government

We hope to serve in an advisory and informational capacity to help make government data publicly accessible and maximally useful to local government agencies, urban neighborhoods, socially concerned and community development organizations, social science researchers, the media, and the public by:

If you have a moment to read and respond to this blog post at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, I would appreciate it. Part of the difficulty in getting open gov data is raising it to awareness as a priority.

Milwaukee County mapping site using copyrighted data
By Ben Poston of the Journal Sentinel
May. 26, 2009
http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/news/45709292.html

A few hours ago, Vancouver's city government posted the agenda to a council meeting next week in which this motion will be read:

MOTION ON NOTICE
Open Data, Open Standards and Open Source...

http://eaves.ca/2009/05/14/vancouver-enters-the-age-of-the-open-city/

Hello all,

Nearly all Manitobans are familiar with the near yearly effects of flooding upon river based communities. Floods seem to affect us year after year with the only grassroots movement to rectify the situation being assistance in sandbagging friends houses and some related actions but all long term/large scale planning is left in the hands of the government. Perhaps there is something to be said for the abilities of a DIY attitude tackling this recurring problem that faces Winnipeg and the surrounding environs. It may be something beyond our abilities to take on nature but logistics and additional creativity may be capable of wondrous things.

What does everyone else think on the matter? This is, obviously, not very thought through on my end and simply a mental exercise at the moment.

I read today's Times-Picayune and was struck be David Marcello's column
Seeking real reform in city procurement:

Headlines scream about who's ahead in the mayor-council battle over awarding city contracts: "Council fails to override mayor's veto!" Lost in the shuffle is the important issue that underlies these conflicts: How can we reform the way City Hall selects architects, engineers, lawyers and other professional services contractors?

For the hundredth time I was frustrated and wanted to do something about our dysfunctional city government. A few minutes later, during my Saturday morning blog reading, I ran across a fellow soul, Timothy M. O'Brien writing for the O'Reilly blog on Government Transparency is Our Responsibility: Apps for America, who is frustrated on a grander scale:

Regardless of your political ideas, if you are watching the slow machinery of our Federal government switch gears and are wondering how to involve yourself, you don't need to send in a resume to some government official or even ask anyone's permission. Governance, and government generally, is not the protected domain of elected or appointed officials, it is the product of individual initiative transformed into collective desire.

O'Brien has some ideas about how to put this manifesto into action, and in particular calls our attention to Sunlight Labs Apps for America contest:

Sunlight Labs is one of several organizations dedicated to the idea of great transparency in government, and they are sponsoring a competition for people to use several open source APIs and tools to create novel applications and ways to slice and dice gov't data. You can enter today, you don't have to ask anyone's permission, and all you need to do is join a Google Group and register for an API key.

A few minutes later, I ran across a post about DIYcity, and it suddenly became clear that I could finally do something. The result is DIY New Orleans, and a new DIY city topical group on Government Transparency. Consider this a first step towards "Apps for NOLA".

-- Harry

I started a group here with a Milwaukee focus because that's where I am, and I have a few friends involved in improving the local government data infrastructure, which determines what can be done (by anyone) with that data.

But of course this is an international, universally relevant issue today, though it is motivated locally by the particularity of local issues. (See the Open Government Data group: http://groups.google.com/group/open-government )

Some ideas for posting here and starting a discussion:

*What is your interest in open government data, in general and for where you live?

*What are some of the technical and political issues you want to learn about?

*What do you already know that you can share with others?