[okfn-discuss] Open Data is Civic Capital: Best Practices for "Open Government Data"

Mon Jun 8 09:04:45 UTC 2009

2009/6/5 Jonathan Gray <jonathan.gray at okfn.org>:
> Brilliant!

Yes, this is great Josh!

> I also wonder if you think it could be worth creating a very concise,
> 'open government data definition' - which detailed the necessary
> additions to OKD as outlined in your essay?

I recall in our original discussion here of the 8 principles [1], it
was suggested that items 4-8 were probably covered by the Open
Knowledge/Data Definition leaving as extra items 1 to 3 which were
more about principles or actions the Government should take:

[1]: http://lists.okfn.org/pipermail/okfn-discuss/2007-December/000673.html

<quote>
1. Complete: All public data is made available. Public data is data that is not
subject to valid privacy, security or privilege limitations.

2. Primary: Data is as collected at the source, with the highest possible level
of granularity, not in aggregate or modified forms.

3. Timely: Data is made available as quickly as necessary to preserve the
value of the data.
</quote>

One extra item that is worth thinking about is how these kind of
principles will play outside of the US -- attitudes to Government data
in, e.g. European countries, is often rather different than in the
States (where we have federal data in the Public Domain by default).
For example, item 8 from the original 8 principles saying "data is not
subject to any copyright, patent, ..." is simply not true in the UK.

Regards,

Rufus

> On Fri, Jun 5, 2009 at 3:50 PM, Josh Tauberer<tauberer at govtrack.us> wrote:
>> Yes, I think you're right. I'll keep this in mind for the next version.
>>
>> Thanks.
>>
>> - Josh Tauberer
>> - GovTrack.us
>>
>> http://razor.occams.info
>>
>> "Yields falsehood when preceded by its quotation!  Yields
>> falsehood when preceded by its quotation!" Achilles to
>> Tortoise (in "Godel, Escher, Bach" by Douglas Hofstadter)
>>
>> On 05/19/2009 01:53 PM, Jonathan Gray wrote:
>>>
>>> This looks great Josh!
>>>
>>> I wonder if there's any way you would consider alluding to the OKD in
>>> the body of the text, as well as towards the end?
>>>
>>> E.g. by saying OKD compliance is a necessary but not sufficient
>>> condition for open government data?
>>>
>>> Jonathan
>>>
>>> On Tue, May 19, 2009 at 7:37 PM, Josh Tauberer<tauberer at govtrack.us>
>>>  wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Hi, all. I'm sorry I haven't had the time to say much here, though I've
>>>> tried to watch the progress. Over the last several months I've been
>>>> writing
>>>> an essay-
>>>>
>>>>  Open Data is Civic Capital: Best Practices for "Open Government Data"
>>>>  http://razor.occams.info/pubdocs/opendataciviccapital.html
>>>>
>>>> -which addresses a small portion of the issues that have come up in this
>>>> group, so I thought I would share it here. The motivation to write this
>>>> started at Transparency Camp [1] a few months ago, and at the end of the
>>>> conference Gunnar Hellekson of Red Hat, and later I, decided to take on
>>>> the
>>>> project of bringing together a repository of best-practices guides for
>>>> technology’s role in an open government. (We have a wiki page for the
>>>> project [2] which lists some of the guides we’d like to see written.)
>>>>
>>>> The goal of Open Data is Civic Capital was 1) to motivate why open
>>>> government data isn’t just an ideological issue but actually makes
>>>> society
>>>> more powerful, and can really make the world a better place, and 2) to
>>>> outline some suggested priorities and recommendations for open government
>>>> data, drawing on the recommendations of a number of past groups. The
>>>> essay
>>>> begins:
>>>>
>>>>    “Creating a well-informed public is a core value of representative
>>>> government. It is a prerequisite for ensuring the best representatives
>>>> are
>>>> elected and a crucial component of government oversight—as well as being
>>>> important in areas well beyond civics. This document speaks to why public
>>>> government data (also called ‘public sector information’) is a valuable
>>>> resource to society if put on the Web and shared freely with the public,
>>>> and
>>>> discusses how to go about doing it. We discuss technological
>>>> considerations
>>>> and end with sixteen guiding principles for best practices in open
>>>> government data.”
>>>>
>>>> Hopefully you find this useful/informative (as opposed to spam :-).
>>>>
>>>> [1] http://transparencycamp.org/
>>>> [2] http://wiki.opengovdata.org/index.php/Best_Practices
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> - Josh Tauberer
>>>> - GovTrack.us
>>>>
>>>> http://razor.occams.info
>>>>
>>>> "Yields falsehood when preceded by its quotation!  Yields
>>>> falsehood when preceded by its quotation!" Achilles to
>>>> Tortoise (in "Godel, Escher, Bach" by Douglas Hofstadter)
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Jonathan Gray
>
> Community Coordinator
> The Open Knowledge Foundation
> http://www.okfn.org
>
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