Transparent Economy Needs Transparency.gov

John Elkington

July 31, 2010

One of the six TIGERS (or market trends) spotlighted in the new Volans report, The Transparent Economy, is the need for a transformation in the way that governments do what they do. A transparent economy is a necessary condition for sustainability, though no guarantee of it, and transparent governance and government will be another. Easy to say, but the excruciating reality of trying to govern in conditions of ultra-transparency is underscored by the impact of the WikiLeaks data-dump on the latest Afghanistan war.

As the Financial Times says today, one way to prevent such leaks is to “have fewer secrets in the first place.” By making everything secure, a striking trend this last decade, governments have degraded the utility of secrecy – and also had a highly damaging effect on democracy itself. “This secrecy inflation, along with a widespread belief that governments themselves are active leakers when it suits their own purposes,” the FT concludes, quoting Professor Jonathan Zittrain of Harvard Law School,”has created a corrosive public attitude that has helped sites such as WikiLeaks thrive.”

Zittrain is also quoted to the effect that, “This is the Exxon Valdez of intelligence leaks. It’s crude and messy, with uncertain implications.” One implication is clear, however, and that is that huge volumes of potentially sensitive data are now a few mouse clicks away from publication. Governments and businesses alike need to work out how to make the best of the accelerating shift towards a global goldfish bowl future discussed in The Transparent Economy.