On May 26 and 27, members of the Brown Institute traveled to Panama City, Panama, for the launch of El Tabulario, a new platform promoting data transparency in the country. Journalists from the area, as well as representatives of the government’s transparency initiative, attended the launch. The two-day event was a mini design sprint, taking participants through the data aggregated and disseminated in El Tabulario. We emphasized a journalistic approach, starting with the journalists own knowledge of the goverment and its ministries.
The response was, frankly, incredible. In many cases, the journalists were shocked that the data they had long wanted for stories were actually available. Ana Méndez told the Knight Journalism in the Americas Blog “The most important thing is that people feel empowered to make informed decisions and that is only done with real and transparent access to the information that belongs to them.” You can read the full interview on the Knight Center site. A report has also appeared about the launch in La Prensa, the leading daily in the country.