Values
As a community-driven project, it's important to be clear about our guiding values. Community members have a need and a right to know to what exactly they are contributing.
Each key component of the Illuminated Federal Budget (IFB) project—the community database, identity and reputation systems, and social networking open standards—is aimed directly at furthering the following values:
Government Transparency and Accountability
We believe that government can best serve its people when its actions are fully transparent. It is not government’s place to oversee itself, but rather its citizens’.
Dual Transparency
As a community, we must hold ourselves to the same standards of transparency to which we hold our government. Without being transparent, we cannot expect to be trusted or effective.
Trust in Citizens
We will not try to tell people what to think, but rather we will give them access to information. We believe that people should be free to make their own informed judgments. We believe citizens should be a welcome part of the budgeting discussion.
Common Ground
We believe that biases are inherent to even well-intentioned discussion. It is best to understand these biases so that we can look past them and work towards common ground.
Inclusiveness
Government transparency and oversight are in the interest of every citizen. We want the barriers of entry to be as low as possible for every citizen wishing to participate.
