[Open-data-census] [CivicAccess-discuss] [Okfn-ca] The Role of Canadian Municipal Open Data: A Multi-city Evaluation | Currie, Liam (MA Thesis)

Wed Sep 4 17:02:39 BST 2013

I think there's a natural link between open data and open source software,
both being part of the open movement, but entirely appreciate that closed
source solutions for open data exist, just as closed data open source
software exists.

There are many good reasons for public sector software to be open source -
freedom from vendor lock-in, sustainability and so on, which the open
source software movement can and do articulate clearly.

In the case of publishing open data, the usual open source software
arguments apply, along with one of transparency; as a citizen I want to
know that the data my government is opening is correct, and that good
methods (transparent themselves!) have been used to collect and process it.
 Open source software for the publishing and processing steps enables me to
feel confident in the open data - I can verify myself (or others can
verify) that it has not, for example, been erroneously multiplied by two
somewhere along the way. So the Open Knowledge Foundation has a strong
preference for open source software for open data. Nonetheless, we are
pragmatic, and acknowledge that for many public sector institutions, moving
to open source from traditional vendors is a big step, and may be a
transition that takes time. We'd love them all to go open source
 eventually but understand that it's not always easy or quick.

Specific questions of functionality and scaling of course apply to both
closed and open source - and I'm sure all kinds of open data portal
technologies, which are still in fairly early stages of evolution and
adoption in many ways, can and will improve :)

Laura

On 4 September 2013 13:30, Tracey P. Lauriault <tlauriau at gmail.com> wrote:

> Immanuel;
>
> What Stephane is saying, is that in the short term, as
> cities/Provs/Terr/Feds are transitioning to open data strategies, they need
> to cobble up what they have on hand to get data out.  Be that open source
> or not.  Once they get established a little, and do some organizational
> learning they can move to other platforms which in the best possible world,
> OS.
>
> I would argue that many of the current portals, even currently used open
> data OS ones, do not scale well when tens of thousands of datasets are in
> the systems.  The TBS open data portal is an great example.  Searching data
> with tags is by no means the best way, and common keyword vocabularies need
> to be used in order to actually find stuff.  This is where the geomatics
> folks, and the librarians come into play, they have been doing catalogs and
> portals for a good long time.  The Ottawa Public Library is an example of
> an excellent interoperable multi institutional catalog system.  Just need
> to think of data as books!
>
> Finally, this list has always been one where we communicate
> diplomatically.  Your last post was, somewhat not of that nature.  Breathe
> first.  Absolutism should be tempered with the grey zones of institutional
> change that we are witnessing in our institutions.  We will have to be
> patient or we will lose them.
>
> Cheers
> t
>
>
> On Wed, Sep 4, 2013 at 12:54 PM, Immanuel Giulea <
> giulea.immanuel at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> You don't need open source to have open data.   One the most successful
>>> open data platforms on the planet is not built with open source software
>>> (Socrata).  And most of the worlds best open data is stored in a decidedly
>>> non-open data data store which cannot be easily replaced (Oracle), nor
>>> should it.
>>>
>> -1
>>
>> This is so wrong, and on so many levels!!
>>
>> You cannot have open data without open source.
>> Socrata is not the best platform, it is being replaced by CKAN.
>> Oracle is being abandonned to the favor of MariaDB and Postgres and other
>> open database solutions.
>>
>>
>> As a subject matter, Open Source software is a very different realm than
>> open data, something that people surprisingly get mixed up together and
>> lump into one because they share is the word "Open".    It's also something
>> that would be difficult to write about with any depth unless you have
>> actually worked  in software development;  it's perhaps the only way to
>> separate  the hype from reality….and there is a lot of hype to be sure.
>>
>>
>>
>> -1 again
>> And wrong on so many levels again. Open data and open source are
>> intimately linked and should be analysed together.
>> You don't need an degree in software development to analyse the adoption
>> levels of FLOSS across different countries, levels of government and
>> industries.
>>
>>
>> No open data without open source!
>>
>> Just my 2 cents
>>
>>
>> Immanuel
>>
>>
>>
>> On Mon, Sep 2, 2013 at 4:58 PM, Peder Jakobsen <pjakobsen at gmail.com>wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> On 2013-09-01, at 7:55 AM, Immanuel Giulea <giulea.immanuel at gmail.com>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>> I would include the use of Free Libre and Open Source Software because
>>> open data without the right tools is not completely open data.
>>>
>>>
>>> You don't need open source to have open data.   One the most successful
>>> open data platforms on the planet is not built with open source software
>>> (Socrata).  And most of the worlds best open data is stored in a decidedly
>>> non-open data data store which cannot be easily replaced (Oracle), nor
>>> should it.
>>>
>>> As a subject matter, Open Source software is a very different realm than
>>> open data, something that people surprisingly get mixed up together and
>>> lump into one because they share is the word "Open".    It's also something
>>> that would be difficult to write about with any depth unless you have
>>> actually worked  in software development;  it's perhaps the only way to
>>> separate  the hype from reality….and there is a lot of hype to be sure.
>>>
>>> I love open data for a thesis, I would just extend it beyond the
>>> Canadian border, otherwise the subject matter seems too small.
>>>
>>> Peder
>>>
>>>
>>
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>> CivicAccess-discuss at civicaccess.ca
>> http://lists.pwd.ca/mailman/listinfo/civicaccess-discuss
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Tracey P. Lauriault
> http://traceyplauriault.wordpress.com/2013/07/23/moving-to-ireland/
> https://gcrc.carleton.ca/confluence/display/GCRCWEB/Lauriault
> http://datalibre.ca/
>
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> Open-data-census at lists.okfn.org
> http://lists.okfn.org/mailman/listinfo/open-data-census
>
>

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Dr Laura James

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The Open Knowledge Foundation <http://okfn.org/>

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