Jason Hare's Data Management Blog

By Dennis D. McDonald, Ph.D., Balefire Global, dmcdonald@balefireglobal.com It makes sense that, if you devote time and energy to designing, ramping up, and managing an open data program, you're doing so for a reason. In What does the term “program alignment” mean when applied to open data programs? I made the assumption that you will want to align your open data program with the sponsoring organization’s goals and objectives and then measure the open data program’s performance by whether or not these goals and objectives are supported. I did mention a caveat: you can't always predict how the data provided through your open data program are used, what all the uses of your data and up being, who the users are, and what the benefits of these uses might be, given your lack of control over how your data might be re-used and re-shared. If this is so, how concerned should you be about the secondary and tertiary uses made of your program’s open data? Perhaps the data you’re distribu...

  Guest Blog By Dr. Dennis McDonald, BaleFire Global. “Program alignment” has long been a meat-and-potatoes term for consultants involved with strategic planning. The basic idea is that the initiatives you plan and carry out to support your organization's goals and objective need to be “aligned” (i.e., supportive of or in line with) your organization’s goals and objectives. What does "alignment" mean in practice? How do you measure whether or not your activities are aligned with your goals and objectives? And what does this mean when the concept is applied to open data programs? Here are some of the things to look for including a caveat about applying this term too loosely to open data programs. The basic conditions for determining whether any initiative (for example, a program, a project, a purchase, a reorganization, a new product, a new hiring initiative, etc.) is aligned with your organization’s goals and objectives are the following: 1. You know what your organizatio...

  ABRE LATAM CONDATOS | 2014 ConDatos is the most important regional event on open data in Latin America and the Caribbean. This year, Mexico City will be hosting academics, governments, business and civil society organizations so they can interact in discussions, roundtables and workshops to enrich the debate of open data on different topics. The Regional Conference for Open Data in Latin America and the Caribbean was held for the first time in 2013 in Montevideo, Uruguay bringing together the most relevant actors in the region to share experiences, knowledge and expose the issues and initiatives that exist in the open data world. We resume this conversation to further strengthen these efforts in an innovative and collaborative manner. ConDatos will be held in Mexico City the 2 and 3 of October in the Library of Mexico known as the Ciudadela, the City of Books and Images, a cultural center that promotes modernization, innovation and the use of new technologies. CALL FOR ASSISTANCE...

  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 ...