A group of volunteers, consisting of OKF (Open Knowledge Foundation) members and developers, has built an alternative web application to the official website of the Munich City Council, the goal of which is to increase the transparency of local political life.
Initiated in 2010, and developed with the help of developers during a Code 4 München event in 2014, the web application was officially presented during the Munich Open Gov Day 2015, which took place on September 10 and 11 in Munich.
The web project, called München Transparent, (https://www.muenchen-transparent.de/), is not an official website of the city of Munich. It was developed by Tobias Hößl, who was very interested in local political life but was not satisfied with the existing system. The City Council implements a system called CIS which publishes local documents and helps citizens access information about their local political life. But according to Hößl, the system is not functional enough. He pointed out some technical weaknesses, which have been highlighted on the codefor.de website (http://codefor.de/en/stadtgeschichten/5muenchen-transparent/).
User-friendly access to political information
The goal of muenchen-transparent.de is to collect public data and information from the original RIS system and to organise this information in such a way as to enhance understanding, provide better access to the data and make it easier to follow political life in the city. For example, it provides email alerts when a new document is published, and a full-text search which includes scanned documents, the website states. The website has currently indexed 644 409 pages.
Muenchen-transparent.de also provides a map that identifies published documents. Citizen can be alerted by email if decision papers are published or a new response is posted.
The website also intends to teach citizens how local political life works by providing a glossary of key political terms and an explanation of municipal laws.