Values

From BudgetWiki

As a community-driven project, it’s important to for us to be clear about our guiding values. Community members have a need and a right to know exactly what it is they are contributing to.

The Illuminated Federal Budget system is being built around the values described below. All key components of this project -- the community database, identity and reputation systems, and social networking open standards -- are aimed directly towards furthering these 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.

Trusting our citizens

The goal of the Illuminated Federal Budget is not to tell people what to think but to 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.

Overcoming bias

We believe that biases are inherent to even well-intentioned discussion, and that it is best to understand these biases so that we can look past them and work towards common ground.

Inclusivity

Government transparency and oversight is in the interest of every citizen. We want the barriers of entry to be as low as possible for every citizen interested in participating.