The OpenAustralia Foundation is a pioneering charity whose vision is to transform democracy in Australia. Our mission is to give all Australians the tools they need to effect the change they want. We create technologies that encourage and enable people to access the information they need to confidently participate directly in the democratic processes on a local, community and national level.
We currently do this with theyvoteforyou.org.au, RightToKnow.org.au, OpenAustralia.org, PlanningAlerts.org.au. These websites aim at finding better ways of making government, the public sector and political information freely and easily available for the benefit of all Australians. This transparency aims to encourage and inform people about how they can make a difference.
The OpenAustralia Foundation is a strictly non-partisan organisation. We are not the government, nor are we affiliated with any political party. We are passionate about making our democracy work. We believe that we can help to reinvigorate Australia’s civic culture by using powerful new technologies to inform and empower people, to address the current disconnect between our Government and the people who elect it.
We support the Uluru Statement from the Heart to achieve justice, recognition and respect for First Nations people and a referendum to enshrine a First Nations Voice in our Constitution.
Our Constitution
Our constitution is the legal document that outlines what our purpose is and the rules by which we operate. Our core objectives and purpose and perhaps the most important part of the constitution, the objects of the company, are listed here:
- to support a nationwide open access public digital reference library for the purpose of making information relating to public bodies accessible and useful for all Australians;
- to conduct research into the use and effects of information and communication technologies relating to public engagement and developing tools to enable the sharing of information for the purpose of improving such engagement;
- to disseminate the results and methods of this research for the benefit and education of the public;
- to provide tools and services to both public and private bodies or institutions, and the general public, to enable them to reuse such data and research freely and for the public good;
- to provide content and software under an open licence wherever practicable;
- to create a network for related local, online and library communities
For further detail, please read the constitution in full.
History
In 2004 Matthew Landauer and Katherine Szuminska attended the launch of TheyWorkForYou.com, a British website that encouraged people to find out what work their political representatives actually did for them. This speech and the success of the website inspired Matthew and Kat explore the possibilities of setting up a similar site here in Australia.
Three years later Matthew was given the opportunity by his then employer Rising Sun Pictures to take a week of paid charity leave. He used this time to develop the first, very rough, prototype of OpenAustralia.org. Since that time, with the help of volunteers and the odd charitable donation the OpenAustralia Foundation has achieved an incredible amount.
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