[@OKFNau] Examples of Use of Commercial Government Data

Fri Mar 20 05:46:58 UTC 2015

Hi Steven et al, 
I've been more put out by the lack of internet access when I'm trying to do crucial work on my site than anything else this week but appreciation is never a bad thing :-) 
Some business students at USyd have agreed to help me investigate the value of open data projects as part of a Social Entrepreneurship Action Research Project so that should be really exciting.
I think we all suffer from these frustrations in communicating with people and it is something I've been talking to various other people about recently so the discussions here have followed on well from that. I've found it extremely informative and it underlies how alienated we can be in terms of knowing what is out there and going on so I really appreciate the examples put forward.
I've been thinking and talking about other people's perceptions of what I/we do and how that affects how what we do is valued. This all came out of thinking about how to make money because it is then that any lack of comprehension of the labour and technical skills involved to build an open data site become a matter of concrete significance.
If people think it is just a matter of sticking a spreadsheet into excel an out comes a graph in a website then that has implications for how our work is valued by clients/users.
If the recent World Open Data Day was anything to go by, a festival would be awesome. I think most of the problem at the moment in Aus is the disconnection between people who are all interested in open data (or who could be). I think things are about to spark up in open data and I'm pretty excited about the future- just got to survive the present! :-)

Rosie Williams BA (Sociology)________________________________________

 NoFibs.com.au - Open Data Reporter InfoAus.net - Founder and Developer 

Date: Thu, 19 Mar 2015 23:58:32 +1100
From: steven.decosta at linkdigital.com.au
To: okfn-au at lists.okfn.org
Subject: Re: [@OKFNau] Examples of Use of Commercial Government Data

Chin up Rosie :) I for one value your work and passion!
Perhaps this thread is a good place to discuss holding an APAC OK Festival in Australia. I spoke with Rufus about this yesterday and he suspects he can help get some funding together.
I have some good contacts for other funding options too.
I don't think we can rush into it but October or November might work. Otherwise March 2016.
What do folks think?

On Thursday, March 19, 2015, Rosie Williams <budgetaus at hotmail.com> wrote:

Just this week I had to try to convince a New Enterprise Incentive Scheme business advisor that what I do has value. His first comment to me was ' I suspect there might copyright issues'. I then explained to him the definition of open data and it's relationship to copyright. He seemed unaware of the concept, not to mention a bit sceptical. How he would 'advise' me remains to be seen. I spent a fair bit of the time trying to explain to him that tenders and grants data are actually different things. I didn't get far.
If I am not able to convince this person of the value of what I do I will be put to work cleaning hospitals. I don't mind the work but it would be sad if I have to stop doing what is so valuable for society because of the lack of appreciation of open data in wider society. I guess when it comes to convincing people of something you can speak but that does not guarantee the recipient will hear what you say. Still, I live in hope ;-)
Apologies if you've been visiting BudgetAus this week, I've been making huge changes and for long periods and both at home and the library where I work the internet has been up and down like a yo-yo.  It's starting to look good now though and giving me the opportunity to try new things.

Rosie Williams BA (Sociology)________________________________________

 NoFibs.com.au - Open Data Reporter InfoAus.net - Founder and Developer 

Date: Thu, 19 Mar 2015 02:54:03 +1100
From: steven.decosta at linkdigital.com.au
To: okfn-au at lists.okfn.org
Subject: Re: [@OKFNau] Examples of Use of Commercial Government Data

You folks are cool :) great discussion going on here.
After being in Kiev and spending a lot of time with Government officials there I now realize just how lucky we are in Australia. Ukraine has 1,200 government services and of those only two are currently delivered via a digital medium.
There is zero bureaucratic latitude to do anything outside the law so every process change starts with a change to legislation.
Having said that I still hold to the belief that eGovernment is inevitable and open data that is generated by transparently operated digital government services is the 'killer app' for today's democracy.
I expect the Federal Digital Transformation Office will help create a wave of change through all levels of Australian Government and digital bureaucrats will become the norm in all agencies. 
Going 'native' now has a new meaning.
Hoots!

On Wednesday, March 18, 2015, Tennessee Leeuwenburg <tleeuwenburg at gmail.com> wrote:
Hi Lachlan,
In my frustrated moments, I think that about the whole world, not just government :). I think it's amazing when anyone manages to find a way to be successful through openness, and it's the way of the future. If only we could get there :) 
You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one...
-T
On 16 March 2015 at 15:02, Lachlan Musicman <datakid at gmail.com> wrote:
I deserve that rebuke and I think Pia makes a good point. But it's

also true that from *outside* government, it can be hard to be

anything but cynical, and I am not often seeing that change of

attitude that you claim - as someone bubbling with impatience on the

outside, I see feet draggers and excuse makers. I think that different

levels of government (Fed, State, Local) probably have different

opinions and different levels of commitment as well. I know I should

be differentiating between them, but in reality, I just see a wall of

Government.

Good to see the discussion take off ;)

Cheers

L.

------

The totalitarian society envisioned by George Orwell in 1984 should

have arrived by now. The electronic gadgets are here. The government

is here, ready to do what Orwell anticipated. So the power exists, the

motive, and the electronic hardware. But these mean nothing, because,

progressively more and more so, no one is listening. The new youth

that I see is too stupid to read, too restless and bored to watch, too

preoccupied to remember. The collective voice of the authorities is

wasted on him; he rebels. But rebels not out of theoretical,

ideological considerations, only out of what might be called pure

selfishness. Plus a careless lack of regard for the dread consequences

the authorities promise him if he fails to obey. He cannot be bribed

because what he wants he can build, steal, or in some curious,

intricate way acquire for himself. He cannot be intimidated because on

the streets and in his home he has seen and participated in so much

violence that it fails to cow him. He merely gets out of its way when

it threatens, or, if he can't escape, he fights back. When the locked

police van comes to carry him off to the concentration camp the guards

will discover that while loading the van they have failed to note that

another equally hopeless juvenile has slashed the tires. The van is

out of commission. And while the tires are being replaced, the other

youth siphons out all the gas from the gas tank for his souped-up

Chevrolet Impala and has sped off long ago.

----

The Android and the Human, Philip K. Dick

sourced from http://boingboing.net/2015/03/10/philip-k-dicks-androids-blu.html

On 15 March 2015 at 11:22, Pia Waugh <pia.waugh at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi all,

>

> Just a quick one:

>

> On Fri, Mar 13, 2015 at 3:30 PM, Lachlan Musicman <datakid at gmail.com> wrote:

>

>> Government officials. I cannot express how grateful I am that there are

>> people in this organisation who can talk pretty because I just want to break

>> their kneecaps and push them into puddles with a sneer.

>

>

> It'd be really cool if people could remember that "government officials" are

> not a faceless enemy. There are a lot of us working in government to improve

> things, and comments like this certainly don't help. If you make it a

> "you're either with us or agin us" then you make it very hard to

> collaborate, educate or change the status quo. Personally I'm finding

> attitudes are changing within Australian governments (fed, state/territory

> and local) quite rapidly and I'm cautiously optimistic things will continue

> to get better. Meanwhile, I guess we'll start issuing knee protectors as

> standard issue across the public service ;)

>

> Cheers,

> Pia

>

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-- 
--------------------------------------------------
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http://myownhat.blogspot.com/
"Don't believe everything you think"

-- 
STEVEN DE COSTA | EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
www.linkdigital.com.au

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