[Info-Prim Neo interview with Irina Tishakova, consultant of the Open Data platform] [- Recently, the e-Government Center re-launched the Open Data platform (date.gov.md). Why now and what improvements were made to it?] - The novelty of the re-launched portal is the implementation of a platform that enables interaction with the people. The visitors can comment on the sets of data existing on date.gov.md and can suggest publishing news sets of data. For their part, the ministries must respond to these requests. It is a real-time communication. The Government is thus closer to the people. There was also changed the method of navigating the portal, searching for and sorting the data and included a new section with the ministries’ performance indicators. Besides, we facilitated the method of publishing the sets of data for ministries. Every ministry has an account with secured access where it can publish the sets of data and see its performance indicators. [-Where did the need of such a format of open public data come from? What are the current and programmatic goals?] - In August 2011, the Government of Moldova announced its intention to join the Open Government Partnership. The foundations of this initiative were laid by eight countries that actively promote open government. They include the U.S., the UK and Norway. The Open Government Partnership is a means whereby the executives must transform themselves into innovatory and accessible institutions, and strengthen transparency, responsibility and openness as a prompt response to the people’s needs. Moldova was the 16th country that joined the Open Data initiative. The launching of the open data portal catalyzed the process of opening the public government data. Now that the data are open, we hope there will be developed technological applications that simplify the visualization of information and efficient mechanisms that help solve the people’s problems. [- How can theoretically and practically the people exercise the right to make the state institutions more transparent and involve them unconditionally in solving the problems confronting them?] - The people’s involvement and their voice are very important in the process of making the government transparent. As I said, the open government data portal is an interactive one. The people are invited to take an active part in opening the data and to clearly say what data they need. The people’s activism will motivate the authorities to open more data. The researchers and developers will be able to use them to produce reports or make comparative studies that will inform the people about the country’s progress. The e-Government Center organized a contest of electronic applications “Your e-Application” and the platform ALERTE.MD was one of the winners. It is now implemented at the Chisinau City Hall. The residents of Chisinau inform about the problems they face, while the local authorities are pressed to take immediate measures. Such platforms can be replicated at national level. [- How and who finances the projects of the e-Government Center?] - The Government took out a loan of US$20 million from the World Bank within the Governance e-Transformation project. We also cooperate with other development partners, including the UN Agencies, the U.S., the UK, Sweden, the Netherlands, India, Singapore, and South Korea. [- Are there guarantees that this process and this method of making the public authorities more transparent and responsible towards the people will not be interrupted at a certain moment for financial, political or other kinds of reasons?] - We work hard to ensure the success of e-Governance in Moldova. The technologies advance at high speed and the Government should keep pace with the transformations regardless of the political configuration. Surely it is not easy as some of the functionaries put up resistance. We took risks because we realize that the mentality changes take place slower. What we intend to do is to make the Government more efficient by applying technologies and to bring it closer to the people. It is yet very important that the people become involved. We work for the people and the people should support the efforts to modernize and open the Government. [Valeriu Vasilica, Info-Prim Neo]