[open-government] Defining Open Government Data?

Tue Oct 19 19:04:20 BST 2010

2010/10/20 Ton Zijlstra <ton.zijlstra at gmail.com>

> And maybe things like:
>
> every idiot/crappy gov website is polite enough to point to an Adobe Reader
> download link to be able to open the PDF-muck they throw on-line. Maybe part
> of the 'socially open' definition stuff should be pointing to possible
> useful tools for re-use (which data.gov.uk is moving towards, btw), such
> as Gridworks or viz tools that are emerging.
>
> But that's maybe asking too much already.
>

Let's act in good faith and refrain from calling officials idiots. They're
professionals who are dedicated to making their country a better place. With
that in mind though asking for more than a PDF is too much. Many officials
struggle to understand that people want access to anything other than their
PDF reports. They're entire career is built on providing excellent advice to
others. Why wouldn't you want to read their advice?

Moreover, by increasing the complexity that's required (more than "Export to
PDF" on the part of the official), we shut lots of people out. They're too
technology phobic.

For example Google Refine is a good tool, but it will take years for
government departments to learn about it - even though we're currently beta
testing the 2.0 release. It will take a few more years before officials will
be allowed to install it on their centralised desktops. I have been
considering installing an instance on the Google App Engine, but don't know
how much traction that will get. There are significant legal considerations
for departments when they send their data offshore.
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