[okfn-za] Stress testing the system

Thu Aug 22 22:48:46 UTC 2013

Liz, meet Adi.

Adi is heading up Code for South Africa, which is similar to the
myMpumalanga pilot we ran last yr -- but with more tech support. I'd like
you to plse help him submit a series of PAIA requests to authorities in the
W.Cape & City of C.Town, similar to the exercise you worked on with Cobus.
I suggest that you mirror the C.Town requests with identical ones to
Ehlanzeni, Mbombela, & whatever Witbank is called these days.

The results data should all be digital, machine readable, and should plse
be uploaded to openAFRICA.net for public re-use.

We can structure a workplan & timelines once Adi has walked you through the
list of 20 datasets we need from the various authorities. Adi will also
help you structure the tracking doc, etc. Keep me cc-ed.

Thnx.
Justin

Justin Arenstein*
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On 23 August 2013 00:31, Adi Eyal <adi at burgercom.co.za> wrote:

> > Adi, do you want me to assign a research intern in the AENS newsroom to
> help
> > submit & chase up these PAIA requests?
>
> Please.
>
> I must say though that I am really enjoying the process of requesting
> data for the sake of finding out whether it is available and how
> difficult I have to fight to get it. I think the data will be useful
> if it is made available but even being told that I cannot have it is
> still an interesting response.
>
> I'm struggling with phrasing my request for the municipal budget.
> Rather than requesting the entire budget in fine detail, I would like
> to focus on a specific area which might be easier to obtain - any
> suggestions for formulating the request?
> Adi
>
> >
> > Cheers,
> > Justin
> >
> > Justin Arenstein
> >
> > SA Mobile: +27.82.374.0812
> > US Mobile: +1.650.336.5878
> > Skype: JustinArenstein
> > Twitter: JustinArenstein
> > Web: http://www.linkedin.com/in/JustinArenstein
> >
> > PGP Key Fingerprint: 8B19 3C53 2B40 453B F48D 9D7A 7346 A3AE DB88 30CD
> > Do you want to email me confidentially? See: http://bit.ly/VLJt1N
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > On 17 August 2013 16:16, Rufus Pollock <rufus.pollock at okfn.org> wrote:
> >>
> >> This is a fantastic list Justin! One thing I'd love to do is to
> intersect
> >> it with this list of "key" datasets here:
> >>
> >>
> >>
> https://docs.google.com/a/okfn.org/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Aon3JiuouxLUdEVHQ0c4RGlRWm9Gak54NGV0UlpfOGc#gid=3
> >>
> >> Which was compiled in order to power the open data city survey:
> >>
> >> http://census.okfn.org/city/
> >>
> >> Rufus
> >>
> >>
> >> On 17 August 2013 12:12, Justin Arenstein <justinarenstein at gmail.com>
> >> wrote:
> >>>
> >>> Adi,
> >>>
> >>> Hi. I think the top 20 kinds of municipal data that would be
> immediately
> >>> useful for civic apps and ordinary citizens interested in realtime
> democracy
> >>> would include:
> >>>
> >>> 1.) CSV versions of the itemised municipal budget, with as much
> granular
> >>> detail as possible
> >>> 2.) Machine readable versions of all reports, proposals, transcripts,
> >>> documents, and other records from council sittings (including sub-coms)
> >>> 3.) Realtime access to unfiltered video / audio feeds of all council
> >>> sessions / sittings and other events
> >>> 4.) CSV / machine readable versions of all tenders advertised,
> >>> adjudicated, and issued with as much granular detail as possible (+
> >>> retrospective)
> >>> 5.) CSV / machine readable versions of municipal cadastral data, with
> >>> shape / boundary data
> >>> 6.) CSV / machine readable versions of contact directories for
> management
> >>> level council staff & the geo-areas / competencies they manage
> >>> 7.) CSV / machine readable versions of all municipal legal notices,
> >>> including EIAs / land change use notices, licensing, etc
> >>> 8.) CSV / machine readable versions of all municipal infrastructure /
> >>> capex development plans, with geo-data & other appropriate meta data
> >>> 9.) CSV / machine readable versions of all municipal services,
> including
> >>> health, housing, sanitation, education, etc
> >>> 10.) CSV / machine readable versions of the property roll (including
> all
> >>> council owned property)
> >>> 11.) CSV / machine readable versions of all health inspection citations
> >>> and other records
> >>> 12.) CSV / machine readable versions of all traffic / municipal police
> >>> citations or other incident / activity logs
> >>> 13.) CSV / machine readable versions of all (granular) crime data
> >>> available to council, including from SAPS & pvt security companies
> >>> 14.) CSV / machine readable versions of all datafeeds from CCTV and
> other
> >>> environmental sensors (air, water, sound, atmospheric, etc)
> >>> 15.) Machine readable versions of contact directories (phone / email /
> >>> social media) for all elected councillors + all management echelon
> staff
> >>> 16.) Machine readable versions of all declarations of interest / gifts
> /
> >>> association of all elected councillors + all management echelon staff
> >>> 17.) Machine readable versions of all diaries / travel schedules /
> >>> meeting registers of all elected councillors + all management echelon
> staff
> >>> 18.) Machine readable versions of the CVs / resumes of all elected
> >>> councillors + all management echelon staff
> >>> 19.) Machine readable versions of the CVs / resumes of all consultants,
> >>> advisors, etc, working with council
> >>> 20.) Machine readable versions of the records of disciplinary action /
> >>> blacklisting of staff, contractors, suppliers, consultants
> >>>
> >>> This is a kinda broad trawl, probably skewed by my previous job as an
> >>> investigative journo, but I think the resulting data would allow
> people to
> >>> do everything from compare schools / clinics / neighbourhoods, to
> checking
> >>> health safety at restaurants, etc, to monitoring development &
> services,
> >>> participating in licensing / land use changes, and helping to keep
> >>> government honest & focused on residents' real needs.
> >>>
> >>> I've probably overlooked some important or contextual stuff, so would
> be
> >>> interested to hear whether anyone else has other stuff to add.
> >>>
> >>> Cheers,
> >>> Justin
> >>>
> >>> Justin Arenstein
> >>>
> >>> SA Mobile: +27.82.374.0812
> >>> US Mobile: +1.650.336.5878
> >>> Skype: JustinArenstein
> >>> Twitter: JustinArenstein
> >>> Web: http://www.linkedin.com/in/JustinArenstein
> >>>
> >>> PGP Key Fingerprint: 8B19 3C53 2B40 453B F48D 9D7A 7346 A3AE DB88 30CD
> >>> Do you want to email me confidentially? See: http://bit.ly/VLJt1N
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> On 13 August 2013 23:06, Adi Eyal <adi at burgercom.co.za> wrote:
> >>>>
> >>>> Hi Robert
> >>>>
> >>>> Have you had a look on the StatsSA website for machine readable data?
> >>>> It's somewhat hidden and their interface is not fantastic, but have a
> >>>> look for SuperWeb. You can slice and dice data as you like and then
> >>>> download it in csv.
> >>>>
> >>>> Adi
> >>>>
> >>>> On 13 August 2013 13:22, Robert Elliott <robert at graphflow.com> wrote:
> >>>> > Hi Adi,
> >>>> >
> >>>> > It would be great to get the province's 2011 census data... in a
> >>>> > usable
> >>>> > format, so not PDF.
> >>>> >
> >>>> > I think that data formatting may be a topic worth focussing in on,
> >>>> > because
> >>>> > it isn't open if it is unusable.
> >>>> >
> >>>> > Cheers,
> >>>> > Rob
> >>>> >
> >>>> >
> >>>> > On Tue, Aug 13, 2013 at 10:05 AM, Greg Kempe <gregkempe at gmail.com>
> >>>> > wrote:
> >>>> >>
> >>>> >> Adi,
> >>>> >>
> >>>> >> That's great news, do you have any further details on it, who's
> >>>> >> putting it
> >>>> >> together, how far along it is etc?
> >>>> >>
> >>>> >> I would like to get access to the property valuations roll for the
> >>>> >> City.
> >>>> >> It's ostensibly available online (in bits and pieces) as well as in
> >>>> >> the
> >>>> >> paper archives, so it's already public data, but not readily
> >>>> >> accessible in
> >>>> >> bulk.
> >>>> >>
> >>>> >> Greg
> >>>> >>
> >>>> >> On 13 August 2013 at 9:50:09 AM, Adi Eyal (adi at burgercom.co.za)
> >>>> >> wrote:
> >>>> >>
> >>>> >> Hi All
> >>>> >>
> >>>> >> The Western Cape Government as well as the City of Cape Town are
> >>>> >> currently working on an open data policy. Yay!
> >>>> >>
> >>>> >> We've decide that rather than writing the (possibly out of touch
> with
> >>>> >> reality) policy, we will first start to stress the system but
> seeing
> >>>> >> where the flaws are. Then the policy will be written in an
> iterative
> >>>> >> fashion in order to focus on the most important areas.
> >>>> >>
> >>>> >> I'm playing Mr Mission Impossible but trying to get data from both
> >>>> >> institutions and writing up the case studies in order to poke holes
> >>>> >> in
> >>>> >> their existing policies and capacity to respond to requests.
> >>>> >>
> >>>> >> I'm soliciting suggestions from you for what data you would like to
> >>>> >> get from the City/Province if you could. I have some ideas but it
> >>>> >> would be great to get the community behind it.
> >>>> >>
> >>>> >> Thanks
> >>>> >> Adi
> >>>> >>
> >>>> >> --
> >>>> >> Adi Eyal
> >>>> >> Data Specialist
> >>>> >> phone: +27 78 014 2469
> >>>> >> skype: adieyalcas
> >>>> >> linkedin: http://za.linkedin.com/pub/dir/Adi/Eyal
> >>>> >>
> >>>> >> _______________________________________________
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> >>>> >> okfn-za at lists.okfn.org
> >>>> >> http://lists.okfn.org/mailman/listinfo/okfn-za
> >>>> >> Unsubscribe: http://lists.okfn.org/mailman/options/okfn-za
> >>>> >>
> >>>> >>
> >>>> >> _______________________________________________
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> >>>> >>
> >>>> >
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>> --
> >>>> Adi Eyal
> >>>> Data Specialist
> >>>> phone: +27 78 014 2469
> >>>> skype: adieyalcas
> >>>> linkedin: http://za.linkedin.com/pub/dir/Adi/Eyal
> >>>>
> >>>> _______________________________________________
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> >>>> http://lists.okfn.org/mailman/listinfo/okfn-za
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> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> _______________________________________________
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> >>>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> --
> >>
> >> Rufus Pollock
> >>
> >> Founder and Executive Director | skype: rufuspollock | @rufuspollock
> >>
> >> The Open Knowledge Foundation
> >>
> >> Empowering through Open Knowledge
> >>
> >> http://okfn.org/ | @okfn | OKF on Facebook |  Blog  |  Newsletter
> >
> >
>
>
>
> --
> Adi Eyal
> Data Specialist
> phone: +27 78 014 2469
> skype: adieyalcas
> linkedin: http://za.linkedin.com/pub/dir/Adi/Eyal
>
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