Posts Tagged: OpenGov

The Importance for Government of Respecting Open Source and Open Data Copyrights

An interesting situation has arisen in Italy, with the country’s Agenzia delle Entrate, the Italian revenue service and taxation authority, accused of copying OpenStreetMap without respecting the site’s copyright license. As documented on the Open Street Maps discussion list, Italy’s OpenStreetMap community discovered a little over three months ago that the maps used by theRead… Read more »

Unlocking Budget Data in Australia: the BudgetAus Collaboration

Republished with permission from the International Budget Partnership blog This post was written by Rosie Williams of InfoAus. Unlocking Budget Data in Australia: the BudgetAus Collaboration Budget transparency in Australia has recently taken a big step forward with the first ever release of federal budget data in machine readable format. Prior to this year, budgetRead… Read more »

We, the People …. the Customer … the User?

Let’s put this as neutrally as possible. People interact with public services. Now, here’s a simple question: what should we call those people – and why? Perhaps it’s not such a simple question after all. They – we – are many things. We are patients, customers, passengers, swimmers, clients, taxpayers, claimants and more (as wellRead… Read more »

The Economic Value of Open Data to Australia

This morning I attended the breakfast launch of the Open for Business: How Open Data Can Help Achieve the G20 Growth Target report. The report was written by Nicholas Gruen (former chair of the Gov 2.0 Taskforce) and his team from Lateral Economics, with support from Victoria University and commissioned by the Omidyar Network (theRead… Read more »

Using DATA to Shine the Light on Federal Spending

Understanding how the federal government spends taxpayer dollars is a daunting task. In fiscal year 2013 alone, the federal government spent $3.5 trillion. In May, Congress unanimously passed and the President signed the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act (DATA), which increases accountability and transparency of federal spending. The act requires several changes that will shedRead… Read more »

It’s Nice to See Government Agencies Share With Each Other

One of the most frustrating and, I think, silliest things I found when working in Australian government agencies was how almost every department, agency and statutory body developed almost all of its own policies, procedures, software and tools. There was often ‘undercover’ sharing – where people in agencies would ask their colleagues in others forRead… Read more »

Google Glass: The Next Step in Citizen Engagement?

Below is an excerpt from our Citizen Engagement guide — it’s a great interview with David Fletcher, Utah’s CIO, about some of the state’s new initiatives. Want more on citizen engagement? Then make sure to sign up for Carahsoft’s Fourth Annual Citizen Engagement Seminar on June 19th! At the event, your government peers will shareRead… Read more »

Before We Turn to Big Data, Have We Made the Most of Small Data?

It seems like everywhere we look, we see big data calling our name. The profession of “data scientist” has been deemed the next hot job. Big data promises to solve all kinds of problems, from business logistics to tracking and treating diseases. These promises seem to have cropped up almost overnight. Think back to fiveRead… Read more »

7 Pieces of Citizen Engagement Advice from the Frontlines

Who better to dole out advice about how to truly engage in citizen engagement and its new trends than those who do it every day? Below are seven tips from our Citizen Engagement guide and GovLoop survey respondents about what’s really important when you create citizen engagement, based on their experiences. Want more of theRead… Read more »