Theorizing transparency
I read Mark Fenster’s Conspiracy Theories when it first came out, and am happy to see a second, updated edition has been published. (Those negative comments on Amazon that it is “academic” and “full of footnotes” actually serves as an incentive for some of us, Dr. Fenster!)
He also has two provocative articles on so-called “transparency theory,” which, as someone teaching introduction to information and the knowledge society in an LIS school right now, I find very intriguing, as he makes excellent use of Shannon’s information transmission model as a metaphor embedded in most of the sunshine laws today. The first article is called “The Opacity of Transparency” and the other is “Designing Transparency: The 9/11 Commission and Institutional Form.”.
Now somebody needs to apply this “transparency transmission” model to U.S. government information being accessed through public library computers to local communities…. calling John Bertot!
