Open Data for Better Governance

Building Systems to Improve Democracy with Data

While democracy intends to be a fair form of governance, the ruling class has long used information asymmetry to tilt the balance away from citizens to themselves. Further, digital identities and digitalization in general, can further exacerbate the asymmetry in favor of government.

Open data platforms that help civil society collect, connect and make available data brings the power of democracy back to citizenship. These systems must distill data into information, to knowledge and to wisdom to help the population better understand the world around them.

The Lanka Data Foundation is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to building open source software platforms that enables citizens to have transparency, accountability and oversight over government. As a Sri Lankan organization, we are also building an Information Hub for Sri Lankan people.