What does government transparency look like? To some folks, it’s a downloadable report detailing how City Council spends millions of dollars. Or opening up data from 911 calls and locations so that it can be modeled and used in new technologies.

But transparency is not only about having access to knowledge – it’s also using that knowledge to surpass goals. Transparent communities achieve goals faster. Why? Because real transparency provides the space for participation.

I recently facilitated a webinar on this very subject via an international democracy-building organization. I’d like to share some of the key points we discussed.

Here are three ways you can create a more transparent, participatory community for your government, political campaign, and/or organization: 

Make transparency a dialogue by creating opportunities for people to give feedback. Conduct online surveys to figure out what people care about most, crowdsource ideas on how to solve problems and the best ways to launch initiatives, and recruit volunteers at the local level. Directly involving the community in these conversations and decisions gives you the data to say, "Here's why we chose to tackle this project first." 

Spanish mayor Daniel Ortiz Espejo is getting residents of the city of Mostoles involved in the crafting of city initiatives and legislation. 

Use data to learn and educate. Boil down some key insights from the data and make sure to share results back with your community. Loomio is a great tool that allows for easy decision making to happen and NationBuilder is a great way to understand your community and tailor your engagement. Data.gov offers up some pretty cool data sets that can be modeled and exported/imported into other tools to create solutions.

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti empowers Angelenos to share their feedback and ideas for the city, which other communities members can vote up or down, and comment on. 

Create relationships with individuals and transparency with communities. Run podcasts and personal blogs for elected officials to share their vision, and be conscious of how different content can be disseminated in ways that make sense for those who should have access to the information. Sometimes a short YouTube video makes more sense than 50 tweets.

Embrace participatory budgeting. It’s been around for a while and there are numerous resources out there - check out the Participatory Budgeting Project and the way the City of Cambridge is implementing this discipline. At it's core, PB is about local governments allowing communities to present ideas for and choose the way budgets are used.

I hope this helps you think about transparency as something that you can incorporate into your campaign or government in a way that enhances your current efforts. Transparency is not meant to be something that forces governments or campaigns to be overhauled, but instead it should help communities and elected officials better understand each other.

If this is right in your wheelhouse and you want to discuss more, or if you’d like me participate or facilitate a webinar/panel, hit me up at [email protected] or @JuanSVas. Also, feel free to learn more about how NationBuilder helps leaders organize or go ahead and try it out yourself.

Enjoy the Storify from my webinar on how local governments and campaigns can create more transparency by starting with participation!