Americans saw the move as a big departure from the secretive style of the Bush Administration. Many of them acknowledged it as a step forward towards greater transparency. What’s left to be seen now for Americans is if that one step will be followed by another. For us Filipinos, however, it’s more about whether a forward step will be taken at all.

The Philippine government could certainly take such a step, a giant leap even, by simply following the Obama administration’s hi-tech lead. After all, it did tinker with the idea of putting up a national broadband network, which would have  interconnected all our government institutions and offices. The only problem was that the project came with the hefty price tag of $329 million. And, of course, there was that, ahem, minor issue of corruption.

Clearly, a transparency website would be easier and so much cheaper to set up. Anyone care to provide a rough estimate and a list of technical requirements for this?