of landslides.

'Archivist' citizens enhanced the accessibility of American history through the transcription of over 132 million names from handwritten documents from the 1940 census. Internet users ensure a...