OPEN Puerto Rico hosts platform launch event
Sen. Ángel Rosa
Gathered before a group of professionals, politicians and government officials, the founders OPEN Puerto Rico, a digital platform that seeks to serve as a repository for public information, discussed details of its first fundraising campaign.
The event held in Miramar Tuesday night drew participation from Sen. Angel Rosa and politician Ricardo Rosselló, both of whom support giving greater access to public information and documents.
“The Legislature depends almost entirely on executive [branch] agencies to disclose data and public documents for analysis of legislative measures. In many cases, the agencies do not [show up to hearings.],” said Rosa. “So it is important that projects like OPEN Puerto Rico insert themselves in the process of requesting and releasing public information.”
As this media outlet reported, OPEN Puerto Rico launched a crowdsourcing campaign this week, looking to raise $14,000 in 45 days through the AntRocket platform, which receives private donations. This is OPEN Puerto Rico’s only funding source.
“We must transform the way we do government in Puerto Rico to one based on a scientific model and concrete evidence,” Rosselló said. “Transparency and accessibility of data and public documents is not only a fundamental right in a democracy, but a global best practice in the design and implementation of robust public policy and accountability for results.”
OPEN Puerto Rico is a nonprofit that has developed a digital platform to facilitate the exchange and analysis of data and public documents between citizens and government at the state and municipal levels. From the page, any citizen may formally request the publication of public data and documents from the government.
“Since our launch six months ago, we’ve received many requests for information, which although public, has not been published by government agencies. With this new service, we hope to meet all these requests,” said Alvin Quiñones, co-founder of the Center for Research and Public Policy (CIPP), the nonprofit organization that created OPEN Puerto Rico.
