[open-government] We need international open government data principles

Fri Jul 8 12:17:54 UTC 2011

Hi

This is a good initiative, and as most governments copy policies from
perceived power centres, a unique opportunity to get peripheral countries to
do it right.

There are questions about the method though.

>From a practical point of view, would it be easier to piggyback an existing
international forum or space, or work from scratch via the contacts in this
list?

Is there an existing international governance space that would be dealing
with this issue?

Digital rights groups already engage with OEDC on issues via CSISAC, and
there are a few other spaces, but so far open data has fallen in the gaps.

So far the approach has been individual contacts, and it would be good to
get an update on the work that has ben done in this direction with US and UK
governments around the time of the last OGD Camp in London.

However, with my policy and civil society hat I think that working
out international agreements through small networking power players is a
recipe for disaster. I can see this has worked quite well so far in a few
rich countries, but lacking even semi-formal policy fora can be very
problematic.

The theory of change of close collaboration with government and going for
the middle ranking civil servants that "get it" is not completely
exportable. In many countries, you need to involve civil society in a
structured process, not just the legal experts and the digerati. Besides,
open data sits in the junction of several fields of transparency,
e-democracy, privacy, ICT4D, etc. All these areas have strong international
civil society networks and organisations with maybe something to say about
global open data.

The case of Kenya is really interesting and will provide a massive insight,
but it will take some time to see what works. In any case Kenya has is a
very strong basis of tech expertise and it seems there has been wider
involvement. Mendi, it would be good to hear more of the process.

The other thing to consider is what level of commitment are we looking for
from governments? In the open hardware circles now there is an attempt to
work out a private international standard run by the community. The
following page gives an overview of standards:

http://www.iso.org/iso/private_standards.pdf

but these are normally applied to companies trading globally, mainly in
agriculture, if we are looking at governments providing local data, this may
be more difficult. Still it could be a starting point.

In UK there is Information Fair Trading Scheme.

W3C is also working on an standard for open data, but this may be focused on
the technical linked data aspects rather than policy.

So maybe starting with a community initiative, but in a format that can be
easily adopted by governments could be the best path?

Javier

2011/7/8 Fabrizio Scrollini <fabrizio.scrollini at gmail.com>

> Hi
>
> great initiative.
>
> Just to contribute with the Latin American view on this, two cities
> Montevideo (following the Sebastopol 8 principles)  and Sao Paulo already
> have policies in place, yet there is nothing similar to a law or a decree
> regulating the issue.
>
> Chile is moving forward as more data is becoming available online and the
> Council for Transparency is testing open data
> http://www.consejotransparencia.cl/consejo/site/edic/base/port/pcatalogo.html.
> Probably all of you are aware of the Web Foundaiton study on Chile as well
> in terms of feasibility of implementation of open data policies in Chile.
>
> There is a need for clear principles. For example an excellent website
> called Gasto Publico Bahiense in Argentina (sort of where does my money go)
> had to close because someone in the government used a capcha when they
> redesigned the budget official website. According the people in charge of
> gasto publico bahiense, they will redesign their website, and will overcome
> this obstacle, (which is great) but I think there should be a clear
> understanding of rules of the game between activists and government to
> prevent this unnecessary clashes. Having said all this, people I know in the
> Open Data world are very adverse to anything like regulation, and with good
> reasons as drawing policies in stone, may well harm the advancement of the
> agenda.
>
> While I see key issues in use and reuse of information in countries such as
> UK, Australia and New Zealand, this point is not particularly clear in Latin
> America yet (and possibly in some European countries as well). So I guess
> there is a need to rethink the intersection of Intellectual Property, Access
> to Information and Open Data.
>
> I am in to discuss the topic, and contribute,
>
> Best wishes,
>
> Fabrizio
>
>
>
>
>
>
> 2011/7/8 Ivan Begtin <ibegtin at gmail.com>
>
>> Hi Jonathan.
>>     I think it's very important. And it's will be even more important if
>> we will have any chance to get support for those principles of
>> intergovernmental bodies.
>>
>> Sad to say but russian officials actually motivated by low ratings of
>> Russia made by UN, ITU and WorldBank (DoingBusiness).
>>
>> Sure we could do a lot without any government support  but open framework
>> will speed up data opening.
>> Also here in Russia we have licensing vacuum about government information.
>> So I think that basic framework and implementation roadmap are very
>> important.
>>
>> I will be happy to help so much as I can.
>>
>>
>> 2011/7/8 Jonathan Gray <jonathan.gray at okfn.org>
>>
>>> I just posted this on the OKF blog:
>>>
>>>
>>> http://blog.okfn.org/2011/07/08/we-need-international-open-government-data-principles/
>>>
>>> I'd really like to try and start a conversation around this again -
>>> with key stakeholders from around the world.
>>>
>>> The key thing in my mind is consensus - rather than new content. We
>>> have lots of good conceptual work, and clear wording to build on. What
>>> is needed is to bring key people to the table and to agree on
>>> something very short and very clear.
>>>
>>> Anyone interested? ;-)
>>>
>>> --
>>> 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
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>>
>> Best Regards,
>>   Ivan Begtin
>>
>> email: ibegtin at gmail.com
>> twitter: ibegtin <http://twitter.com/ibegtin>
>> facebook: facebook.com/ibegtin
>> personal website: ivan.begtin.name
>>
>>
>>
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>> http://lists.okfn.org/mailman/listinfo/open-government
>>
>>
>
>
> --
> Fabrizio Scrollini
>
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>
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