This syllabus outlines a course on open government that will examine how governments make data and operations more transparent through open data websites and applications. Students will develop their own research project or application concept using public datasets. The course includes discussions of the history and impact of open government, case studies of open data initiatives, and guest speakers from government agencies and non-profits. Students will be graded based on participation, an individual project, a midterm exam, and a final exam.

1. PA 494 Special Topics in Public Administration: Open Government (syllabus revised 2/11/12)
University of Illinois at Chicago, College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs, Spring 2012
Instructor: Greg Wass (gregorywass@gmail.com, 312-919-2919)
Location: Lincoln Hall 312
Course Description: The open government movement promotes greater transparency of
government operations, data and decisionmaking via open data websites and competitions to
develop web and mobile applications using public data. The first wave of these data sites and
applications has focused on transportation and location-based data, but increasingly
governments are posting performance data, economic indicators, public health information, and
other data relevant to residents and businesses.
How do governments decide to go "open," and what impact will this have on service delivery,
public policy, and public trust in government? The course will include a brief history of open
government, case studies of open government in practice, and discussions with open
government advocates and practitioners. Using publicly-available datasets, each student will
develop a research project or a web or mobile application concept and produce a poster
describing the project and findings or the app concept.
Grading: 25% participation, 35% project, 20% midterm, 20% final.
Text: Lathrop & Ruma (eds.), Open Government (O'Reilly Media, 2010); additional readings.
1/9/12 What is open government?
Introductions: backgrounds, interests, specializations
Discussion of research areas, data-driven analysis, public datasets
View and discuss selected federal, state and local open data sites
Discuss remix culture, Creative Commons, Wikileaks, OWS, e-democracy
Review course assignments
1/16/12 No class - MLK Day
Impact of social media on government (online discussion)
Read Foreign Affairs, Atlantic articles (posted online)
Read Ch. 4: The Single Point of Failure (Noveck)
Read Ch. 27: Bringing the Web 2.0 Revolution to Government (Bass, Moulton)
1/23/12 Citizen engagement
Read Ch. 3: By the People (Malamud)
Read Ch. 5: Engineering Good Government (Dierking)
Read Ch. 6: Enabling Innovation for Civic Engagement (Robinson, Yu, Felten)
Define projects, contacts
1/30/12 Journalism
Read Ch. 30: Freedom of Information Acts: Promises and Realities
Read Ch. 31: Gov->Media->People (Gillmor)
Guest: Public information officer
2/6/12 Competitions
Read Ch. 1: A Peace Corps for Programmers (Burton)
See appsformetrochicago.org, data.cityofchicago.com, data.illinois.gov,

2. data.cookcountyil.gov, cmap.illinois.gov, codeforamerica.org
Guest: Code for America fellows
2/13/12 Visualizations
Read Ch. 23: Case Study: Many Eyes (Viegas, Wattenberg)
See lookatcook.com, hint.fm, pitchinteractive.com
UIC Urban Data Visualization Laboratory
Guest: Developers
2/20/12 Project progress reports
2/27/12 Midterm (online)
3/5/12 Campaign finance
Read Ch. 17: Disrupting Washington's Golden Rule (Miller)
Read Ch. 19: Case Study: FollowTheMoney.org (Bender)
Read Ch. 20: Case Study: MAPLight.org (Newman)
See chicagolobbyists.org
3/12/12 Privacy
Read Ch. 28: Toads on the Road to Open Government Data (Schrier)
Read Ch. 29: Open Government: The Privacy Imperative (Jonas, Harper)
health.gov, Health Insurance Exchange, Health Information Exchange
Guest: Privacy expert
3/19/12 No class - Spring Break
3/26/12 Project progress reports
4/2/12 Comparison of country approaches to open data
Read Ch. 11: Citizens' View of Open Government (Reich)
Read Ch. 12: After the Collapse: Open Government and the Future of Civil
Service (Eaves)
See data.vancouver.ca, data.london.gov.uk
4/9/12 Standards and Quality
Read Ch. 2: Government as a Platform (O'Reilly)
Read Ch. 24: My Data Can't Tell You That (Allison)
Read Ch. 33: Why Open Digital Standards Matter in Government (Fioretti)
4/16/12 Posters: UIC
4/23/12 Posters: Government center
4/30/12 Final (online)