[open-government] Entrenching OpenData as Gov Policy

Mon Jul 4 11:28:49 UTC 2011

Hi everyone,

I've just returned from the Community of
Democracies<http://www.community-democracies.org/>congress in Vilnius
(Lithuania), where I found that I was the only OpenData
activist publicly pushing open access and open knowledge issues.

The most disturbing part of this is that I was also the lone voice for
OpenData at the new Civil Society Forum, or the existing Corporate Democracy
Forum, at CoD, which both spent substantial time speaking about the role of
social media and press freedom in the Arab Spring revolts, plus similar
pro-democracy movements elsewhere across the world. Delegates to both fora
had absolutely no understanding of OpenData or the importance it has for
hacktivists or journalists. When I later raised the issue at the separate US
State Department sponsored TechCamp <http://techcampglobal.org/> (which
sought to give activists digital tools for circumventing oppressive
regimes), there was a knee-jerk dismissal of OpenData as "irrelevant" and
"all abut tram timetables". The dismissals were by the top policy makers at
the Tech @ State <http://tech.state.gov/> team ... which shapes overall US
policy on such issues. I had to argue hard that this was nonsense, and that
access to development indicators, performance data, and things like mineral
license data, contracting data, etc, were all essential to watchdog NGOS &
journalists.

I think that, if OKF intends entrenching OpenData as a fundamental "pillar
of democracy" in governments around the world, it should make a concerted
effort to play a role in future meetings, + must proactively engage with the
Tech @ State folk (whether we agree with US foreign policy, or not). Open
Data should be recognised as a core principle for responsible government,
especially in the developing world, and not as a "nice to have" luxury as it
is currently viewed.

One way of doing this would be to produce a briefing pack for all of us to
use when any of us are at these kinds of events.

Cheers,
Justin

Justin Arenstein*
*
SA Mobile: +27-82-374-0812
US Mobile: +1-650-336-5878 *
*Skype: JustinArenstein
Twitter: JustinArenstein <http://twitter.com/justinarenstein>
Web: http://www.linkedin.com/in/JustinArenstein

On 4 July 2011 13:00, <open-government-request at lists.okfn.org> wrote:

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> Today's Topics:
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>   1. New releases from S?o Paulo? (Jonathan Gray)
>   2. Re: New releases from S?o Paulo? (Fabrizio Scrollini)
>   3. Re: New releases from S?o Paulo? (C?sar Viana)
>   4. International Digital Curation Conference (IDCC)
>      (Tracey P. Lauriault)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Sun, 3 Jul 2011 16:41:02 +0200
> From: Jonathan Gray <jonathan.gray at okfn.org>
> Subject: [open-government] New releases from S?o Paulo?
> To: open-government at lists.okfn.org
> Message-ID:
>        <CANQ_vu1DDFA0ibE3Sv=u4V20KjC++W2kbW1ZSxbztkT_=yO5sg at mail.gmail.com
> >
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
>
> Does anyone have links to material mentioned here?
>
>
> http://www.camara.sp.gov.br/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4378:camara-abre-dados-de-execucao-orcamentaria-e-participacao-dos-vereadores-em-sessoes&catid=33:cidadania&Itemid=90
>
> --
> Jonathan Gray
>
> Community Coordinator
> The Open Knowledge Foundation
> http://blog.okfn.org
>
> http://twitter.com/jwyg
> http://identi.ca/jwyg
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 2
> Date: Sun, 3 Jul 2011 16:12:53 +0100
> From: Fabrizio Scrollini <fabrizio.scrollini at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [open-government] New releases from S?o Paulo?
> To: Jonathan Gray <jonathan.gray at okfn.org>
> Cc: open-government at lists.okfn.org
> Message-ID:
>        <CALBK6h6eq5UWUMb5b=2eAa=CZ4CgtOsiGyRF8jqeCGoT1A=JOA at mail.gmail.com
> >
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
>
> One of the presenters at OKNFCon2011 actually was one the guys  who
> promoted
> this policy, and was working with transparency hacker in Brazil. He
> presented with  Lucas Maiton from IPEA. Unfortunately don't have his name
> handy
> Cheers,
> f
> On 3 July 2011 15:41, Jonathan Gray <jonathan.gray at okfn.org> wrote:
>
> > Does anyone have links to material mentioned here?
> >
> >
> >
> http://www.camara.sp.gov.br/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4378:camara-abre-dados-de-execucao-orcamentaria-e-participacao-dos-vereadores-em-sessoes&catid=33:cidadania&Itemid=90
> >
> > --
> > Jonathan Gray
> >
> > Community Coordinator
> > The Open Knowledge Foundation
> > http://blog.okfn.org
> >
> > http://twitter.com/jwyg
> > http://identi.ca/jwyg
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > open-government mailing list
> > open-government at lists.okfn.org
> > http://lists.okfn.org/mailman/listinfo/open-government
> >
>
>
>
> --
> Fabrizio Scrollini
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> Message: 3
> Date: Sun, 3 Jul 2011 16:22:45 -0300
> From: C?sar Viana <cesarviana at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [open-government] New releases from S?o Paulo?
> To: Jonathan Gray <jonathan.gray at okfn.org>
> Cc: open-government at lists.okfn.org
> Message-ID:
>        <CAKVuVAYZugo9HhGeL0o6kVQx=KMHpSGH_Y-fHr1GSzch5uz2Fw at mail.gmail.com
> >
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
>
> Hi, Jonathan,
>
> The open data presented there are:
>
> http://www.camara.sp.gov.br/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4417:contratos-abertos&catid=6:conheca-a-camara&Itemid=20
>
> http://www.camara.sp.gov.br/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4264&Itemid=205
>
> But it would be better organized, transparent and easy to visualize.
> Does it help you?
> Best,
>
> C?sar
> twitter.com/cesarviana
>
> On Sun, Jul 3, 2011 at 11:41 AM, Jonathan Gray <jonathan.gray at okfn.org
> >wrote:
>
> > Does anyone have links to material mentioned here?
> >
> >
> >
> http://www.camara.sp.gov.br/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4378:camara-abre-dados-de-execucao-orcamentaria-e-participacao-dos-vereadores-em-sessoes&catid=33:cidadania&Itemid=90
> >
> > --
> > Jonathan Gray
> >
> > Community Coordinator
> > The Open Knowledge Foundation
> > http://blog.okfn.org
> >
> > http://twitter.com/jwyg
> > http://identi.ca/jwyg
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > open-government mailing list
> > open-government at lists.okfn.org
> > http://lists.okfn.org/mailman/listinfo/open-government
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> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 4
> Date: Sun, 3 Jul 2011 18:50:59 -0400
> From: "Tracey P. Lauriault" <tlauriau at gmail.com>
> Subject: [open-government] International Digital Curation Conference
>        (IDCC)
> To: civicaccess discuss <CivicAccess-discuss at civicaccess.ca>,
>        open-government at lists.okfn.org,         Canadian Association of
> Public Data
>        Users <CAPDU at yorku.ca>
> Message-ID:
>        <CAPT_w+=FfNNNYNSdhTffQYhpbdK+5dvEZCyOhsZmy3rGQVCiBQ at mail.gmail.com
> >
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
>
> International Digital Curation Conference (IDCC)
> http://www.dcc.ac.uk/events/idcc11/programme
>
> Information about data curation
> http://www.dcc.ac.uk/digital-curation
> --
> Tracey P. Lauriault
> 613-234-2805
> http://traceyplauriault.ca/
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