How can data be used to fuel positive social change? Knight Foundation recently brought together a panel of three expert data wranglers at the 2010 Future of News and Civic Media Conference at MIT to discuss the answers.’

Ellen Miller, executive director of the Sunlight Foundation, Laurel Ruma, editor at O’Reilly Media, and Nick Grossman, director of Civic Works at OpenPlans, each gave a brief speech and answered topical questions. Although each speaker expressed different ideas about how to foster civic engagement and social change, their strategies all revolved around a similar theme: transparency. The speakers agreed that social change can be fostered by increasing the amount of quality data available and correspondence between residents and their governments. Watch to find out more.