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iGov
The Atlantic published an article entitled "iGov: How Geeks are Opening Up Government on the Web" by Douglas McGray that discusses API Documentation and examines the possibilities when government agencies allow access to their raw data in an open, standard file format. The article uses the BART system as an example:
Turns out, it didn’t. In 2007, Google engineers asked public-transit agencies across the country to submit their arrival and departure data in a simple, standard, open format—a text file, basically, with a bunch of numbers separated by commas—so Google Maps could generate bus and subway directions. A handful of agencies, including BART, decided to go a step further and publish that raw data online. Once they did that, any programmer could grab the data and write a trip planner, for any platform. “It’s not 1995,” BART’s Web-site manager, Timothy Moore, explained. “A single Web site is not the endgame anymore. People are planning trips on Google, they’re using their iPhones. Because we opened up our schedule, we are in those places.” “We can’t envision every beneficial use for our data,” Moore told me. “We don’t have the time, we don’t have the resources, and frankly, we don’t have the vision. I’m sure there are people out there who have better ideas than we do. That’s why we’ve opened it up.”Continue reading
Interview with Internet Archive Founder
FLYP online magazine published an interview with Internet Archive's founder, Brewster Kahle, entitled "Know It All". There is a text version of the article, but the interactive multi-media verison is much more fun! Plus, it contains a nice video showing Brewster explaining the mission of Internet Archive.
Brewster Kahle wants to give you digital access to every book, film, video, song, TV show and periodical ever published. If he succeeds, the world will be a different place.Continue reading
Current State & Future Outlook of E-Government
The OMB released reports yesterday on the current state and future of E-Government. They include: * Expanding E-Government Results Report * Federal CIO Council Transition Guide * Report to Congress on the Benefits of the E-Government Initiatives Departments and agencies claim that they "continue to make great improvements in the area of security and privacy" and the CIO Council Transition Guide focuses on these areas of interest: - Empowering the Government through Information Sharing - Protecting the Networks & Systems Required to Operate in the Information Age - Tapping the Power of a Collaborative Citizenry Continue reading
Stimulus Bill Transparency
A juicy tidbit of info over at the Sunlight Blog and ABC News: Stimulus Bill to go Web 2.0?
They’re planning a Google-like search function to show every program funded by the stimulus package, whether it comes in under or over-budget, whether it is meeting its intended purpose, and how many jobs it is creating.Sounds interesting! Let's hope they follow through. Continue reading
Congressional Transparency, Past and Present
There are a few transparency bills that are up for debate in Congress today: The Presidential Records Act and The Presidential Library Donation Reform Act. The Sunlight Blog has a good write-up summarizing the importance of these two bills, as well as a post by Ellen Miller. I just checked GovTrack.org and here are the House votes results: On Motion to Suspend the Rules and Pass: H R 35 Presidential Records Act Amendments On Motion to Suspend the Rules and Pass: H R 36 Presidential Library Donation Reform Act If you are interested in learning more about the history of Congressional transparency reform, checkout Sunlight.org's project, The Transparency Timeline. Continue reading
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