Jason Hare's Data Management Blog

  The Open Government Partnership Summit Banner In May of this year, Asian and European countries met for the regional Open Government Partnership summits to once again discuss transparency and open government. In light of the session tracks that were presented I am evaluating some of the technologies of the past and how there has been a welcome and fundamental shift from Open Government and Open Data being ambiguously linked toward the separation of the two in more current thinking and in technology approaches. Most notably, the deprecation of Microsoft's Open Government Data Initiative platform is a positive sign of the times that the government community is becoming aware of the danger of open government and open data linking. Harlan Yu and David G. Robinson discussed the OGP in "The New Ambiguity of Open Government" (Princeton CITP/Yale ISP Working Paper). "The Open Government Declaration is broad approach toward 'openness,' as signatories commit to '...

The City of Raleigh’s Open Data Program is working with other municipalities on a pilot to make a sustainable marketplace for applications using open government data. The sustainable marketplace is based on the concept of a two-sided marketplace. Benefits The two-sided markets, also called two-sided networks, are economic platforms having two distinct user groups that provide each other with network benefits. The organization that creates value primarily by enabling direct interactions between two (or more) distinct types of affiliated consumers. In this case governments will benefit by being able to join a network of other governments in releasing data sets to the public. Developers will benefit by having a homogenous market space and a larger consumer base in which to create applications. Citizens benefit from being able to easily consume data. The overall goal of this proposed project is to create a smart Platform for Open Innovation and Sustainable Entrepreneurship (POISE) tha...

The Open Data Innovation Summit will unite thought leaders and open data activists that are utilizing freely available data. The summit is taking place at the Sheraton Hotel in Boston on June 11 & 12 and will combine keynote presentations with interactive workshops and countless networking opportunities.Last week, President Barack Obama enacted the nation's first Open Data law that will require federal agencies to publish their spending data in an accessible format. The Open Data movement truly begins now. The Open Data Innovation Summit arrives in Boston on June 11 & 12 and will explore new opportunities resulting from the large amounts of open data available now and also data that has the potential to become freely available. Combining three general themes, the summit will see keynote presentations with interactive sessions to maximize participation between attendees. The summit will explore ‘Open Data Innovation,’ from projects, implementations and use cases, to challen...

The Open Data Innovation Summit will unite thought leaders and open data activists that are utilizing freely available data. The summit is taking place at the Sheraton Hotel in Boston on June 11 & 12 and will combine keynote presentations with interactive workshops and countless networking opportunities. Last week, President Barack Obama enacted the nation's first Open Data law that will require federal agencies to publish their spending data in an accessible format. The Open Data movement truly begins now. The Open Data Innovation Summit arrives in Boston on June 11 & 12 and will explore new opportunities resulting from the large amounts of open data available now and also data that has the potential to become freely available. Combining three general themes, the summit will see keynote presentations with interactive sessions to maximize participation between attendees. The ...

Located in the world-renowned Research Triangle Park, Raleigh, North Carolina enjoys proximity to some of the world’s best technology resources, including leading research institutions, innovative companies, and a tech-savvy populus.  It is these citizens that the city leaders look to for collaboration and that inspire them to make Raleigh’s open data initiative one of the most innovative in the world. Citizens and City Collaborate Throughout Raleigh’s history, locals with a passion for technology have reached out to the City with ideas on how to improve the quality of life in the town. By 2011, a particular group of activists was especially interested in getting the city to embrace an open government strategy. In fact, many of them joined together to form a local Code for America (CfA) brigade, called Code for Raleigh, promoting the use of public data to address local issues. City Council member Bo...

Open Source Way  is celebrating Open Government Week with a  series of articles including this one. Open Government Week is always a time for reflection on what has changed in the previous 12 months, and this year is no exception. Open Raleigh is nearing it’s second year as a program. Open Raleigh  shares this milestone with the  Open Data Institute (ODI)  which is also nearing a second birthday. The Open Data Institute has had significant influence over the development of the Open Raleigh program and over open data as a movement. The ODI was one of the first institutions to suggest an open data strategy and philosophy that stresses inclusiveness and collaboration. This collaborative, regional approach has since become a hallmark of Open Raleigh and more and more what has become the norm for open data movements across the United States. Open Raleigh has made its project management, white papers, policies, and source code o...

  We Need a New Data License I am in Ireland for the Open Government Partnership (OGP) European Summit . Today as I was attending the Civil Society Day that precedes the summit and was listening to people talking about privacy issues, something crystallized in my mind that had been percolating for a while – we need a new data license. As the CEO for the Open Data Institute node in North Carolina , our mission is to evangelize open and unfettered access to data, more specifically Open Data. Open Data is defined as data that is machine readable in a non-proprietary format, is easy to access, use and reuse without license at no cost to the user. Open Data does not contain any personally identifiable information (PII), confidential information or information of a security nature. Personal Data and Privacy Concerns But what about all this government data (and other data) that is available when requested as a public record via something like a FOIA request? This data can and does cont...