.. link: .. description: .. tags: .. date: 2013/07/03 09:16:24 .. title: Why access to governmental information is fundamental in every democracy .. slug: pablo_cerdeira **Pablo Cerdeira** *FGV DIREITO RIO/Prefeitura da Cidade do Rio de Janeiro* As the governments invests in new technologies to gather all kind of information about cities and citizens, open data politics became more than just a transparency framework offered by the governments to the citizens. It is, in fact, the unique way to maintain the equilibrium between the public sector and the society. We are going to discuss 3 major points: (i) what governments are doing with data, in special here in Rio de Janeiro, (ii) what can be done in the next few years, and (iii) what should be done to ensure that citizens and governments can collaborate and work together in building a better environment for the city using open data.