This paper, published in the last issue of Revista de Informação Legislativa (Senado Federal Publication - Brazil) deals with the problem of legal text databases accuracy.

The Inter-Parliamentary Union and the United Nations Development Programme released the Global Parliamentary Report on the evolving relationship between citizens and parliaments. The Report analyzes parliamentary strategies to engage with citizens and argues that parliaments need to be in a constant process of evolution.

This report focuses on study of cases concerning organizational, political and social aspects that interfere in the successes and challenges of some experiments in legislative digital democracy.  It is the result of 4-years research on legislative e-democracy in several parliaments throughout the world, supported by University of State of Rio de Janeiro and the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation from University of Harvard.

The National Democracy Institute and the World Bank Institute recently published a report which identifies 190 parliamentary monitoring organizations (PMOs) in over 80 countries, documents good practices in parliamentary monitoring and suggests recommendations for the international donor community in supporting PMOs.  It draws on surveys completed by 63 PMOs, interviews with PMO leaders and representatives of international organizations engaged in supporting PMO activities.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressional offices are receiving between 200 to 1,000 percent more constituent communications than they were ten years ago. Despite the increase, a survey of congressional staff indicates that 90 percent believe constituent communications remains a "high priority" for the office. But sizable percentages of staff report that their offices are shifting resources to manage the increased demand.

New media platforms are changing how people communicate with each other around the world. However, there is great variation in both the kind of communication platforms people make use of as well as in how they access these platforms. Computer ownership and internet access are still the prerogative of the wealthy few in wide swathes of the African continent. All the same, mobile internet access is on the rise and if current growth rates continue, African mobile phone penetration will reach 100 per cent by 2014.

The Internet, specifically web-based technologies, are now central to some of the information flows associated with the operation of core components of the polity, including its democratic institutions. Such technologies have been widely characterised in the literature as offering the potential for democratic renewal and reinvigoration. This paper takes as its focus the use of new technologies, mostly web-based, by members of the devolved parliamentary legislature in Scotland. Members of Scotland’s devolved parliament make a novel case for analysis for two reasons.

This research sets out to describe barriers to engagement amongst those who are currently disengaged from Parliament and identifies places where Parliament touches the public, either directly or indirectly. The second stage of the project was a mixed methods study in two sequential phases. The first phase consisted of qualitative semi-structured focus groups held in five locations around Great Britain, the second phase, a quantitative survey based on a random sample of 2,005 adults from across Great Britain.

This second edition of Government at a Glance almost doubles the number of available indicators of OECD governments’ performance, to nearly 60. The indicators compare the political and institutional frameworks of government across OECD countries as well as government revenues and expenditures, employment, and compensation. This publication provides evidence for policy makers by measuring the performance of governments in a comparative perspective.

Cyberattacks, politically motivated censorship, and government control over internet infrastructure are among the diverse and growing threats to internet freedom, according to Freedom on the Net 2011: A Global Assessment of Internet and Digital Media, a new study released by Freedom House.

The Commission will give the highest priority to ensuring respect for the fundamental right to data protection throughout the Union and all its policies, while at the same time enhancing the internal market dimension and facilitating the free flow of personal data. In this context, other relevant fundamental rights enshrined in the Charter, and other objectives in the Treaties, have to be fully taken into account while ensuring the fundamental right to the protection of personal data.

It is widely acknowledged that cyber attacks will increasingly be a key aspect of future warfare and organised crime. This note explains the increasing threat to national security posed by the new “front” of the cyber realm of networked, digital activities (often internetbased) and sets out the Government’s response. The National Security Strategy (October 2010) has categorised “hostile attacks upon UK cyberspace by other states and large scale cyber crime” as one of its priority risks alongside terrorism, major accidents and natural hazards, and military crises.

The Report "Protecting Europe against large-scale cyber-attacks", published by the European Union Committee, House of Lords, U.K. Parliament, looks at the part which the EU can play in helping the United Kingdom and other Member States to prevent and detect cyber-attacks, to respond to them, mitigate their effects and recover from them; and in particular at the strategy set out in the Communication, and the programme of work it envisages.

On Monday 21 June 2010, the Standing Committee on Communications tabled its report on the inquiry into Cyber Crime entitled Hackers, Fraudsters and Botnets: Tackling the Problem of Cyber Crime. The report explains the complex nature of cybercrime, the need for comprehensive research to support policy development and the gap between end user awareness and preventative action. It further discusses proposals to strengthen Australia’s response by committing to a more integrated, coordinated and concerted effort to target both policy and law enforcement against cyber criminals.

A generic and global approach on main cybersecurity issues is presented from a strategic perspective in order to give a broad understanding of what kind of concerns should be addressed and what sort of measures should be taken within a national cybersecurity policy. This part also identifies some basic and non-exhaustive needs that should be taken into consideration at national and international levels when dealing with the establishment of a Global Protocol on Cybersecurity and Cybercrime.