Jason Hare's Data Management Blog

From the Cincinnati Enquirer @2008 The Yu and Robinson article "The New Ambiguity of 'Open Government'" was something I read a few years ago. I disagree that the edge of open government is going away. Yes there are data sets being published that have nothing to do with accountability. Yes there are open data initiatives that stand up a few data sets and call it "open". This does not mean that all or most open data professionals do this. This whole line of "government versus the people" is one of the reasons Public Sector Agencies (PSA's) have trouble getting open data initiatives launched in the first place. The main issue is the disconnect between PSAs and the private sector. There is little, if any, discussion on the value-add of releasing these data. This is not purely a government issue. Private sector, with a few shining exceptions (BuildingEye for example) have shied away from using or even trying to use these data. PSAs see this lack of ...

The City of Durham and Durham County governments in North Carolina have chosen OpenDataSoft, an award-winning Paris-based internet platform, to power their growing Open Data initiative. THE DEAL MARKS OPENDATASOFT’S FIRST CUSTOMER IN THE UNITED STATES. “We chose OpenDataSoft because it was best suited to help us achieve specific distinctive project objectives,” said Greg Marrow, CIO of Durham County. “Our vision is to build a highly sustainable opendata program that empowers our citizens, employees, private industry while being open to other local,state and federal governments.”After sifting through dozens of open data platforms and API architectures available the team, led by recently retained open data consultant, Jason Hare, chose ODS based upon the criteria established by the joint City and the County team. Kerry Goode, CIO for the City of Durham, said, “We specified a platform that was easy to use, worked with almost any device, and integra...

 

  By Dennis D. McDonald, Ph.D Hearing about an open data program like the EPA's makes you realize how the many interrelated program components can impact open data program planning in a complex organization. Inventorying the assets of such an organization makes you aware of this very quickly, especially when you step back and evaluate where each data element in the inventory came from, where each data element is going, and how it's going to get there. Each data element in a data asset inventory has its own "lifecycle" that when properly managed provides a framework for tracking and optimizing how data are used from creation through obsolescence. In most cases data are managed in groups. Data groupings can be defined in a myriad of ways. Some approaches reflect how data are physically organized. Other groupings involve development different categories of metadata that have been standardized for use across different data sets. An example of the latter is shown in India’...

                    Engage with your citizens and choose the right open data platform by using BaleFire Global CityNet Services OPEN DATA IS CHANGING HOW CITYNEXT CITIES OPERATE For the first time in history, more than 50 percent of the world’s population lives in urban areas, and by 2050 nearly 70 percent of the global population will live in cities. That is an additional 2.7 billion people. Cities are gathering places for higher education, they drive advances in public safety, healthcare, and the modernization of public services – they are the engines of new ideas and businesses that will drive technology adoption and breakthroughs in the future. FIND OUT MORE ABOUT BALEFIRE GLOBAL AND MICROSOFT CITYNEXT  Microsoft CityNext is a global people-first initiative to position Microsoft as a trusted advisor and vendor of choice for regions, cities and municipalities. It is an umbrella campaign that brings together the breadth of Microso...

  PI First Manifesto This is a well written manifesto from David Thoumas at OpenDataSoft proclaiming that the ODS strategy will always be API [First]. Below I have slightly edited the content written by David. I want to bring attention to the fine work this company does and why I and my company, BaleFire Global have such high regard for what they do: At  OpenDataSoft , David and team are building and operating a cloud based data management platform. This platform is built 'API first'. This means that any feature that can be accessed from the portal is also available as an API call. The portal is itself the first consumer of the API. Available APIs ( source ) include: Dataset catalog APIs (keyword and faceted search of datasets within the catalog). Dataset APIs (search within dataset records, geo clustering of geo dataset records, numerical aggregations of dataset records).        David Thoumas from OpenDataSoft So, not only can one fetch raw data from ...

This article is a reprint of a Durham Press Release. A wealth of public data exists, but accessing it can sometimes be time consuming. Now, thanks to a new local government partnership, “open data” in Durham is just months away from becoming a reality. The City of Durham and Durham County Government are embarking on an open data partnership that will lay the groundwork for businesses, non-profits, journalists, universities, and residents to access and use the wealth of public data available between the two government organizations, while becoming even more transparent to the residents of Durham. A relatively new concept according to technology industry analyst Gartner, Inc., “open data” refers to the idea that certain data should be freely available to everyone to use and republish as they wish, without restrictions from copyright, patents or other forms of control. “This is a unique collaborative effort that demonstrates a regional commitment,”...