Science Library Pad

Ottawa Transit Data Day - June 2, 2012

Having liberated Ottawa's real-time bus location data, the city is now moving to the next step of bringing developers and OC Transpo together to make (even more) amazing things.

Ottawa Transit Data Day is June 2, 2012 at Ottawa City Hall

Register at http://transit-data-yow.eventbrite.com/

Find more information about the available data in the Open Data Ottawa blog

Follow @opendataottawa

Suggest datasets at DataOtt

Ask questions in the GPS API mailing list

Provide feedback directly about OC Transpo open data: OCOpenData@ottawa.ca

Event hashtag will probably be #yowdata

So many communications channels.  Whew.

US Digital Government Strategy - launched with energetic video

US CIO Steven VanRoekel and US CTO Todd Park launched the US Digital Government Strategy at TechCrunch Disrupt NY on May 23, 2012.  They both stood in the centre of the stage and presented without notes, using only a few slides (a style many government presenters should learn).  Todd Park in particular is full of energy and uses enthusiastic, informal language - a good match for the TechCrunch audience.

Note this is much more a technology innovation strategy than an open government or transparency strategy.

There was also a "backstage" interview with Todd Park after the main presentation.
(Thanks to David Yun of SnappyTV for tweeting the direct links to these videos.)

VanRoekel and Park announced two major initiatives: a Digital Government Strategy and White House Innovation Fellows.

Addressing the latter first: Innovation Fellows is an initiative to partner entrepreneurs and experts directly with the government.  The language the site uses is "pair top innovators from the private sector, non-profits, or academia with federal government employees to collaborate on game-changing solutions".  At wh.gov/innovationfellows the five projects are listed

1. MyGov - radically simplify and reorganise the government web presence to serve the needs of citizens, not simply reflect bureaucratic structures - "a streamlined and intuitive system for presenting information and accepting feedback".  On Twitter: @ProjectMyGov
2. Open Data Initiatives - "scale the Health Data Initiative and roll out new open data initiatives in the energy, education, public safety, and nonprofit sectors" (see verticals: health.data.gov , energy.data.gov , education.data.gov , safety.data.gov ).  On Twitter: @ProjectOpenData
3. Blue Button for America - enable all citizens to download their own health records
4. RFP-EZ - make it easier for small businesses to submit to government RFPs
5. The 20% Campaign - for a second I thought this would be "Google Time" for the government, but it's about moving from cash to electronic payments particularly for things like foreign assistance payments

The second piece is the strategy - Digital Government: Building a 21st Century Platform to Better Serve the American People.  The document is available in PDF but they are also "walking the walk" and providing it in HTML5 (using the Bootstrap framework).  The strategy was accompanied by a Presidential Memorandum - Building a 21st Century Digital Government.

There's a lot in the digital government strategy, but a few key elements are:

• Make Open Data, Content, and Web APIs the New Default
• Make Existing High-Value Data and Content Available through Web APIs
  - agencies will be required to: Identify at least two major customer-facing systems that contain high-value data and content; Expose this information through web APIs to the appropriate audiences; Apply metadata tags in compliance with the new federal guidelines; and Publish a plan to transition additional systems as practical.
• Establish a Digital Services Innovation Center and Advisory Group
  - develop government-wide BYOD [Bring Your Own Device] guidance leveraging their findings
• Deliver Better Digital Services Using Modern Tools and Technologies
  - Best practices for standards-compliant, next-generation web development, including use of content delivery networks; content management systems; common code libraries, frameworks, and tools; and responsive web design (e.g. using HTML5 and CSS3 to provide a mobile-tailored experience);
  - Standards for structuring and tagging content and data to be machine-readable;

On May 24, 2012 VanRoekel & Park spoke at an ACT-IAC event.  The stream was at http://onlinevideoservice.com/clients/ACT-IAC/ ; I don't know if will be available afterwards.

These are clear directions for an agile, intelligent government.  It is also interesting to hear CTO Todd Park say clearly that he finds the innovation within the government - there are lots of people who have great ideas.  The Innovation Fellows project is just to give them some outside support to help things happen even faster.  Both the CIO & CTO describe their initiative as giving people permission to act, to take risks, to collaborate and be innovative.

Related to data specifically Todd Park talked about mechanisms like hackathons, meetups and "datapaloozas".  The next datapalooza will be about health information: Health Data Initiative Forum III - Health Datapalooza, June 5-6, 2012.

Twitter:

• US CIO @StevevDC
• US CTO @Todd_Park
• Hashtags: #digitalgov and #tcdisrupt (the TechCrunch Disrupt conference)

Here's a Storify of some of my notes from these presentations

Government of Quebec open data and open government - the Gautrin Report

The government of the province of Quebec today released the Gautrin Report, which covers Web 2.0 and government transformation related to technology.  It includes ideas such as a provincial open data site and improved internal collaboration for government employees.  In the press conference I also heard mention of a dashboard for government IT projects (with reference to the dashboard created by the US CIO).

The report (in French) is available: Gouverner ensemble : Comment le Web 2.0 améliorera-t-il les services aux citoyens? (PDF, 207 pages, 3,55 Mo)

You can also find two appendices and the complete text of responses to the government's online consultation about the topic at http://www.mce.gouv.qc.ca/publications/publications.htm

There was a brief press conference introducing the major elements of the report.

Also launched was a new Twitter account @GouvOuvertQc ("Open Government Quebec") and the open data site is live, albeit as a placeholder (I gather the real site will go live next month, June 2012): http://donnees.gouv.qc.ca/

There is a website for the entire initiative (also a placeholder at the moment): http://ouvert.gouv.qc.ca/

And a short press release: M. Henri-François Gautrin dévoile les principales recommandations de son rapport : Gouverner ensemble.

UPDATE 2012-05-03: The placeholder sites have been updated with more information, including a longer press release - Le gouvernement du Québec s'engage sur la voie du gouvernement ouvert.  It lists two actions for June: the open data portal and the IT projects dashboard

Le portail www.données.gouv.qc.ca sera mis en place dès juin et les données y seront publiées progressivement.

En juin, un tableau de bord sur l'état de santé des projets informatiques sera diffusé dans le portail des données ouvertes.

A mockup of what the IT projects dashbard will look like is available (PDF).  (And yes, both the accented and unaccented version of the open data portal URL will work.)

It also lists 14 actions that will be completed by December 2012.  (I am not going to translate them all.)  They include planning, governance, and website launches.

There will be a website specifically for public feedback.

La mise en ligne d'un site Web www.défis.gouv.qc.ca qui permettra de solliciter les réactions du public et de renforcer sa participation à l'élaboration, au suivi et à l'évaluation des services publics;

For the moment, you can provide your feedback to the report on the consultation site.

ENDUPDATE

The report's recommendations are (my translations):

1. Essentially this recommendation is a call for an open data site, with machine-readable datasets.
2. Encourage citizen participation in the evaluation of the government's actions and policies.
3. This is an interesting, internal and external facing recommendation
   "Que le gouvernement s’engage à utiliser le potentiel du Web 2.0 pour stimuler et faciliter la collaboration des employés au sein et entre les différents ministères et organismes gouvernementaux."
   The government should take advantage of the potential of Web 2.0 to enable employee collaboration within departments and between different departments and government organisations.
4. The Premier of Quebec should declare he will follow the path of Web 2.0 and have an open government.
5. Basically says the Government 2.0 project should put in place step-by-step and be well managed.
6. Basically just restates the need for an open data portal and says it should start with data that is already covered for release under existing laws.
7. Says that the l’Institut de la statistique du Québec (ISQ) should be the depository for all government statistical data.
8. That all non-statistical data should be held by the National Library & Archives of Quebec (Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec) and that the library should be responsible for verifying the quality of the data.
9. Basically says the data should be machine-readable and discoverable by search engines, and that a specific data search engine should be developed.
10. Says data put on the open data portal should be under an open license (specifically one like the Open Government License).
11. Along with the open data site there should be a site where citizens and companies can provide feedback.
12. Says that the use of the open data should be encouraged (there should be incentives to encourage its use).  "Que soient développés des incitatifs pour encourager une utilisation innovatrice et créatrice des données gouvernementales."
13. In all communication plans, social media should be included as a means to gather citizen feedback and stimulate dialogue.
14. The government should do social media monitoring in order to respond to feedback provided in those channels.
15. Departments should use social media to create discussion spaces for citizens to provide feedback about big projects.
16. Have a way to measure citizen feedback and demonstrate that it is being used.
17. Have a citizen forum (online) for discussions.
18. LA COLLABORATION
    Un réseau social interne
    "Que soit amélioré l’intranet gouvernemental pour y inclure un outil de collaboration du type réseau social, qui permet des fonctionnalités comme le partage de documents, la stimulation du brassage d’idées, la bonification de l’information et les interactions entre les employés de la fonction publique."
    The government intranet should be improved to include a social network for collaboration and document sharing.
19. Develop a vision of how to use Web 2.0 for improving service quality.
20. Change the government's organisational culture to encourage the sharing of information, co-creation of new knowledge, and greater responsibilities for employees.
21. The government should provide the support necessary to help its employees maximise their use of Web 2.0, while respecting their ethical responsibilities.
22. Trust government employees, give them the ability to be innovative in using Web 2.0.
23. The governance of this open government project should be under the direct authority of the Premier.
24. There should be a governance committee (with various specific members listed).
25. Basically the purpose of the governance committee is to monitor and guide the various phases of the project.
26. More details about the governance committee.
27. Take security measures, try to ensure only correct information is sent over social media.
28. Take particular care with the security around private information.
29. Broadband Internet for all Quebec.
30. Accessible websites.
31. Keep the cost of Internet access and technology tools reasonable.
32. Provide training to citizens to help them use new technologies.

NOTE: I am not a professional translator.  This is just my best quick effort at translating these.  Feel free to correct my interpretations.  Apologies for anything that's incorrect.

Twitter:

• The account for the consultation (which presumably will now go silent) is @GautrinWeb2 and the accompanying hashtag is #GautrinWeb2
• The @GouvOuvertQc account has been using the hashtag #gouvouvert as opposed to the Government of Canada consultation which used #gouvert (well more specifically #parlonsgouvert)

Previously

August 5, 2011  Québec - Consultation publique Web 2.0

what open data services should a public library provide?

Rob Giggey, the lead on Open Data for the City of Ottawa, asks about open data for libraries

quick... if you know good examples of libraries utilizing #opendata (including APIs) please send them my way..c/ @opendataottawa @scilib

— Robert Giggey (@rob_giggey) April 27, 2012

I said I thought there were three main things that a public library can do, plus one done mostly by academic libraries

1. Libraries providing APIs, usually to their catalogue (central book index) – this has been going on for years
2. Libraries providing open data, typically of their catalogue holdings (the database that underlies their catalogue).  Catalogue holdings info is basically what used to show up on the old card catalogue – it’s metadata about the books, authors, but NOT the full text of the book itself.
3. Libraries providing linked data (semantic web), again of their catalogue holdings
4. Libraries providing repositories of full text (typically academic libraries providing open access institutional repositories) with associated APIs

In the context of the Ottawa Public Library (OPL) this would suggest

* Opening of their catalogue layer API to developers (OPL uses BiblioCommons, which has a good API and developer site)

* Their catalogue metadata available through the City of Ottawa Open Data site (as the Brooklyn Public Library's is available through NYC Open Data)

While Linked Data is now widely being shared by national libraries (e.g. US Library of Congress, British Library, French National Library, German National Library, German National Science Library, Spanish National Library) I don't have a good sense of how many public libraries are doing this or to what extent LOD would be used by the public library developer community.

I think there are probably APIs and data for services and content beyond just the catalogue that might be useful to open up.  Beyond that I'm not sure that there are many public libraries using institutional repositories or similar technologies (e.g. OAI-PMH for metadata harvesting).

The Ottawa Public Library has a good handle on consumer-facing technology and interaction including a Library Apps page and an active Twitter feed @opl_bpo

What open data approaches would you recommend for a public library?

UK national real-time train and bus open data

The good news is that it is coming.

However I can't actually find the real-time open data or API for trains.  I am more than happy to be pointed in the right direction.

What I could find:

UK Cabinet Office - Further Detail on Open Data Measures in the Autumn Statement 2011 (PDF)

There is a text extract of the train and bus section available at http://travelinedata.org.uk/opendata.htm

Here are some highlights:

Train and bus data - The Government will work with the transport industry to make available by April 2012 timetable and real-time train and bus information to support the development of innovative applications to improve passenger journeys.

o Real-time running data from Network Rail

...

DfT will also work with Traveline to release the following data relating to buses:

o Traveline National Dataset on a weekly basis (Great Britain buses); and

o Next Buses API of planned and real-time information at 350,000 GB bus stops (April 2012).

There is the Traveline National Data Set http://travelinedata.org.uk/tnds/index.htm

However all I could find in terms of real-time data or APIs is this section from the NextBus Stakeholders site:

App developers who wish to access NextBuses API — please use the 'contact us' feature at www.traveline.info ... and select the 'NextBuses and txt' option

There's also this information from ATOC but I don't understand how it relates (if at all) to the information promised in the Autumn Statement: http://data.atoc.org/

It would be nice if there was one site with "here's all the transportation data promised in the Autumn Statement, with links, status, license, and developer information".  That doesn't seem to exist.

VIA Rail real-time train data

VIA Rail has been upgrading many parts of its infrastructure.  On April 19, 2012 it posted about its upcoming TSI+ system

What do you get when you combine trains with GPS technology? One of the most accurate up-to-the-minute Train Status Information Plus (TSI+) systems, that’s what!

Thanks to the existing WiFi system, which is the platform needed to support the GPS tracking, trains running within the Quebec City – Windsor corridor can now be followed through an online near real-time mapping system developed by VIA Rail.

...

The expected date for roll-out to the public is this fall: travellers will be able to check their train’s departure time, estimated time of arrival to destination and consult an en route live map.

TSI+: We Have The Technology, Part 1

There is no statement about whether this information will be available as raw, machine-readable data (open data), in addition to being shown on the TSI+ website.

VIA Rail is a Crown Corporation (or if you speak the obscure language of the bureaucracy, a Financial Administration Act - FAA - Schedule III Part 1 organisation; it is not part of the public service and Treasury Board is not the employer).  Nevertheless, one would hope the principles of open government apply generally to all national government entities.  In Canada's Open Government Action Plan it states that there will be an Open Government Directive and an Open Government License

The clear goal of this Directive is to make Open Government and open information the 'default' approach.

The purpose of the new Open Government License will be to promote the re-use of federal information as widely as possible.

Therefore it seems reasonable to ask VIA to make the TSI+ real-time data as well as the static schedule data available in standard open formats with an open license.

This is an opportunity to align with or exceed the current international best practices.

The French national train service is in the midst of its open data consultations at http://data.sncf.com/

In the UK, the Association of Train Operating Companies (ATOC) provides schedule data at http://data.atoc.org/

UPDATE 2012-04-27: The UK government announced in Autumn 2011 that national real-time rail and bus information would be made available as open data in 2012.  ENDUPDATE

There is a discussion group for open transportation data at http://lists.okfn.org/mailman/listinfo/open-transport

VIA Rail has a sophisticated and responsive social media presence; this posting was inspired by a recent tweet from @VIA_Rail:

Have any technology questions for us? Send them to transformation@viarail.ca then check viarail.ca/transformingVIA soon! #VIARail #CIP

— VIA_Rail (@VIA_Rail) April 25, 2012

If you're interested in VIA Rail open data I suggest you contact them.  If you want a hashtag I suggest #viaopendata

bêta 2 of France's open data site data.gouv.fr

France's open data site, launched on 5 December 2011, has now released a second version four months later.  It adds an essential element, public community features (this is in addition to the private developer community DataConnexions that they already launched).

The new community features of data.gouv.fr include a discussion forum, an ideas market, and highlights of open data reports from elsewhere on the web.  Top contributors to the discussions are highlighted.

Find the new features at

http://www.data.gouv.fr/Communaute

SIDEBAR: Canada's open data site data.gc.ca was launched in pilot mode on March 17, 2011 and envisions a second version in three years (2014).

During Year 1 of our Action Plan, we will continue to expand on the number of datasets made available through the existing portal, and we will complete our requirements for the next generation platform. In Years 2 and 3, we will design and initiate implementation of the new data.gc.ca portal, as well as further improve the level of standardization of data published by departments. The Government will make use of crowdsourcing, particularly among Canada's open data community, to make sure that this new open data portal meets the needs and expectations of those who will use it most, and provides the best possible opportunity to support entrepreneurs eager to make use of Government of Canada data.

from Canada's Action Plan on Open Government, Activity Stream 2 - Open Data.

END SIDEBAR

Previously:
February 20, 2012  France launches open data community Dataconnexions
July 6, 2011  update on open data in France

Canada and US at Open Government Partnership Brasilia Conference

Minister Tony Clement @TonyClementCPC and Erik Waddell @ErikWaddell of Treasury Board Secretariat are part of the Canadian delegation for the Open Government Partnership Conference.

The US delegation is headed by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, her remarks at the conference opening are available (text and video).

UPDATE: Minister Clement's speech text is available - Speech by Tony Clement, President of the Treasury Board and Minister Responsible for FedNor, Presenting the Government of Canada's Action Plan on Open Government.  ENDUPDATE

Here's a brief Storify of Canadian-related #ogp2012 tweets for April 17, 2012 (I will update it if there are more):

Previously:

See previous posts in category opengovca

Canadian Open Government Action Plan

President of the Treasury Board Tony Clement announced Canada's Open Government Action Plan in Regina (April 11, 2012).

@TonyclementCPC Announces Open Gov Action Plan for Canada and applauds @CityofRegina for #opendata launch. #yqr

— Alyssa Daku (@AlyssaDaku) April 11, 2012

The plan can be found on the Canadian Open Government site open.gc.ca: Canada's Action Plan on Open Government.  It outlines three years of progressive commitments to improving and strengthening Canada's three pillars: open information, open data and open dialogue.  Delivering the action plan now was part of the requirements for Canada's membership in the Open Government Partnership (and should eventually be posted at http://www.opengovpartnership.org/countries/canada ).  Minister Clement will be at the OGP meeting in Brasilia this month.

The plan has two foundational committments: an Open Government Directive and and Open Government License.

Open Government Directive

In Year 1 of our Action Plan, we will confirm our policy direction for Open Government by issuing a new Directive on Open Government. The Directive will provide guidance to 106 federal departments and agencies on what they must do to maximize the availability of online information and data, identify the nature of information to be published, as well as the timing, formats, and standards that departments will be required to adopt. ...

The clear goal of this Directive is to make Open Government and open information the 'default' approach.

Open Government License

... we will issue a new universal Open Government License in Year 1 of our Action Plan with the goal of removing restrictions on the reuse of published Government of Canada information (data, info, websites, publications) and aligning with international best practices. ...

The purpose of the new Open Government License will be to promote the re-use of federal information as widely as possible.

These are two clear actions that have great potential.

I won't list all the other details, just a bit from the open data activity stream, which indicates an updated portal in years 2-3 of the Action Plan:

During Year 1 of our Action Plan, we will continue to expand on the number of datasets made available through the existing portal, and we will complete our requirements for the next generation platform. In Years 2 and 3, we will design and initiate implementation of the new data.gc.ca portal, as well as further improve the level of standardization of data published by departments. The Government will make use of crowdsourcing, particularly among Canada's open data community, to make sure that this new open data portal meets the needs and expectations of those who will use it most

I think the government would be wise to look at the agile iterative approach demonstrated by the UK Government Digital Service as an model for revising the portal to meet user needs.

On Twitter

• Tony Clement - @TonyClementCPC
• Treasury Board Secretariat - @TBS_Canada
• Open Government Partnership - @opengovpart
  Brasilia conference hashtag now changed to #ogp2012
• UK Government Digital Service - @govuk
• UK Open Public Data - @datagovuk

Open Government Partnership Canadian contact

The contact for all matters related to Canada's participation in the Open Government Partnership is

Stephen Walker,

Chief Information Officer Branch, Treasury Board Secretariat

stephen.walker@tbs-sct.gc.ca

UPDATE 2012-04-18: TBS Press Releases - Minister Clement Releases Open Government Action Plan and Minister Clement Attends International Open Government Partnership. Minister Clement's speech announcing the Action Plan - Speech by Tony Clement, President of the Treasury Board of Canada, to Regina and District Chamber of Commerce.  Minister Clement announces Canada's official membership - Canada Joins International Open Government Partnership.

At the time of this writing the Open Government Partnership conference is underway in Brasilia, there is a webcast available.  Minister Clement @TonyClementCPC and Erik Waddell @ErikWaddell are attending, along with others from the government and civil society (see list at bottom of blog post Canadian Open Government Consultation Final Report).

ENDUPDATE

Previously

You can see previous items related to this topic in category opengovca

Canadian Open Government Consultation Final Report

The Final Report of the Canadian Open Government Consultation has been posted

http://open.gc.ca/consult/results-resultatstb-eng.asp

It's a straightforward summary of the input provided.

There were over 260 submissions to the online consultation.

President of the Treasury Board Tony Clement states

These consultations were also instrumental in developing our Open Government Action Plan which I will present in April 2012 at the Open Government Partnership in Brazil. Each element of the Action Plan is supported by what we heard during the consultation process.

The key messages reported are

• Make information and data easier to find by improving the search function on government websites.
• Improve the organization of government websites, in general, by creating centralized portal(s) to provide catalogues of Government of Canada information and data in one place.
• Make more information and data available in standardized open formats with improved metadata, tagging and indexing.
• Promote the availability of open data through better communications and marketing.
• Improve consultation tools and websites by making them more user-friendly (e.g., plain language, no acronyms, etc.) and more interactive through the use of social media.
• Ensure that Canadians know that consultations are taking place and demonstrate that something is being done with consultation results.
• Be more open with Canadians by improving policies and rules so that government data and information is open by default.

The final report itself doesn't provide any specific information about what will be included in the Open Government Action Plan, however the January 2012 update to the Open Government Partnership described some initial possibilities.

UPDATE 2012-04-18: The Open Government Action Plan was released on April 11, 2012.  ENDUPDATE

Canada's Action Plan will be posted to is posted at the OGP website

http://www.opengovpartnership.org/countries/canada

The OGP meeting is in Brasilia, April 17-18, 2012. The OGP has posted a preliminary list of attendees (Excel format).

Canadian representitives listed are

• Stephen Walker - Treasury Board Secretariat (TBS) - Stephen is the contact for all OGP related matters: stephen.walker@tbs-sct.gc.ca
• Tony Clement - President of the Treasury Board - @TonyClementCPC
• Erik Waddell - TBS - @ErikWaddell
• Michael Gurstein - Centre for Community Informatics Research, Development and Training - @michaelgurstein
• Harvey Low - Representative - Canadian Council on Social Development, Community Data Program
• Fernando Perini - International Development Research Centre (IDRC) - @fperini
• David Eaves - @daeaves - David is also on the Canadian Government Advisory Panel on Open Government
• Pierre Boucher - Deputy CIO of Canada

The hashtag is for the event is #OGPBrasilia2012 #ogp2012 and the Twitter ID is @opengovpart

Centre for Community Informatics Research, Development and Training

San Francisco Innovation - A startup called government

In organisations like the UK Government Digital Service and France's Etalab we see a drive to bring agile "startup" behaviour into the heart of large, complex organisations.

The Government Digital Service (GDS) must have the agility of a start-up to drive through change across Whitehall, says its director Mike Bracken.

Computer Weekly - Government Digital Service needs agility of a start-up - December 9, 2011

Cette mission est réalisée par une équipe très agile et très mobile à l’organisation « type startup » qui compte seulement sept membres. Elle est très proche du Premier Ministre qui s’intéresse de près à la question de l’ouverture des données comme nous l’ont confirmé les membres d’Etalab.

blog.administration2020.fr - Un entretien avec Etalab plus qu’enrichissant - January 24, 2012

To some extent this is just new terminology to describe an old concept - the skunkworks.  The challenge has always been how to take these kinds of coherent, small, agile groups and integrate their work and their culture into the entire organisation - the problem of agility at scale.  While we have great solutions for scaling websites from 1000 users to millions, we don't have great solutions for scaling organisations from a dozen employees to thousands while retaining innovation.  It's the classic challenge of loft+coffeemachine versus aircraft carrier.

Can there be then a startup called government?  San Francisco is trying to make it possible.

On their recently-launched site innovations.sfgov.org they list the thematic areas of their innovation portfolio:

• StartupSF - to help businesses launch and connect with the community
• EngageSF - using open data, ideas gathering platforms, and targeted hackathons to help citizens build on the city's information
• SmartSF - using sensors, other urban technology, and discussions to build a smarter, more responsive city

I think there are common threads that run through these approaches, that help to move beyond the classic skunkworks - building in outreach from the outset, so that the small group is integrated both within the rest of the organisation as well as with the broader community outside. 

Common Threads: A small, highly-visible, expert core team.  A growing community / ecosystem around that core.  Focused projects.  Technology-enabled but not technology-dependent.

You can follow the San Francisco initiative on Twitter:

• @Jay_Nath - SF Chief Innovation Officer
• @ShannonSpanhake - SF Deputy Innovation Officer

Rebooting the public square with open data and open source

there are myriad categories of raw data that are locked up inside the boundaries of government.  If governments were simply to publish this data, then private companies, civil society organisations, citizens and other government agencies will self-organise to use this data to create public value.  This holds the promise of better, cheaper government.

Don Tapscott - 03m43s to 4m06s

The fifth and final episode of CBC's ReCivilization was "Rebooting the Public Square".  Ignoring the apocalyptic "this is the end of everything we know" tone at the beginning, it looks at the infrastructure of open sharing online (through discussions with Google and Mozilla), open data (through a discussion with Sir Tim Berners-Lee), and the kinds of activities that are enabled in the government sphere (through a discussion with the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy).

I think it's an ok starting point for understanding some of the pieces, although there is a lot more to open government than is covered in the segment.  I was disappointed that as a Canadian show there was no mention of Canadian open government initiatives, which include

• national - open.gc.ca and participation in the Open Government Partnership
• provincial - data.gov.bc.ca
• municipal - ottawa.ca/opendata

(More sites are listed on Wikipedia - Open Data in Canada.)

The audio is available as broadcast on the web, there are also extended interviews available.  For those interested specifically in open government, the extended interview with Thomas Kalil is the most informative.  The series is also available (for free) in iTunes.

Twitter:

• @recivilization
• @dtapscott
• @adw_tweets
• @WhiteHouseOSTP
• @ericschmidt
• @MitchellBaker
• @timberners_lee

Previously:
December 30, 2006  Tapscott: turn your organization inside-out
December 28, 2006  Tapscott on collaboration and Wikinomics in the Globe
June 6, 2005  SLA2005 - live, semi-awake blogging of opening session - Monday 9:30 AM (featuring Tapscott keynote)

France launches open data community Dataconnexions

Etalab, the developers of data.gouv.fr, launched their community initiative Dataconnexions on February 16, 2012. 

Pour favoriser la réutilisation des données publiques par les acteurs de l'innovation, Etalab initie la Communauté Dataconnexions : L’objectif de "Dataconnexions" est  clairement de favoriser la création d’une place de marché française de la donnée, en mettant directement en relation la demande des "créateurs de projets" de tous horizons (entrepreneur, salarié, free lance, étudiant ou chercheur, seul ou en équipe, indépendant ou issu d’une start-up, TPE/PME, institution, grande entreprise) et l'offre de services de partenaires, acteurs économiques et de l’innovation de premier plan, susceptibles de leur apporter une expertise nécessaire en fonction de leurs besoins. 

The initiative includes:

• 4 big networking meetings, the first of which in April 2012
• 4 contests / competitions
  • an online community - seems to be mostly to support the contests (they must approve your membership)

They state in their announcement blog post, in the text of the document that they posted to Scribd, that part of their mission is "encourager la réutilisation la plus large possible des données publique" - to encourage the greatest possible reuse of open data (my translation) - and that this mission includes connecting all the different actors in the innovation system through Dataconnexions.

Etalab tweets @etalab

The hashtag is #dataconnexions

The main site is http://www.dataconnexions.fr/ (redirects to pages on the Etalab site)

One of their partners is Google, there is an event March 14, 2012 - Atelier Open Data.

Etalab actually already had their first hacking event, (Paris) Android Dev Camp 2012.  For more information:

• Twitter: @ParisAndroidUG
• Hashtag #gadcparis
• Twitter: @opendataparis
• Background: Du 17 au 19 février, participez à l’Android DevCamp mondial, organisé à Paris sur l’Open Data

These kinds of open data initatives show an understanding that simply providing the data is not enough - it requires active engagement with the community to build the innovation ecosystem that can maximize the benefits of releasing the data.

UK Open Government and Transparency

Francis Maude is UK Minister for the Cabinet Office.  He spoke about the UK experience in January 2012 for the World Bank.

Governments are finding transparency risky, difficult and uncomfortable. But transparency sticks – it’s irreversible once you start. And I believe transparency will become the defining characteristic of future public policy.

...

putting out raw data in the public domain for entrepreneurs and businesses to work with. Creating an information marketplace. And this is where I believe the UK is leading the way today.

Data sharing is underpinning everything we do to improve public services and to drive new waves of growth.

...

Companies large and small are also using the data to create innovative, products and applications.

Already we’re aware of 47 independent app developers working in the UK giving information to rail passengers through their smartphones – in a market that has for the most part open up in only a few major cities.

London commuters can now use their phone apps to decide whether to rush for the train or get a cup of coffee thanks to greater transport data.

Francis Maude's speech to the World Bank – Transparency and Open Data

You can also watch the webcast recording (Windows Media format).

In addition to the UK open data site data.gov.uk there are two other initiatives of note: gov.uk from the Government Digital Service and G-Cloud.

gov.uk is a project to have a single homepage to access UK government services.  They have been using an agile methodology, and the gov.uk site is now in beta, following an alpha.   From a homepage that is a blog to an official Twitter feed at @govuk that retweets team members, it is a great example of innovation at the heart of government.

G-Cloud includes government use of the cloud as well as data centre consolidation.  They just launched the CloudStore, a list of approved services.  It includes the notion of trying to open up government procurement to a wider variety of players.  They announced CloudStore Open for Business on February 19, 2012 in their blog.  The CloudStore, which runs on MS Azure, will be available as open source.  You can follow them at @G_Cloud_UK

RT @cantwaitogo The full UK Gov #cloudstore will be released as #opensource. < great, thx #oss #govit #gov20

— Andrew Stott (@DirDigEng) February 19, 2012

Ottawa real-time transit data coming March 2012

SIDEBAR: If you have questions about developing with the OC Transpo real-time data, there is a discussion group.  ENDSIDEBAR

In a special meeting of Transit Commission in January 2012, Ottawa's transit agency OC Transpo was compelled to release real-time position (GPS) open data by March 22, 2012.

The recommendation is

That the Transit Commission direct staff to work with the Staff/Commissioner Working Group on Transit Technology to develop an OC Transpo Real-Time GPS Data Policy that is in accordance with existing policy and which includes, but is not limited to, an Application Programming Interface (API) Overview and Terms of Use for the consideration of the Transit Commission at its March meeting.

with further direction

Once developed, the IT Working Group will be recommending that the OC Transpo Real-Time GPS Data Policy be approved by the Commission, and that the Real Time GPS data feed be fully activated by March 22, 2012.

above from ACS2012-CMR-OTC-0003: OC Transpo Real-time GPS Data Policy.

The report and associated recommendations were CARRIED (approved) by the Transit Commission.  For those who don't think government can act quickly, it was just a week from OC Transpo announcing that they didn't want to release the data, to the meeting where they were required to release it.  Ottawa's councillors really stepped up and delivered.

There was lots of coverage of the Transit Commission decision:

• Reddit - OC Transpo to release bus-location data March 22
• YourOttawaRegion.com - OC Transpo set to release bus-location data March 22
• CBC News - OC Transpo reverses course, again set to release GPS info
• Metro News - Releasing GPS data earns OC Transpo points
• Ottawa Citizen - Open OC Transpo data, transit commission rules
• Centretown News - OC Transpo's GPS data to be made public

open policy @ DFAIT - Storify of the tweets

A lightly-curated Storify of the ~500 tweets from the February 9, 2012 event at DFAIT.

More OC Transpo real-time open data news

UPDATE 2012-02-20: OC Transpo is now required by Transit Commission to release GPS open data by March 22, 2012 ENDUPDATE

Some great ongoing coverage of the reluctance of Ottawa's transit agency, OC Transpo, to release real-time bus position information despite city policy, strong demands from Councillors, and insistence from citizens.

Developers

"I think in general OC Transpo is going to underestimate the capacity of the developer community to work together and solve problems," said Jonathan Rudenberg, who wrote a bus-location app using OC Transpo data that won a "people's choice" award in the city's application contest last year.

Ottawa Citizen - Criticism of route apps disputed - by David Reevely (@davidreevely) - January 20, 2012

You can find Jonathan on Twitter @titanous and information about his app Where is my bus? is available on the Apps4Ottawa contest site.

Developer John Gill (@swfiua) is so frustrated that he now wants to develop an app that uses crowdsourced position data from GPS-enabled smartphones, without using OC Transpo data at all.

Councillors

OC Transpo should open its bus-location data to outside programmers the same day it launches its own application to tell riders when their buses are due, says Councillor Stephen Blais, and he intends to present a motion to the city’s transit commission at its next meeting ... to force the company to do it.

Ottawa Citizen - Councillor determined to have OC Transpo bus-location data opened to outside programmers - by David Reevely - January 23, 2012

Councillor Blais tweets @StephenBlais and his political page on Facebook is http://www.facebook.com/StephenBlaisOrleans

Blog coverage

• http://www.blackberrycool.com/2012/01/19/encourage-your-city-councillors-and-government-to-make-data-open/
• http://kevino.ca/content/heres-how-easy-oc-transpos-open-data-should-be
• http://trashysworld.ca/2012/01/21/oc-transpo-greediness/

History

We've been fighting this fight for over a year.  Here's David Reevely reporting February 14, 2011: The open-data battle continues with OC Transpo.

Previously
January 19, 2012  In the news: Fight for Ottawa realtime transit open data
January 18, 2012  OC Transpo would rather have ads than open data

In the news: Fight for Ottawa realtime transit open data

UPDATE 2012-02-20: OC Transpo is now required by Transit Commission to release GPS open data by March 22, 2012 ENDUPDATE

Extensive reporting on the January 18, 2012 Transit Committee meeting in Ottawa, where the transit agency OC Transpo's update on open data was that they didn't want to release it.

OC Transpo runs an entirely bus-based transit network.  The main issue at hand is getting the agency to release the realtime position data, from GPS systems already installed (or in some cases soon-to-be installed) on the buses.  OC Transpo does provide standard static transit schedule data in GTFS format, but the realities of road conditions (particularly in winter) mean that the official schedule often doesn't match the actual bus arrival times.

Of particular concern were OC Transpo's assertions that it was difficult and unwise to release the realtime data, an unusual position considering that Toronto and Winnipeg already provide this type of data.

Vehicle locations and next vehicle arrival predictions are in real-time.

toronto.ca/open - Data Catalogue » TTC Real-Time Next Vehicle Arrival (NVAS)

a real-time picture of what is currently happening on the streets, with information about our city-wide service status, which individual buses are delayed and by how much, the estimated arrival times of buses at stops, and more.

Winnipeg Transit's Open Data Web Service - API Overview

News Coverage

• Ottawa Citizen - Transpo opposes live data release on buses - by David Reevely (@davidreevely)
• Ottawa Citizen - Who's driving this bus? Not the public, apparently, as city cuts taxpayers off from right to information - by Joanne Chianello (@jchianello)
• Metro News Ottawa - OC Transpo recommends reneging on open data promise - by Jessica Smith
• 580 CFRA News - Councillors Grill Mercier over Open Data for OC Transpo GPS Info - by Stephanie Kinsella with Kristi Soble
• Open File Ottawa - Alain Mercier faces tough questions over OC Transpo data release - by Trevor Pritchard (Disclaimer: uses substantial amount of information from my previous blog post about the TC meeting)
• CBC News - OC Transpo bus data all about the money
• YourOttawaRegion.com - OC Transpo backtracks on bus GPS release - by Laura Mueller (@LauraEMueller)

It's important to understand the OC Transpo is... and isn't part of the city (that's part of what this battle is about).  The city itself has made great strides with open data, the short URL for the initiative is

ottawa.ca/opendata

and there is a dedicated open data lead on staff, Rob Giggey (@rob_giggey).

The council also has two strong defenders of the city's open data policy in Councillors Tim Tierney (@TimTierney) and Marianne Wilkinson (@Marianne4Kanata).  They really understand that open data brings new ways of working and new opportunities.

Ottawa's local open data advocacy group Open Data Ottawa (@opendataottawa & on Facebook at fb.com/opendataottawa ) has also been pushing hard on the realtime transit open data front.

If you're someone who is interested in this data (as a citizen and/or a developer) you can help by letting Councillors Tierney and Wilkinson know of your support (as well as telling Mayor Jim Watson @JimWatsonOttawa and your local councillor) and by letting Open Data Ottawa know how you would like to use the data and what we could do to help.  For what it's worth, you could also tell OC Transpo (@OC_Transpo) itself.  Good hashtags to use are #octranspo and #opendata

Although I've listed lots of Twitter contact IDs, you can of course use all the regular postal mail, email, telephone, and Facebook channels to let the city and OC Transpo know what you think.

Previously:
January 18, 2012  OC Transpo would rather have ads than open data

OC Transpo would rather have ads than open data

UPDATE 2012-02-20: OC Transpo is now required by Transit Commission to release GPS open data by March 22, 2012 ENDUPDATE

Ottawa Transit Commission just had its January 18, 2012 meeting and the OC Transpo representatives, including General Manager of Transit Services, Alain Mercier got a lot of questions when they came out with the assertion that Commission had to choose between completely in-house ad-supported applications from OC Transpo, and open data.

This is an absolutely classic bureaucratic organisation power play.  It's about control, not technology.  OC Transpo went as far as to assert that only they could "understand" the complexities of transit enough to produce "reliable" apps.  In other words, "this is a hard problem, so no one outside our organisation should bother us with trying to solve it".  This not only goes against the worldwide trend of opening up information and development in the understanding that "many eyes" are better, as well as the already demonstrated success of open data approaches in much larger jurisdictions, notably New York, Chicago and Boston.

OC Transpo is apparently saying "sure giant cities with millions of daily travelers on multiple modes of transit can trust developers with their open data, but our little bus-based system is way more difficult than that".

They are also making this strange argument that they "support" open data (as they have already publicly stated) but they don't "support" it so much that they actually want to do it, they'd rather have an exclusive ad contract.  A situation which, I might ad, puts the entire burden of internal IT, maintenance, and keeping up with ever-changing web and mobile trends on OC Transpo.  Do we really think being a software developer should be a core competency of our transit agency?

I've tried as best I could to capture and sort the discussion on Twitter.  Ottawa's media are skilled users of Twitter, I was fortunate to have so much to work with... but there was so much from so many fronts that I'm sure it is both confusing and missing tweets.

Thanks to

• @davidreevely
  and his livetweeting on @reevelylive
• @lauraemueller
• @jchianello
• @JonathanWilling

and thanks also to Councillors Wilkinson (@marianne4katana) & Tierney (@TimTierney) for defending Ottawa's open data policy and putting hard questions to OC Transpo.

Chicago has a Snow Portal - should Ottawa?

With a nice snowstorm underway in Ottawa on this Friday the 13th, it seems timely to have a look at the state of the art in online snow information.

Chicago got a pre-launch writeup of its "snow portal" in the Economist - Winter strikes Chicago: Shovel ready.  UPDATE 2012-01-14: And a launch writeup in the New York Times: Snow Site Lets Chicago See if Plows Are Really in a Rut.  ENDUPDATE

The site has now launched, with the simple URL http://chicagoshovels.org/

It includes realtime GPS positions for snowplows on a map, as well as the ability to "adopt" a sidewalk for shoveling (sharing your adoption over social media) and to volunteer to shovel snow.

I was unable, however, to find any plow-specific datasets in the Chicago Data Portal (there are datasets about snow route & winter parking restrictions, as well as snow alerts).

Ottawa is a pretty snowy city too, although so far we're not close to our near-record 432 cm of snow received in 2008.  (Yes, 4.32 metres of snow.)

Ottawa also has GPS-equipped plows.  What would you like to see in an Ottawa "snow portal"?  I'm not sure live positions of snowplows on a map is the most useful, although it's great as a demo.

Some ideas:

• Snow & accident & quality based directions.  "I want to get from X to Y, what routes are available for walking / driving / cycling that are cleared and safe, how recently were they cleared and when will they next be cleared?  What do conditions look like?  How busy / slow are they?"
  This could use e.g. data and images from Ottawa's existing sensors, traffic cameras & incidents reports, and crowdsourced condition reports from ottawabikingproblems.ca and ottawawalkingproblems.ca
• Since the snow & ice are not just problems, they're also recreational opportunities, you could expand this to include e.g. sledding hills, canal & outdoor rinks (including the Rink of Dreams) skating conditions, cross-country trails, ski hill conditions etc.

 A few resources that are already available:

• NCC - Rideau Canal skating conditions
• Ottawa Open Data Portal - Cycling network
• Ottawa Open Data Portal - Outdoor rinks (2009)
• Ottawa Open Data Portal - Sledding hills (2010)

I'd like to hear your ideas, or if you prefer Facebook, Open Data Ottawa has also asked this question.

Since snow is common across Canada and the northern US (as well as in northern Europe), is this something that the Civic Commons or the Canadian G4 group of cities could work on?

I also wonder about where we could get more data.  Now that we have "smart" parking meters with wireless payment capabilities, could every parking meter also be a local realtime weather sensor?

Twitter:

• Hashtag for Chicago snow portal is #chicagoshovels
• Chicago CTO: @ChicagoCTO
• Chicago Chief Data Officer (CDO): @ChicagoCDO
• Ottawa Open Data lead (city): @rob_giggey
• Ottawa Open Data (citizen advocacy): @opendataottawa
• I don't know if there is an equivalent Ottawa hashtag.  #ottsnow ?

Open Gov Partnership Brasilia meeting - who should represent Canadian civil society?

I don't know the answer to this, so I'm blogging my lack of knowledge in the hopes of feedback.  I had a brief discussion with Chris Moore about how to proceed.

In short, who should represent Canadian civil society at OGP Brasilia in April?

Canada is part of the Open Government Partnership (OGP), and is developing its committments, with the country action plan indicated on the site as coming in March 2012 (the deadline for action plans is April 9, 2012).

http://www.opengovpartnership.org/countries/canada

The Canadian consultation about open government ends January 16, 2012.

The big OGP conference is in April 2012 in Brasilia.  42 new member countries will formally present their Action Plans at this meeting, with updates from the 8 founding members.

This Annual Conference will be April 16-18.  The page states

At this high-level OGP annual meeting, governments, civil society and the private sector will come together as new OGP participant countries deliver their final OGP action plans and formally endorse the OGP declaration of principles. The event will feature a series of high-level panels, small group sessions and an open government innovation exhibition focused on sharing best practices and continuing to drive innovation... 

In terms of civil society participation, the OGP announced that they could fund 1 civil society representative from each country, as well as offering 50-70 registration slots for self-funded civil society attendance.

OGP has resources to support the participation of up to one civil society representative from each of the 50 OGP participating countries. In addition, we have space for around 50-70 self-financed regional/international civil society representatives to participate.

The deadline to apply is February 6, 2012.  The OGP website has information on how to apply.

The OGP has said it wants local civil society to sort out who should go.

Wherever possible, OGP is seeking to have local civil society in each OGP country select their representative to the April 2012 conference themselves, rather than OGP picking the candidate. OGP will privilege applications from civil society representatives that can demonstrate an established track record of active engagement in the open government field, and the endorsement of fellow local civil society colleagues to attend the April 2012 [meeting]. 

In instances where local civil society cannot come to agreement on a common delegate to attend the April 2012 meeting, the OGP Support Unit will do its best to recommend the candidate from that country whose application demonstrates the most experience and strongest civil society networks in the open government field. 

I don't know of any national civil society organisations in Canada that speak about open government or e-government issues (there doesn't appear to be e.g. an Electronic Frontier Foundation equivalent - there is an Electronic Frontier Canada but its "Current Issues" are from 2004).

We are however rich in regional organisations, such as Montréal Ouvert and Open Data Ottawa.

So we as open government supporters have two challenges: who should go as the funded civil society representative, and who (if anyone) should represent Canada on a self-funded basis (along with possible fundraising).

As I stated at the outset, I don't know the answer to these questions.  I look forward to your ideas and feedback.

Twitter:

• @opengovpart - Open Government Partnership
• @_i_am_chris - Chris J Moore
• #OGP - general Open Government Partnership discussions (but noisy, many other topics on #OGP)
• #OGPBrasilia2012 - specifically about the upcoming conference
• I have been using #opengovca for Canadian-specific open government
• The Canadian Twitter consultation used #opengovchat and #parlonsgouvert

Previously:
December 18, 2011  open gov video - Minister Clement speaks at Public Sector Engage - Nov 22, 2011
December 15, 2011  Canadian #opengovchat - archives & hackfests

Wordclouds of open data responses to Canadian Open Government Consultation Week 2

Wordle wordclouds of the responses to Canadian Open Government Consultation question 1 "What could be done to make it easier for you to find and use government data provided online?"

I have made a Google Doc of the raw text itself.  All English answers up to 1356 Eastern on 2011-12-19 are included.

with the word "data" removed:

with the words "data" and "government" removed:

UPDATE 2011-12-20: The official Weekly Summary for Week 2 of the consultation is available.

Previously:
December 10, 2011  Wordclouds of open data responses to Canadian Open Government Consultation Week 1

open gov video - Minister Clement speaks at Public Sector Engage - Nov 22, 2011

President of the Treasury Board Tony Clement gave a keynote address to open Public Sector Engage 2011.  He begins speaking at 03m15s in. The text of the speech is available, although he makes some asides that I believe are not in the text.

Opening remarks by the President of the Treasury Board and Minister responsible for FedNor, Tony Clement from PSEngage on Vimeo.

Key phrases:

• the importance of a collaborative approach
• technology as an important tool for change
• sometimes innovation means that you're going into areas that have not been gone through before
• Internet tools allow public sector employees to be more productive than ever before [my translation from the French]
• the public service must make sure it possesses the capacity and the expertise necessary to respond not only to today's demands, but also in 5, 10, 20 years [my translation from the French]
• competencies related to work, teams and collaboration will be necessary [my translation from the French]
• "I consider myself the Minister responsible for championing innovation in the government"
• the use of productivity-enhancing Internet-based tools & services that allow people to share information, engage in a dialogue, and collaborate
• open government in Canada: open data, open information, and open dialogue
• Canada has signaled its intent to join the international Open Government Partnership

Direct quote from Minister Clement:

Our government is encouraging the use of new Web 2.0 tools and technologies such as of course blogs, wikis, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube... you name it. These tools help create a more modern, open and collaborative workplace and lead to more just-in-time communications with the public. I was recently before a Senate committee reviewing these issues and I said it makes no sense to have our employees--any employee--but certainly our new employees to have more access and more interaction in the coffee shop on their way to work than actually in their workplace. That is not a workplace of the future... I see a few heads nodding here so I think I've struck a little bit of a chord.

UPDATE 2011-12-19: You can watch his Senate committee testimony as well as read some of the quotes, linked from my posting Internet & social media - Official Languages examination - Senate Committee videos.

Previously:
November 23, 2011  Treasury Board President Clement speaks about open government, social media [also from the PSE2011 event]

Wordclouds from English opengovchat - Dec 15, 2011

Wordle wordclouds from English #opengovchat on December 15, 2011 from the opening announcement to 18h45 (specifically from @Mod_TBS_SCT at 16:58:41 to @dlq 18:45:18).   Text extracted from a Twitter archive I made.  High-frequency words like opengovchat itself, as well as Canada and RT were removed.  In some wordclouds opengov was also removed.  It doesn't keep things with underscores together (e.g. @Mod_TBS_SCT or @TBS_Canada) which is why you get some partial Twitter user IDs.  Also in some Wordle removed the @ signs.

Previously:
December 15, 2011  Canadian #opengovchat - archives & hackfests

Canadian #opengovchat - archives & hackfests

Minister Clement's Twitter chat as part of the Canadian Open Government Consultation is complete.  It was first in French avec le mot-clic #parlonsgouvert and then in English with hashtag #opengovchat

I made an Archivist backup of the tweets in both languages, there are 1102 tweets in the archive, the snapshot was taken 18h45 Eastern on December 15, 2011.  Available in XML and Excel XLSX.

@kady did a CoverItLive liveblog that captured English tweets and Joseph @Thornley made a Storify of the English tweets.

The official archive will be up on December 16, 2011 at open.gc.ca

UPDATE 2011-12-16: Elizabeth Thompson of iPolitics did a very good Storify that sets out blocks of questions and responses.  Mark Blevis used some software to analyse the English chat.  And open.gc.ca published transcripts of the English and French discussions.  ENDUPDATE

UPDATE 2011-12-18: I made some wordclouds of the English-language discussion.  ENDUPDATE

I have done a short Storify below just on the Q&A about hackfests and contests (including one question from me).