There are turning points in the life of a business that turn it up or down. Nearly 3.5 years ago we had one of the up turning points that gave us both challenge and opportunity. It was a contract from FaHCSIA to build an information clearinghouse for the homelessness service delivery sector, the National Homelessness Information Clearinghouse.

At the Connecting Up Conference last week I was pleased to meet and talk with two of the clever people from the Charities Commission of NZ. They were beside themselves with excitement over their new innovation and I am too.

The Charities Commission is the regulator for non-profit and charities in NZ. There they have one place and one way for a non-profit to register. In Australia we have many many confusing and convoluted rules and registration processes.

They also collect data from their non-profits and charities. The annual returns include officers, areas of activity and financial performance including major income sources.

At his talk at Linux.conf.au in Brisbane last week, Mark Pesce talked about trust and openness.

If you can’t examine the source code, how can you really trust it?  This is an issue beyond maintainability, beyond the right to fork; this is the essential element that will prevent paranoia.  ‘Transparency is the new objectivity’, and unless any particular program is completely transparent, it is inherently suspect." @mpesce http://blog.futurestreetconsulting.com/

I agree wholehartedly that openness creates transparency and transparency creates trust. But trust is a complex thing. I'd like to tease this point a bit about how it relates to online services and open code.