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Transparency camp west
Just a quick note to let folks know that I'm currently at Transparency Camp this weekend. It's a great meeting of activists and technologists concerned with all kinds of transparency and government. To follow what's happening, you can track on the twitter hashtag #tcamp09. Since it's an unconference, talks can be proposed on the fly. I gave a talk on the FDLP which got a lot of interest. Contact me if you've got other ideas for presentations. There are still slots available for sunday. Continue reading
What features do you want for your catalog of govt data?
Data is definitely getting sexy. Jonathan Gray of the Open Knowledge Foundation asks "What features should be included in a catalogue of open government data?" and points to a few other data repositories being built on the state and country level (like my own city of SF's CivicDB!). He also mentions the Sunlight Foundation's plan to build on and expand data.gov with a national data catalog that I had meant to write about a couple of weeks ago (go Sunlight!). So I'm putting this question to you, FGI's faithful readers. I'm sure you'll have a thing or three to add to the list of requirements for open data catalogs.
Here are a few suggestions for those building catalogues for (open) government data based on our experience developing CKAN:[originally tweeted by @EllnMllr. Go ahead and follow her!] Continue reading
- Make the catalogue itself open!
- Let others download the catalogue data in bulk (not just via an API)
- Include information on how to get the data, and how it can be used
- Make it versioned!
ShowUsTheData.com
The Sunlight Foundation, Open The Government and the Center for Democracy and Technology have done it again. They've created yet another cool initiative called Show Us the Data for you to "identify the 10 Most Wanted Government Documents, Reports or Data Sets that should be available on the Web"!
Is the federal government putting the information you need online? Are there categories of unclassified documents or data that you know exist–on paper or in government computers and databases–that would be of value to the public if posted and regularly updated on an agency's Web site? If so, then help Open The Government and the Center for Democracy and Technology identify the 10 Most Wanted Government Documents, Reports or Data Sets that should be available on the Web. Use this site to tell us what data you want and who has it, (“Request a Document”) or add your vote (up to three times) to the suggestions others have made. The deadline to submit documents and vote is March 9, 2009Continue reading
Lunchtime listen: “Tech Agenda 2009: Open Government”
Thanks to Amy West's tweet for the heads-up about this video, "Tech Agenda 2009: Open Government." John Wonderlich turns a nice phrase (@ 3:10) in response to the question about defining what is open government. John says, "the Federal Depository Library Program is like the internet of the '40s and '50s." Check this one out while nibbling on your cheese (yes that's for you Rebecca :-) ).
This is the second in a series of town halls, "Tech Agenda 2009: Creating New Opportunities for Open & Participatory Government" focused on how technology can help government become more accountable, transparent and participatory. Panelists for Panel II, "Changing Policy to Promote Open Government," include Chris Barkley, Meredith Fuchs, Karina Newton, and John Wonderlich. The discussion was moderated by Andrew McLaughlin of Google. This event took place on December 12, 2008 at Google's offices in Washington, D.C.
Making Government Information Digestible
Greetings all, I'm honored to be guest blogging this month here at FGI. I'm a web developer at Sunlight Labs, which involves the development of sites and projects that aim to enable citizens and journalists to more easily access government data. Those of us that spend our days wrestling with government data often spend a lot of time talking about the data that should be available but isn't. An issue of equal if not greater importance is how to make the already available data useful to a general audience. Anyone that has dealt with raw data from any government agency knows that simply passing government data along is typically not sufficient. One example of a project done here at Sunlight that emphasizes making some of the complex outputs of the federal government meaningful to the average citizen is Capitol Words - a site that provides a daily and monthly view of what the most commonly used word in the Congressional Record was. The Congressional Record is the official journal of the daily proceedings of Congress. It is mandated by Article I, Section 5 of the Constitution, which emphasizes how essential it is for the people to know what their legislators are up to. It is even published today in a digital format. Unfortunately, today it is far too large to be of any real benefit to the general public. Capitol Words was born out of a suggestion that it would be interesting to see simply the "word of the day" as a way of getting a sense of what was on Congress' mind. By giving the average citizen a window into what Congress is doing, it is possible that they will become more engaged then they otherwise might have been. Some citizens may even be inspired to dig deeper and look at the Congressional Record. Simple presentations of government information such as the popular tag cloud, or even just a simple word, can provide access to data that may be freely available, but is still not accessible to the general public. As great as it is to see more and more government data being made available, hopefully people will also develop new and interesting ways to present government information in a manner useful to all citizens. Continue reading
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