Openness and transparency are distinct, with only the latter requiring selectivity
Evidence
There is a distinction between openness and transparency: openness is about making all information available, whereas transparency happens when there is a policy of making useful and relevant information available. For example, when asked for climatology statistics, an environmental agency might make hundreds of thousands of pages of raw data available. This act of openness is neither useful nor readable. Creating and disseminating a top-level summary document that can be consumed easily, however, is both useful and readable and represents transparency. Similarly, true openness in one’s personal life means allowing everything to “hang out” in a nonselective way, whereas transparency provides useful and meaningful information. When considering personal information, what is “meaningful” is a normative judgment that may vary widely among members of the audience. But the distinction between revealing everything and selective divulgence is important. — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 610
Categorization
- DEFINE: Sharpens the field vocabulary by distinguishing two terms often used interchangeably in tech/self-branding discourse.
- ADDENDUM: Applies the openness/transparency distinction to curation in ‘Grafting & Growth’ logic (selective selective disclosure as infrastructure).
- XREF: connects to: Output transparency and input transparency are distinct concepts — David E Pozen; Michael Schudson, Troubling Transparency- The History and…, 912
Broader Connections
- Output transparency and input transparency are distinct concepts
#expands(0.85) — David E Pozen; Michael Schudson, Troubling Transparency- The History and…, 912