Chapter 6: Radical Transparency Inverted: Mass and Mutual Disclosure

‘Þetta reddast!’ is an Icelandic phrase that inverts the verb ‘to worry’ or ‘to fear’ and roughly translates to English as ‘it will all work out’. Dangerous ice-cold seas and fish to be caught? Þetta reddast! Yet, the phrase was also described to me by an informant working on a radical transparency project in Iceland as meaning ‘just going for it!’ This, tied to a culture where despite extreme weather and waves, you just go out and fish – Þetta reddast! An ethos that reverses worry and enables reckless experimentation speaks to the approach of how radical disclosure works. This chapter showcases where actors in developed democracies have ‘just gone for it’ and tried to invert what we have seen in radical transparency design and the approach it offers to governing in the hopes of changing how democracy functions. The three cases selected are The Citizens' Agenda project in Australia, collaborative constitution writing efforts in Iceland, and an organisation called Leadnow.ca from Canada. Together they stretch and saturate the types of political assumptions linked to governing through radical transparency apparatuses (see Table 6.1). Each does not depend on large-scale digital leaks or transparency that involves publicising the secrets of others without their consent. Instead, this chapter focusses on experiments of mass mutual radical disclosure.