The Trouble With Government Transparency

"[D]oes transparency really promote accountability? Some of the time it does, of course. No wholly silly idea draws such wide and lasting consensus. And if forced to choose between the two extremes, too much transparency surely beats too little. But there's reason to worry that transparency is reaching the stage of faddish excess, distracting public managers and citizens alike from a better-balanced portfolio of governance measures. Consider three related ways transparency can go wrong."

Donahue looks at the issue of all that open government data simply being available without any context, the trouble with too many transparency requirements, and issues with only those most interested parties taking advantage of government openness.