The Transparency and Accountability Initiative, a collaborative of international donors, was created to move the transparency field forward through best practices and honest assessments about the impact of policy and technology innovations.

Working with leading donors, I helped conceive and brand the project’s TABridge program to bring together technologists, policy experts and foundation officers.

Digital tools can help citizens and leaders improve governance, but the full potential of these tools often remains untapped. At a time when tech optimism spawned a lot of bad decisions, we worked to bridge gaps in understanding and establish new models for collaboration to make governments more accountable and transparency campaigns more effective.

The TABridge organizers group planned and hosted workshops that gathered activists, techies and donors from six continents to learn from each other and set better mutual expectations for aligning technology and advocacy.

I also edited and wrote the program blog from 2012-2015, drawing on partners across the T/AI network to talk about challenges, successes and failures in the integration of digital tools by campaigns and institutions.

We sparked relationships between leaders across borders and disciplines, and helped change how all our colleagues enlist technology in the fight for social and economic justice. Along the way, we introduced a new strain of realism—and listening—into an often frenetic conversation.

Some of the projects conceived at or informed by TABridge include School of Data, Buntwani, the Follow the Money Network,  Environmental Working Group’s mobile apps, Nigerian Oil Spill Monitor, a new Global Witness web site in 2015, and ResourceContracts.org and its sister sites tracking land contracts and mining contracts in Guinea.