[ogdcamp] intro and idea for OGD Camp

Mon Jul 11 17:54:41 UTC 2011

Hi all,

With this e-mail I'd like to shortly introduce myself to this list, in the
run-up to the OGD Camp in Warsaw this fall.

My name is Ton, and I've been active in open government data initiatives in
the past years from various angles. I've done grass roots events, like
co-starting the 'Hack the Government' series in the Netherlands, together
with Jonathan Gray started the EU open data working group and mailing list,
and worked e.g. for the Dutch Ministry f t Interior, on the plans for the
Dutch national data catalogue that was launched early this year in beta.
Also worked with my local city government to get an open data motion
adopted.

Currently I am the community steward for the epsiplatform.eu. That is the
website through which the European Commission seeks to promote the re-use of
information and data held by public bodies. It serves as a one stop shop for
info regarding open data and data re-use. At the platform you'll find most
of what's ever been written on opening up government data in the past 6
years or so.

The epsiplatform team is actively supporting community activities around
Europe. I see the OGD Camp as something that can grow into the yearly main
community event that connects local open data communities from around Europe
(the OGD movement's Christmas so to speak, the yearly big get-together).

One of the things I'd like to do at OGD Camp is having a sort of 'meet and
greet' session for central- and eastern European people/organisations active
around OGD and connect better to them. Currently for us at epsiplatform it's
the area of Europe where we'd sure like to have much better connections to
community activities, as well as would like to support any budding
initiatives around OGD.

Another thought, more out of personal interest is to do some work in Warsaw
this fall towards making the case how OGD is useful to gov departments in
executing their own tasks. In working with local government I notice two
things that to me make that an interesting question.

1) Gov depts often say they want to involve their citizens more, also in
more operational aspects. But often there's a lack of ideas on how to do
that. I think making the relevant data to a topic available to citizens can
serve as an object of sociality here, to at least start the interaction, and
at best to have people base their decision on how and where to participate
effectively.  An example would be the maintenance of green patches and parks
in our town. The money usually runs out somewhere in September, and they'd
like to involve citizens in maintaining green patches in their own street.
Having the data available where, when and what needs to be done in terms of
maintenance, how much  time they plan for it usually, and what it saves the
city if I do it voluntarily in place of them doing it during office hours,
would be a huge help for me to judge if and how to participate.

2) Gov depts (at least their civil servants, at least here in NL) often also
say they want to be more '2.0', want to work 'differently'. But when I look
at e.g. proposed budget cuts nothing in there is about changing the way gov
works, and when you ask around what that 'different' should be again there's
often not a whole lot practical ideas to try and do that. I have a feeling
that if you want to work differently it also means using different tools.
Releasing OGD is one of those different tools.

In short, I'd love to work towards more 'open data as a policy instrument'
and 'open data as a operational tool for gov tasks'. I also think this is
the most practical way of 'making the business case' for reluctant
departments to start releasing their data.

Hmm, I seem to have failed in making this a short intro. Looking forward to
working with you all in the coming months, towards making OGD camp a
success.

best,
Ton

-------------------------------------------
Interdependent Thoughts
Ton Zijlstra

ton at tonzijlstra.eu
+31-6-34489360

http://zylstra.org/blog
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