8 challenges for open government posed by emerging technology

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Tit for tat over Trump-Mueller probe

It happened again Tuesday evening as it does most nights for David Cohen, former deputy director of the Central Intelligence Agency and onetime undersecretary of the Treasury for terrorism and financial intelligence in the Obama administration.

"Every night before I go to sleep — every single night — I check the Post and Times websites for the latest bombshell, and I am frequently then unable to sleep."

The Boston-bred attorney alluded to The Washington Post and The New York Times, which continue to play what seems to be their private game of Can You Top This? as they cover the Trump administration. It was much the same throughout the 2016 campaign, with one breaking a great story, the other soon surfacing with its own.

Tuesday, it was The Times (no, not CNN, despite the network's constant repetition of having first learned about the matter and flashing that "Breaking News" chyron) that disclosed that Attorney General Jeff Sessions was questioned last week as part of the special counsel investigation of Robert Mueller. Then it was The Post disclosing that Mueller was trying to question President Trump about his booting National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and FBI Director James Comey.

It doesn't stop. Back in the late winter and spring, I'd compiled a list of the Trump and Hillary Clinton-related scoops by each for a Vanity Fair look at what might be the last great newspaper war.

It was unceasing and encapsulated in Times reporter Peter Baker sitting in the press cabin of Air Force One, on the way to Saudi Arabia, and being told in a call from his boss that the paper was about to disclose that Trump had called Comey a "nut job" in a meeting with Russian officials.

But soon he was staring at Fox News Channel — what else do you figure is on inside Air Force One? — and seeing word that The Post, his alma mater, was breaking a tale on how an FBI investigation of the Trump campaign and possible Russian influence had identified "a current White House official as a significant person of interest."

Many others have done great work but the two papers remain ahead of the pack. It's why a sophisticated news consumer like Cohen — he oversaw sanctions again Iran, Russia and Cuba at Treasury, while seeking to impede funding of ISIS —checks them out before conking out

THE CLOCK IS TICKING-Don't Procrastinate

Sunlight Foundation: 8 challenges for open government posed by emerging technology – “As 2018 begins, the big tent of open government holds both promise and peril, as nationalism, populism, low trust in institutions, and voter anger and apathy put years of gains at risk. We continue to see meaningful ways for better laws and policies to enable more open, accountable, ethical and effective governance at every level of government though the civic uses of technology, but it would be disingenuous to see the present through rosy glasses. (We watch Black Mirror, too.) 2017 was a bad year for Internet freedom, from the repeal of net neutrality in the USA to censorship, shutdowns, surveillance, and the poisoning of civic discourse online…We expect to confront fresh challenges posed by emerging technologies as well, making sense of how sunshine laws should adjust to novel context. In no particular order, here are eight areas that the press, public and governments have asked us about in recent months, with some thoughts about how lawmakers and regulators should adjust…”

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Want people to work together? Familiarity, ability to pick partners could be key Via phys.org: “The key to getting people to work together effectively could be giving them the flexibility to choose their collaborators and the comfort of working with established contacts, new research suggests. For starters, it’s important to recognize that cooperation between humans makes no sense, said David Melamed, an assistant professor of sociology at The Ohio State University and lead author of the study, which appears in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.  “From an evolutionary perspective, cooperation shouldn’t exist between people – you always do better by not cooperating because then people can’t rip you off or take advantage of you,” Melamed said. “Especially in a one-time interaction, it’s essentially paying a cost for someone else to benefit, and researchers have been working for a long time to understand why people evolved to work together.” In this study, Melamed and his co-authors aimed to uncover what conditions led people to collaborate most willingly…”