[okfn-za] okfn-za Digest, Vol 34, Issue 13

Fri Oct 3 11:36:36 UTC 2014

Hi Adi,
It seems that my comments were considered in the response in so far as
they were noted, but they did not make it into the final document. (I
could apply a number of adjectives to the process at this point.)

While congratulations are in order to the City of Cape Town on getting
their Open Data policy through - approved 25 September 2014 City of Cape
Town Open Data Policy
http://www.capetown.gov.za/en/Policies/All%20Policies/Open%20Data%20Policy%20-%20(Policy%20number%2027781)%20approved%20on%2025%20September%202014.pdf
<http://www.capetown.gov.za/en/Policies/All%20Policies/Open%20Data%20Policy%20-%20%28Policy%20number%2027781%29%20approved%20on%2025%20September%202014.pdf>
- I am kind of disappointed.

I do believe that there is a significant issue that has emerged in their
conflating "Open" and "Free", much in the same way as was done with Open
Source to the detriment of South African business. The difference
between these two politically laden words is actually an engineering
issue, because it profoundly affects the sustainability of the
implementation.

A further issue is that one would want to use standards and create
standards for data interoperations - this should be costed into such a
roll out. I do believe this needs to be addressed as a critical issue as
soon as possible.

Ironically, this issue may well touch on another issue, that is
meaningfully engaging all communities. This Open Data policy actually a
good thing in so many ways and the fact that some councilors voted
against it should be addressed.

Regards
David

On 2014/09/27, 4:39 PM, okfn-za-request at lists.okfn.org wrote:
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> Today's Topics:
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>    1. Re: City of Cape Town's open data policy (Adi Eyal)
>    2. Re: City of Cape Town's open data policy (Louisa Potter)
>    3. Re: City of Cape Town's open data policy (Geoffrey Kilpin)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Sat, 27 Sep 2014 14:39:00 +0200
> From: Adi Eyal <adi at code4sa.org>
> To: Geoffrey Kilpin <geoffreykilpin at gmail.com>
> Cc: "okfn-za at lists.okfn.org" <okfn-za at lists.okfn.org>,
> 	"odadi at googlegroups.com" <odadi at googlegroups.com>
> Subject: Re: [okfn-za] City of Cape Town's open data policy
> Message-ID:
> 	<CAEQY0Y47GSRUwYcBamkMvuMh80bR5vH7W8wzqRq8nyuJaYT5FA at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
>
> Thanks for that Geoff
>
> I'm disappointed that Code for South Africa's submission was ignored.
> Perhaps other submissions were also ignored.
>
> Also, it seems that the meat of what should be included in any open
> data policy will only be addressed after approval of the policy. A
> common theme across many of the public submissions was concern around
> the establishment of the steering committee who will "vet" requests
> for data to made public. The response to each of these concerns was a
> blanket response:
>
> "The relevant clauses of the policy are intended to mitigate possible
> unanticipated risks that may arise with the release of data to the
> public."
>
> It seems that this steering committee plans to act as a censorship board.
>
> In summary, only superficial comments were addressed in the approved
> policy. As it stands the policy continues to be flawed and, in my
> opinion, may actually result in less data being released to the public
> due to the requirement for data to be approved by the steering
> committee. It would be interesting to track which requests for data
> are rejected. I would urge submissions to the committee to be made
> public so as to track the criteria which the committee will use to
> accept or reject requests for data.
>
> I'm keen to hear opinions from other members of this group.
>
> Regards
> Adi
>
> On 27 September 2014 13:16, Geoffrey Kilpin <geoffreykilpin at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Hi Adi,
>>
>> After a bit of digging through the list of documents for the last Council
>> meeting I assume that 'C25/09/14 [ITEM 45] - ANNEXURE TO REPORT - PDF PAGES
>> 87-119 (83-115)' is the policy presented to Council. Clearly that isn't
>> necessarily the final version, but it is nevertheless interesting as it
>> includes responses to public comments.
>>
>> C25/09/14 [ITEM 45] - DRAFT OPEN DATA POLICY is also there - which looks
>> like minutes from a meeting where the policy was considered.
>>
>> Kind regards,
>> Geoff.
>>
>> On Sat, Sep 27, 2014 at 10:02 AM, Adi Eyal <adi at code4sa.org> wrote:
>>> Hi All
>>>
>>> Has any one managed to get a copy of the final open data policy for
>>> the City of Cape Town? Apart from the press release that has been
>>> mindlessly copied and pasted by a dozen media outlets, it doesn't seem
>>> like the final (not the draft) policy has been published anywhere.
>>>
>>> Regards
>>> Adi
>>>
>>> --
>>> Adi Eyal
>>> Director
>>> Code for South Africa
>>> Promoting informed decision-making
>>>
>>> phone: +27 78 014 2469
>>> skype: adieyalcas
>>> linkedin: http://za.linkedin.com/pub/dir/Adi/Eyal
>>> web: http://www.code4sa.org
>>> twitter: @soapsudtycoon
>>>
>>> For more information on how to participate in the open data community
>>> in South Africa, go to: http://www.code4sa.org/#community
>>>
>>> --
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>>
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>

-- 
David Hislop, 
david.hislop at korwe.com
+27 (21) 913 6519
@davidjhislop
www.korwe.com

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