Look to D.C.'s revolutionary CapStat reform for the origins of Data.gov. Vivek Kundra and other members of Mayor Fenty's staff who opened up the D.C. Data Catalog <http://data.octo.dc.gov/> have been advising the Obama administration (fyi, Kundra is now Obama's CIO).
In the interest of turning around New Orleans government with a NolaStat<http://nolastat.org>reform in 2010, I traveled to D.C. just a few weeks ago to learn more about CapStat and the D.C. Data Catalog. I discovered that beneath the hype, there have been some growing pains, and that the appearance of transparency is insufficient without accountability to citizens for the transparency process itself. Dan identified just one source of potential problems -- data credibility. Obtaining buy-in from agencies isn't always easy. I suspect that Kundra is adopting the same philosophy they had in D.C. If they can hook up the data to a Web service, they're going to let the chips fall where they will, and force department heads to answer to the public, not just the administration, for their failure to improve. That might be oversimplifying, but Obama deserves enormous praise for so swiftly opening up Data.gov. By the way, this is going to have enormous implications for local governments. The precedent is now established for open data policies everywhere. Whether those policies offer truly meaningful tranparency, or just a veneer, will be up to us to discern. It seems the best forum for comments to be heard by the Obama administration is the Sunlight Foundation: http://sunlightfoundation.com/opengovdialog/ The deadline to comment is May 28th (next Thursday). Brian Denzer http://NolaStat.org On Fri, May 22, 2009 at 2:48 PM, Dan Lyke <[email protected]> wrote: > On Fri, 22 May 2009 14:53:59 -0400 > Josh Knauer <[email protected]> wrote: > > I'm glad that they did launch it with whatever they had, rather than > > waiting for all of the federal agencies to stop dragging their feet > > and post their data. > > This seems to be headed off-topic, but I'll see if I can keep it > pertinent... I'm currently working with some folks from my city's IT > department to try to open up data and publish more interesting stuff. > One of the struggles they find is that although they have the > mechanisms in place to coalesce and publish data, the various > departments don't use those systems because the paper pushing they have > works fine, and there's no motivating reason. > > So part of my challenge in working with them is identifying places > where we can find whatever data is currently available, publish it, and > perhaps get some public feedback where the data is missing in order to > create that motivation: If there's enough of a road closures database > that people use it to tell when the street in front of their house is > going to be torn up, and the sewer department tears up the street > without using the database and therefore without notifying people, then > maybe we can get those complaints directed to the right people. > > So, yes, this is probably a fingers-crossed "I hope *someone* uses > this!" attempt to ship early, in the hopes that the demand will pull > people along to ship often. > > (And, see, that kinda went back towards topic: Roads are geographical > features...) > > Dan > > > > > > -josh > > > > Josh Knauer, CEO of Rhiza Labs > > [email protected] | office: 412-488-0600 | cell: 412-551-2163 | > > twitter: jknauer > > > > On May 22, 2009, at 2:30 PM, Ian White wrote: > > > > > Yeah, I don't think it's anything show-stopping. Can anybody speak > > > to how it's different from, say, geodata.gov (the rebranded > > > geospatial one > > > stop)? > > > > > > Obviously, data.gov is more than geo, but looking for specifics... > > > > > > > > > > > > Ian White :: Urban Mapping Inc. > > > 690 Fifth Street Suite 200 :: San Francisco CA :: 94107 > > > T.415.946.8170 x800 :: F.866.385.8266 :: urbanmapping.com/blog > > > > > > > > > -----Original Message----- > > > From: [email protected] > > > [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Kevin > > > Elliott Sent: Friday, May 22, 2009 11:23 AM > > > To: [email protected] > > > Cc: [email protected] > > > Subject: Re: [Geowanking] Data dot gov now open > > > > > > I was just looking at this late last night. Unfortunately, there > > > still aren't a lot of data sets. > > > > > > -Kevin > > > > > > On May 22, 2009, at 11:04 AM, P Kishor wrote: > > > > > >> via OKFN blog > > >> > > >> http://www.data.gov/ is now live. > > >> > > >> > > >> > > >> -- > > >> Puneet Kishor http://www.punkish.org/ > > >> Carbon Model http://carbonmodel.org/ > > >> Charter Member, Open Source Geospatial Foundation http:// > > >> www.osgeo.org/ > > >> Science Commons Fellow, Geospatial Data http://sciencecommons.org > > >> Nelson Institute, UW-Madison http://www.nelson.wisc.edu/ > > >> > > > ----------------------------------------------------------------------- > > >> collaborate, communicate, compete > > >> = > > >> = > > >> ===================================================================== > > >> > > >> _______________________________________________ > > >> Geowanking mailing list > > >> [email protected] > > >> http://geowanking.org/mailman/listinfo/geowanking_geowanking.org > > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > > Geowanking mailing list > > > [email protected] > > > http://geowanking.org/mailman/listinfo/geowanking_geowanking.org > > > > > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > > Geowanking mailing list > > > [email protected] > > > http://geowanking.org/mailman/listinfo/geowanking_geowanking.org > > > > _______________________________________________ > Geowanking mailing list > [email protected] > http://geowanking.org/mailman/listinfo/geowanking_geowanking.org >
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