"Open" is a Dialog, Not a Competition

-

 

Venn Diagram for Open Government / Open Data / Open Gov Data
from Nik Garkusha Via Creative Commons
Tomorrow is Cary Open Data Day and I will be speaking about open data, policy and open government at this event. The word "open" and the word "transparency" has been used frequently in writing about open data initiatives.


So I am thinking what my remarks will be. I am thinking I would like to talk about how open data and anything "open" is really a dialog or a collaboration. How can a single PSA (Public Sector Agency) be open without collaboration with other PSAs? How can citizens drive "open" without government to provide the data? How can the government alone provide "open" and transparency without knowing what citizens want?

Most of what I read about in regards to open data is rarely written by people that actually work in government. I think that is significant and it speaks to my comments in the rest of this posting.


I have written quite a bit about the "culture of government". To be clear I am speaking about US models of governance. I have been in municipal government for some time and have worked as a consultant on county, state and federal levels.

Our government as a monolithic entity has never existed. The US "government" in particular is a collection of agencies and this model is copied down to the municipal level. Transformation and innovation is always balanced with accountability. Government serves the lowest common denominator. Everything from procurement to revenue collection to law enforcement and legislation has a process based on accountability to the citizens.

What I see locally is a government that is moving toward a service based model. This is something that is often referred to as "Government as a Platform". Getting there requires citizen collaboration with elected officials who then create resolutions and executive orders. Code for America is an excellent example of a civic group that works with government. These executive directives whether they be from a City Council or the President of the United States are interpreted by the workers within a given agency and carried out with accountability to the official(s).

Getting innovative means a dialog between government and citizens. Open Source, Open Data and Open Government are all examples of ways for government to innovate even though they are all separate types of innovation.

In regards to open data, how do we balance economic impact, being informative about government activities and till respect a citizen's privacy? These are questions I am working on by talking with citizens and members of the larger open data community.

"Open" does not happen with just civic activism alone. Public private partnerships involving citizen groups, innovative government leadership and innovative companies providing quality services and products are all needed.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Podcast: Open Data Discussions with Anthony Fung

-
Image
A look back at Virginia’s 4 years of data innovation with Anthony Fung, Deputy Secretary of Technology for the Commonwealth of Virginia  Welcome to the OpenDataSoft Leadership Podcast Series, “Open Data Discussions”. Each month, Jason Hare, our Open Data Evangelist, features a different open data program around the country to discuss what has made it successful. These examples will provide insights and strategies that you can implement in your own city. We had the pleasure of welcoming Anthony Fung, Deputy Secretary of Technology for the Commonwealth of Virginia for the fifth podcast in our series. Anthony discussed various subjects, including: What role does open data play in policymaking at the state level in Virginia? Does his department work on ensuring open data quality? What are some of the steps he makes in ensuring sound data governance? How did Virginia come up with this technology and engagement solutions?  How, for example, did yo
Read more

Open Data Licensing

-
Image
Everything you wanted to know but you were afraid to ask. Making data open and available is not just about choosing a format or having an API. A poor choice in your license can prevent people from using them. A traditional open license reassures potential users that their work on the data will be useful in the long run. So, what license should you pick for your data to be broadly used? There are a few things to consider. Choosing a license for your open data can usually be one of the biggest challenges for an open data project. There are plenty of licenses available for your data. Choosing one mostly depends on the usage and reach you want to give to your project. CHOOSE A LICENSE: BASED ON NATIONAL, INTERNATIONAL AND LOCAL STATUTES IN ADDITION TO REUSE It should be noted that different parts of the world use data licensing terms differently. In the US, works in the “public domain” are works are not covered by intellectual property rights, such as copyright. The copyright mig
Read more

AN OPEN DATA POLICY FOR NORTH CAROLINA: COMING SOON?

-
Image
All parts of North Carolina will benefit from open data legislation. FOR THE BETTER PART OF TWO DECADES, I’VE WORKED TO OPEN UP NORTH CAROLINA’S DATA. I’ve been a public servant at Durham Public Schools and the Department of Energy. I have been an onsite consultant for the Cities of Raleigh, Durham as well as the Towns of Cary and Chapel Hill. I’ve been on teams serving state agencies and local governments. I’ve witnessed dozens of open data projects both locally and abroad. All of these projects share crucial steps and goals in common. First, by transforming public documents from disconnected PDFs into machine-readable data, by applying the right open formats, we can liberate public information from the repositories where it used to require manual review. Insights become instant. Second, by publishing machine-readable data compilations online, for everyone to use, we can crowdsource those insights. Citizens and companies and the media can scrutinize. Even better, when a government age
Read more