The Conference was organized by the Government of the Russian Federation with support of the Expert Council under the Government of RF, non-commercial organization “Development Foundation of the Center for Development and Commercialization of New Technology” («Skolkovo» Foundation) in association with the World Bank,  the Russian presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration,  National research University “Higher School of Economics”, the Foundation of information democracy development, the Foundation of information freedom, Non-commercial partnership Information Culture, SAP AG, PACO. Information support to the event preparation and execution was given by the Institute of the Information Society.

The Conference opened at the premises of the Moscow Metropolitan Governance University.  At the plenary session “Elements of the system “Open region. World trends and Moscow’s experience” the Minister of RF Mikhail Abyzov, Expert on the open government Eric Braverman («McKinsey» company - USA), Managing partner of the «McKinsey» company (France) Ekaterina Dèfossèe and Deputy Mayor of Moscow in the Government of Moscow, Head of Mayor’s Administration and the Government of Moscow Anastasiya Rakova addressed to the participants.

According to international experts several global factors affected the necessity of implementation of the “open government” concept, such as:  new technologies and their distribution around the world, influence of demographic factors, increase in complexity of public administration processes, macroeconomic uncertainty, budget cutbacks in public sector, rivalry for limited resources, and search for high potential personnel. Developed countries need new sources of ideas and information. The necessity ripened to attract citizens to generation of ideas aimed at improvement of public services, there is necessity to test problems and suggestions from users at early stages of services’ development.   Portals of open data, where inhabitants have access to information about city expenses, shared in the internet videos of City Formation Committee meetings (e.g. Calgary, Canada), as well as internet forums, where problems of gardens, parks and public territories in cities are widely discussed, - such phenomena increase responsibility of civil servants for their work. And this is far from a complete list of examples of Open Government in countries, which joined the Open Government Partnership.

By accepting suggestions and recommendations from citizens, by examining the results of public hearings, the authorities decrease the percentage of undesirable consequences of decisions made, redirect and transform the flow of possible negative.

Ekaterina Dèfossèe («McKinsey» company  -(France) reported that the IT-service in New-York was transferred to the direct subordination of the city mayor, the city portal of New-York publishes more than 1000 types of open data, a platform for parents was created, where they can obtain information about children, teachers and schools.

Minister Mikhail Abyzov reported that in April 2012 Russia expressed desire to join the Open Government Partnership (OGP) - international organization, which unites more than 50 countries, and whose activities aim at increase in transparency and accountability of public services, thus emphasizing its intention to increase transparency in the public administration. Russia is creating a library of international experience on Open Government formation.

Anastasiya Rakova also delivered a welcoming speech and emphasized that the Moscow Government in its work with citizens must act under the slogan "involvement and convenience". He report was rich with arguments and reflected active search for new forms of joint efforts of public authorities and inhabitants of such metropolis as Moscow aiming at increase in the quality of life in the city.

Moscovites can currently get public services in comfortable conditions and controlthe results of authorities’ work using portals specially created for these purposes: ''Our city'' , ''Moscow roads'' , ''Moscow houses'' , ''Mobile reception''.

The program of the Conference included multi format events: panel discussions, round tables, master classes, discussions in the form of “brainstorming”, which should have resulted in clear understanding of what is now being done in the sphere of Open Government and what has yet to be done,  as well as in exchange of best practices and experience. For this purpose, particularly, lead experts in the sphere of Open Government from countries, which succeeded in solving this problem, were invited.

Experts involved in the work of th Conference by organizers and, firstly, representatives of the World Bank:

• Chris Vein, USA,Chief Innovation Officer for Global Information and Communications Technology Development вWorld Bank (USA);
• Jeff Kaplan, USA, Managing director of the Open ePolicy Group, Senior ICT-consultant of the World Bank;
• Mario Spinelli, Brazil, Secretary of Corruption Prevention and Strategic Information
  Office of the Comptroller General – Presidency of the Republic of Brazil;
• Irina Bolychevsky, UK, Program manager of the «Open Knowledge» Foundation;
• Eric Braverman, USA. Partner of «McKinsey & Company Inc»;
• Roberto Unger, Brazil, Professor, Harvard
University;
• David Eaves, Canada, Open Government Activist and Negotiation Expert, public policy entrepreneur;
• Meghan Cook, USA, Program manager, State University of New York, Albany.

IIS representatives took part in three sessions of the World Bank program:

1. Open public administration: international practices, experience and opportunities for Russian regions.

2. How to increase information transparency and accountability of public authorities?

3. How to create effective infrastructure of citizens’ involvement in the public administration processes? Best world practices.

Yuri Hohlov, Chairman of the IIS Board of Directors, speaking as an expert at the session «How to create effective infrastructure of citizens’ involvement in the public administration processes? Best world practices», emphasized that the basic problem in Russia is the significant inequality between regions in terms of ICT development, and that overcoming this inequality is the vital challenge of public authorities. «Russia needs open power, – said Yuri Hohlov. – We must not forget that open government in Russia should unite interests of the authorities, citizens and business». Russia at all levels – federal and municipal – should articulate and accept the strategy and the action plan aiming at expanding the openness of the power.

The second day of the Conference was held in the Innovation center "Skolkovo", the opening speech was delivered by Dmitry Medvedev, prime-minister of RF. The halls of the conference hosted fruitful exchange of opinions on Open Government in Russia formation and development with use of the world’s best practices, which was held in the form of round tables, master classes and "brainstorming".

The work of the international conference was attended by: Tatiana Ershova, Director General of the Institute of the Information Society; Olga Reznikova, IIS Deputy Director General; Nina Semenova, Deputy Editor-in-Chief of the "Information Society" journal; Project Managers Irina Miroshnichenko, Marina Smyslova and Olga Kopyeva, and IIS Analyst Vladimir Kondratyev.