Transparency and teledemocracy: issues from an 'e-consultation'

Transparency is a term common to distributed computing, communications studies and other fields that information science draws upon. It’s everyday uses and connotations are carried over into these domains, coalescing around some common issues relevant to knowledge management. Transparency is also a common term in political theory and practice, and one that has been associated with teledemocracy; the application of information and communication technology (ICT) to support democratic processes. For example, ‘greater transparency’ is commonly used to justify the use of ICT by governments to consult with the governed, the topic of the work in progress reported here.