With the birth of the FoI request (and equivalents across the globe), we can now peer into the inner workings of local and national government. However, the process is costly and cumbersome. How can we free the data we (often) provide, and (certainly) pay for?
Update, 27th July 2008: Some progress has been made in the UK
Update: There is now an experimental Skype public chat for this session — click the link to join in the conversation.
There are a vast number of instances of government-gathered and publicly-provided data, but inevitably this data is only re-extractable from the grasp of government by the use of ‘freedom of information’ processes.
This is inefficient — understandably, civil servants wish to recoup some of the cost of searching out the data and presenting it back to the requesting citizen — but wouldn’t it be better if the data was stored in an easily accessible form to begin with?
This isn’t meant to become a discussion of the details of any particular data realm (maps, postal codes, census data, etc.) nor is it meant to investigate the logistics of providing open access to data — I hope that both of these areas might be covered in other sessions.
Instead, let’s discuss the broader questions around the principles of open access to government data, and the mechanisms by which citizens can (and might) gain access to this data both quickly and simply.
Resources:
by timtom.ch
5 comments
A great start
— I think it’s important to think about both platforms and services; the products built on top of this access layer are how the public will come to judge the success or failure of a ‘free government data’ project.
Standardised data formats *and* clever implementation at the user end are equally essential, in my view.
Playing with data
I'd be interested in talking about how this data can be made accessible and understandable using data visualizations that slice and dice it in different ways and allow people to 'play' with it.
The second part...
You're actually calling for a conversation about both broader issues and very practicals implication -- so I though I'd set up a proposal for the second part at www.reboot.dk/artefact-4803-en.html. It'd make a nice supplement since reboot is all about those practical visionaries... (or is that *so* last year?)
Folkets Ting
Folkets Ting is about freeing one particular kind of government data (Parliament speaches, laws and voting records) and might be relevant in this discussion. I've put up a separate proposal: www.reboot.dk/page/22791/en
Danish OIOREST initiative
I'd like to draw your attention the the Danish OIOREST initiative: oiorest.dk/ an experiment in de-facto web-standards based services from the Danish Administration of IT and Telecommunications (IT- & Telestyrelsen)