Index

Overview

The portal tracks links between four high-level kinds of different entries using its relational functionality. These are:

1. Actors
2. Initiatives
3. Events
4. Products/outputs

Each of these is explained in brief below.

<aside> 💡 The distinction between some of these categories is often a matter of judgement and degree, and we have guidance and recommendations available here.

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<aside> 📄 You can find more information on the ways to submit data here.

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Actors

An actor is an entity or organisation that has an enduring presence in the landscape, and may have an array of interests in public policy or digital technologies that are unrelated to digital transparency. Actors include companies, governments, long-standing think tanks, and academic institutions. Generally speaking:

• an actor is intended to be enduring over time and serve a number of perhaps unrelated functions and objectives, by contrast with initiatives, which may be temporary or subject-specific.
• actors generally undertake initiatives, an actor may undertake multiple initiatives, and actors may collaborate on initiatives together.

Initiatives

Initiatives are programmes of work or collaborations undertaken by one or more actors. They are generally subject-specific and temporary in nature by comparison with actors. While the purpose of the portal is broadly to capture initiatives related to “transparency”, the portal will also capture a range of initiatives that make use of transparency outputs such as reports or data sharing mechanisms. As such, a range of initiatives may be captured that have a secondary relationship to “transparency” as a high level objective.

Note that, where an initiative involves ongoing disclosure of information (such as a researcher access programme) or produces a single kind of document or output (including policies and legislation) it may be better classified as a ‘product’ - see below.

Events

Events are points in time that are relevant or notable to the broader tech transparency community. They can include conferences or online discussions, but they can also include submission dates, or deadlines set by legislation or regulation. They can also cover events that are highly relevant to the broader purpose of tech transparency – for example, while national elections are not strictly transparency-related, they are highly relevant to scholars, government officials, and civil society organisations with an interest in making use of tech transparency outputs.