The document discusses the benefits of open government data and provides examples of how governments can publish structured data feeds for third parties to analyze and create tools for oversight and transparency. When governments publish open data, it allows citizens to collaboratively monitor the government and detect issues that are then resolved.

1. VisibleGovernment.ca
Benefits of Open Government Data

2. [1]

3. Another Type of Social Media:
Publishing Structured Data
[2]

4. Graphic generated by Redkid.net

5. Web-oriented Architectures:
“have a much greater potential
effect on the ability to transform
government than anything else in
the Web 2.0 world.”
- Gartner, 2007
The E-Government Hype Cycle Meets Web 2.0

6. Publishing Structured Data Visualization
Feeds • Makes it easy to find new
• Ability to subscribe to patterns.
interesting data
• Data streams can be ‘mashed’
in new ways.
Collaborative Crowdsourcing
Organization • Combines skills and input of
• Tagging, Voting, Sharing large numbers of people

7. • Governments publish
Governments data streams
publish data
streams
• 3rd parties create tools for
analysis and oversight
3rd
Issues are
Party
Citizens
monitor data
• Citizens collaboratively
resolved
Tools streams monitor their
government
• Citizens detect issues,
Issues are
detected
give feedback
• Issues are resolved

8. Why?

9. Open Systems Allow
External Contribution.

10. Goldcorp
1999: Struggling
Vancouver company
Early test results showed
gold deposits
After years of searching:
no gold found
From Wikinomics,
by Dan Tapscott
[3]

12. Golden challenge unearths new ideas: Globe and Mail, April 2007.

13. “I

14. [The Goldcorps President] realized that the
uniquely qualified minds to make new discoveries
were probably outside the boundaries of his
organization, and by sharing some intellectual
property he could harness the power of collective
genius and capability
[4]

15. What if governments
took the same
approach?

16. structured govt. data
+ citizen expert groups
some examples...

19. 1st Year Results:
•2000 Citizen Reviewers
• Avg. Time / Reviewer / Patent: 6hrs

21. Easy to File a
Report

22. Rewarding
•25,000 Problems reported
• 8,000 Fixed

24. A recent US
Congress bill
Groups for Groups
bill against bill

25. Votes
Donations

26. Publishing Structured Data Visualization
Feeds • MAPLight makes relationship
• MAPLight is a mashup of between money and votes
data streams from different visible.
sources.
Collaborative Crowdsourcing
Organization • Thousands of journalists,
• Advocacy group tags advocates, and citizens can
donating companies as browse data and flag issues.
belonging to interest groups.

27. Open Systems Make
Failure Free.
* paraphrasing Clay Shirky.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cobalt/1308955915/

28. Where’s the best solution?

29. It’s hard for
governments to
experiment.

30. There’s lots of people watching.
[5]

31. There’s lots of rules.
[6]

32. “An online compliance checklist for
designers of government websites identifies
no fewer than 24 different regulatory
regimes with which all public government
web sites must comply.”
-David Robinson, Princeton Center for Information Policy.
“Government Data and the Invisible Hand”

33. Let others
experiment
for you.
* Save tax money.
[7]

34. Regulations.gov
• Launched • Re-designed
• Limited Search • Re-launched
• Hard to Use • Added RSS Feeds
2003 2008
(+few months)
• Pared down interface
OpenRegulations.org • Easy to navigate
*From: Government Data and the Invisible Hand, David Robinson,
Princeton Center for Information Technology Policy.

35. Open Systems Create
New Markets.
[8]

36. Cisco:
127 Acquisitions in 15 Years
[9]

37. New Opportunities:
Visualization
Analysis
Community Mgmt.
Combining Data Sets
Data Mining
Niche Markets
[10]

38. Be like Cisco.
Buy the best solutions.
Open source them.
Create an expanding base
of re-usable software.
[11]

39. An Architecture for Open.
[12]

40. OLD NEW
*From: Power of Information Task Force blog, June 2008.

41. OLD NEW
*From: Power of Information Task Force blog, June 2008.

42. Access
Treasury
Board
Reporting
Department
Reporting
Auditor
General
Access
*From: Government Data and the Invisible Hand, David Robinson,
Princeton Center for Information Technology Policy.

43. An Architecture for Open
Access
External Treasury
Groups
Board
Reporting
Department
Reporting Auditor
General*
External
Groups
Access
* Save tax dollars.

44. Open System
Roadblocks.
[13]

45. Civil servants often feel
they live in a fishbowl.

46. “No one was ever promoted
for disclosing information.”
-US Government Employee.
OMBWatch, Towards a 21st Century Right To Know Agenda

47. Open systems can
make heroes.
Not just scapegoats.
[14]

48. Estonia: Government document repository
entirely open to public.
- Stephen Clift, DemocracyOnline*
* http://rebooting.personaldemocracy.com/node/52 [18]

49. Cost of Software Defect: Time Introduced vs. Time Detected
Time Detected
Require- Architec- Construc- System Post-
ments ture tion Test Release
Require-
1× 3× 5–10× 10× 10–100×
ments
Time
Architec-
Introduced - 1× 10× 15× 25–100×
ture
Construc-
- - 1× 10× 10–25×
tion
McConnell, Steve (2004). Code Complete (2nd edition ed.)
Microsoft Press. pp. 960. ISBN 0-7356-1967-0.
Also here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_testing

50. Let the public see
your successes as
they’re happening.
• Goals achieved
• Innovative services
• Efficiency improvements

52. About
VisibleGovernment.ca

53.  Focus:
 US Congress
 California
Legislature
 Gives grants to
online
transparency
tools

54.  UK Non-Profit
 Simple,
Effective Tools
 High
Participation
Photo by memespring, Flickr.com, Creative Commons ASA2G

55.  Accelerate online transparency
Ideas  Raise Awareness
 With public
 With government
Skills  Raise Money
 Fund External Development:
Funds  Grants
 Contests

56. Prove
Concept
Get Publicity Direct Attention and
Money and to Online
Tools For Transparency
Raise
Awareness
Show What’s
Possible

57. [15]

58.  5 Transparency Pledges Transparency Reform
 Source Code: Measurable Campaign
 Change-Congress.org Promises
 (Lawrence Lessig and Joe
Trippi) Publish MP Schedules
 Candidate info scraped from Eliminate Data Access
party websites Fees
 10 days to implement Access to Information
Reform

60.  38 MPs elected
 2 agreed to publish their
calendar

61. [15]

62.  2003 Directive: Must
publish travel and
hospitality expenses
on the web
 No standards for
presentation defined

63. 124 Departments
- All different

68. Standardize Stream Visualize
• Scrape data into • Publish RSS • Provide basic
standard format feeds visualization app
• Hold contests

69. Records collected so far.
30,000
Volunteers.
4
Errors found.
155
Visualization company
1 engaged.
Lawyer making sure things
1 are on the up-and-up.

70. What you can do now.
[16]

72. “When you open up the data,
there’s no limit to what people can
do. It engages the imagination of
citizens in building the city.”
-David Miller, Mayor of Toronto.
Toronto 2.0: Data Sharing Source
The Globe and Mail, 09-01-31

73. [17]

74. Government of Canada
Treasury Board
ITERation Project
• Generalized system for publishing data
• Implements IMF Code of Conduct for
Fiscal Transparency

75. What am I
publishing?
How can I
structure it so it
can be re-used?
How can I be
more open?

76. Further Resources:
VisibleGovernment.ca Website: http://visiblegovernment.ca
Government Data and the Invisible Hand, David Robinson et. al.
Princeton Center for Information Technology Policy
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1138083
Hack, Mash and Peer: Crowdsourcing Government Transparency
Jerry Brito, George Mason University
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1023485
ChangeCamp: http://groups.google.com/group/changecamp
Sunlight Foundation: http://www.sunlightfoundation.com/
Government 2.0, David Eggers. (2005)
Here Comes Everybody, Clay Shirky. (2008)

77. http://www.slideshare.net/jenniferbell

78. Photo Credits:
[1] 234 social media marketing examples, beingpeterkim
http://www.flickr.com/photos/beingpeterkim/2909140600/
[2] Printing Press, Thomas Hawk
http://www.flickr.com/photos/thomashawk/172495285/
[3] Gold Bars, Curtis Perry http://www.flickr.com/photos/curtisperry/56998544
[4] Where’s Wally?, McGarry http://www.flickr.com/photos/mcgarry/111003432
[5] Eye see you!, dotbenjamin
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dotbenjamin/2636942186
[6] Auntie P.'s ruler, John Edgar Park
http://www.flickr.com/photos/edgar/355067220
[7] Chemical Reaction, Neys http://www.flickr.com/photos/neys/2386865187
[8] Landmark Supermarket Trinoma, bredgur
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bredgur/2655954991
[9] Cisco 2950, Marco Wessel http://www.flickr.com/photos/mhw/91952572/

79. [10] Hanging Boken Bulb II, bitzcelt
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bitzcelt/450640323/
[11] United Colors of Legotton, Guillermo
http://www.flickr.com/photos/grdloizaga/817425185
[12] Rotterdam: abstract architecture, docman
http://www.flickr.com/photos/docman/2216568210
[13] Roadblock, iboy daniel http://www.flickr.com/photos/iboy_daniel/83671284
[14] just take my hand let's fly away, funkyah
http://www.flickr.com/photos/funkyah/2400889778/
[15] Amelia Earheart, missrougue,
http://www.flickr.com/photos/missrogue/297606078/
[16] Dave Wants You, Chris Owens
http://www.flickr.com/photos/shutter/105497713
[17] Robots Attack, Andy Wilson
http://www.flickr.com/photos/by_andy/2646443630/
[18] Old Town, Tallinn, Estonia
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kaeru/1442362288/