Public communication in the Processes of Transparency and Accountability in the Era of Open Data

In recent years, transparency and accountability seem to find new impulse, with the development of ICT (information and communication technology) and the prospective of open data that invests the public system at a national and supranational level. Public institutions tend to make available to the public, more data and information concerning the administration, the manner of use of public goods and resources. At the same time, each institution is called upon to deal with the demand of transparency and participation by citizens who use increasingly Internet 2.0 and social media. After a reflection on how the public administrations acted in the phase of web 1.0 to practice transparency and accountability in terms of communication, this paper considers the elements of continuity and the new opportunities linked to the advent of Web 2.0 and open data. At the end of this analysis, the focus is on the strengths and weaknesses of this process, with a particular attention to the role of the public communication.