Speaking of critical data that should be available to the public, how many times have you been out and about and suddenly found yourself in need of a public restroom? To their citizens’ relief, in England, Australia, and several other countries around the world there’s an app to help you find one. From Australia’s DepartmentRead… Read more »
As of August 1, four cities — Chicago, Seattle, New York and San Francisco — became the first local governments to host their public data sets on the federal domain under the name cities.data.gov. Municipal Information Officers cite their decision to host the data on the federal portal as part of an overall message thatRead… Read more »
This morning I was reading a recent blog post by Laurenellen McCann, Open Data Policy Guidelines, from the Sunlight Foundation. I found the blog post fascinating, and believed this would be a great resource for the GovLoop community to check out, especially if you are involved in Gov 2.0 or open data initiatives within yourRead… Read more »
I don’t have kids yet (but one on the way). However, lots of my friends do and one of their biggest worries is schooling. What school should their kid go to? X or Y? Public, private, charter school? Which of the 10 options should they send their kid too? So I thought it was fascinatingRead… Read more »
In May, we kicked off something new: the CfA Salon Speaker Series. It’s not new – actually quite old – and we’re hoping you’ll help us dust off this tradition of discussion and lounging (in person for the Bay Area-based and here on the blog for the rest). At our first Salon in May weRead… Read more »
While the pressure to maintain transparent operations is an issue facing all levels of government, one challenge that is especially pressing for local governments is taking big data out of open data, making information more readily accessible to average citizens. Presenting data in a meaningful way is the goal of Open Tucson, an independent non-profitRead… Read more »
This post is, in some ways, an extension of another from last week called “The Three Dimensions of Open Government“. “Open government” is a term that’s getting a reasonable amount of use these past few years. It’s overtaken an earlier term “Gov 2.0”. That doesn’t surprise me. “Gov 2.0” seems a little dated (as, inRead… Read more »
Yesterday, Tom Slee wrote a blog post called “Why the ‘Open Data Movement’ is a Joke,” which – and I say this as a Canadian who understands the context in which Slee is writing – is filled with valid complaints about our government, but which I feel paints a flawed picture of the open dataRead… Read more »
A recent Twitter exchange that I saw got me thinking about the different things people mean by “open government”. John Moore retweeted: @canadiancynic: So, @TonyClementCPC, how’s that whole “#opengov” thing working out for you? Uh oh … www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/harper-conservatives-win-award-for-most-secretive-government/article2417147/ Tony Clement replied: @JohnFMoore 272,000 data sets now online; more usable formats; science research online, etc #opengovRead… Read more »
In response to my post yesterday one reader sent me a very thoughtful commentary that included this line at the end: “Rather than compare [Freedom of Information] FOI legislation and Open Gov Data as if it’s “one or the other”, do you think there’s a way of talking about how the two might converge?” OneRead… Read more »