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

Fri Jul 22 04:17:48 UTC 2011

I definitely think that any such effort should start by looking at what has
come out of the 8 Principles. These were looked at quite thoroughly and
expanded to 12 principles by Josh Tauberer and as previously mentioned were
expanded to 10 principles by the folks at the Sunlight Foundation.  At least
in North America, the 8 principles tend to be seen as the defacto principles
and definitions for open government data and have since established
precedent in law. As I mentioned before, the 8 principles were included in
Ottawa's open data bill as well as the briefing paper for the proposed open
data bill for NYC. They're also the core of a proposed bill in New
Hampshire. Furthermore, they've been used as a rubric for the actual data
release process such as that done by the city of Seattle:

http://www.ottawa.ca/calendar/ottawa/citycouncil/occ/2010/05-12/csedc/08-ACS2010-COS-ITS-0005-Open%20data%20%282%29.htm
http://www.scribd.com/doc/43830154/New-York-City-Council-Int-29-Accessibility-to-Public-Records
http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/legislation/2011/HB0310.html
http://dropbox.ashlock.us/opengov/seattle/Open%20Data%20Candidate%20Requirements%20and%20Risk%20Evaluation%20V1%209.html

I think looking at the precedents that have been established working with
these 8 principles is the best way to solidify any such effort. It's also
helpful to acknowledge how these have evolved and been implemented in a more
organic and iterative fashion than trying to get a bunch of governments in a
room to all agree on something. This is particularly the case when looking
at local governments with their distributed multitudes rather than the more
rare chances to establish and implement such principles at the national
level.

Over the years, it's really been fun to watch how these policies go viral
and get refined over time. The Open Motion passed in Vancouver in 2009 was
the first in this modern wave of open government policies, but the language
used in that bill went on to be included in similar legislation elsewhere
such as the resolution passed soon after in Portland Oregon:

http://eaves.ca/2009/05/14/vancouver-enters-the-age-of-the-open-city/
http://siliconflorist.com/2009/09/28/city-portland-mayor-sam-adams-resolution-open-source-open-data-transparency-communities-official/

As I mentioned before, I've been trying to catalog these kinds of policies,
principles and best practices on the Civic Commons wiki, but I think the
best resource for coalescing a definitive set of principles from the
original 8 principles is the piece that Josh Tauberer wrote called Open Data
is Civic Capital:

http://razor.occams.info/pubdocs/opendataciviccapital.html

On the wiki:
http://wiki.civiccommons.org/Open_Data_Policy
http://wiki.civiccommons.org/Open_Data_Guidelines

Perhaps the OGP won't be a meaningful or functional venue to further develop
this, but I think it is something that will be high profile and will draw a
lot of attention, so at the very least it could be used to draw attention to
the work that's being done by others including local governments to commit
to a set of principles like many have started to do with the 8 principles.
This could actually be an effective way to have national governments follow
suit.

In any case, I hope to talk about this more at the OGP meeting tomorrow.

Cheers,
Phil

On Mon, Jul 18, 2011 at 4:50 PM, Jonathan Gray <jonathan.gray at okfn.org>wrote:

> Fully agree with your points John. This is partly why we've put more
> effort into the second Open Government Data Camp in Warsaw.
>
> It would be great to launch something with a 'coalition of the
> willing' (leading government open data initiatives, NGOs, etc) in
> Warsaw in October. ;-)
>
> http://opengovernmentdata.org/camp2011
>
> What do you think? Anyone up for giving it a shot?
>
> J.
>
> On Mon, Jul 18, 2011 at 4:44 PM, Daniel Dietrich
> <daniel.dietrich at okfn.org> wrote:
> > Thanks for the update John.
> >
> > My impression: the OGP is a great opportunity for countries to show that
> they willing to take action at the national level (Action plans) and to look
> good by joining the initiative (PR).
> >
> > However I have my doubt that this is a great opportunity to set
> international standards. The OGP clearly stays outside the UN because
> otherwise it would not have happened.
> >
> > My belief is that the 8 Principles and also the 10 principles and the
> open definition are strong because clear. I am a bit sceptical about
> approaching the UN or even OGD to agree on Open Government Data Principles.
> I am afraid that at the end of such a process we would end up with watered
> down results. e.g. the bare minimum standard that hurts nobody.
> >
> > Please keep us posted John.
> >
> > Daniel
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > On 18.07.2011, at 16:25, John Wonderlich wrote:
> >
> >> Now that the OGP event has passed, my impression is that it'll be a
> difficult forum through which to push  for the adoption of such data
> principles.
> >>
> >> The work is primarily around getting countries to adopt individual
> National Action Plans, which apply specifically to the participant
> countries, and are to be authored by each country, and then reported on
> regularly afterward.
> >>
> >> There will be significant pressure and analysis of whether each
> country's plan is sufficiently ambitious, and that gives countries a reason
> to want to be able to point to broader multilateral initiatives, like one
> that could be created around data principles.  But the countries are not
> trying to become an international force directed toward the UN, or even
> directed at other countries, beyond their attempt to encourage each other to
> take on narrow transparency reform issues.
> >>
> >> I will, however, raise this question at a meeting at the White House
> later this week, to see whether this sort of standardization effort might
> fit in any way with what they're doing.
> >>
> >> On Mon, Jul 11, 2011 at 9:24 AM, John Wonderlich <
> johnwonderlich at gmail.com> wrote:
> >> Sure, will do.
> >>
> >> I'd love to see the effort to evaluate open government data expanded and
> made more rigorous, and applied on more levels.  To see a bit more of what
> Sunlight did to this effect, here's another blog post we did around the 10
> principles, that lays out their relation to the 8:
> >>
> >>
> http://sunlightfoundation.com/blog/2010/08/11/a-principled-look-at-open-data/
> >>
> >> We also tried at one point to expand the principles into something of an
> evaluative framework; to see the effort we tried, this blog post is a good
> starting point:
> >>
> >> http://sunlightlabs.com/blog/2010/evaluating-open-pages/
> >>
> >> The issue with expanding any particular principle, of course, is that it
> doesn't exist along a single continuum.  For example, there are many
> different ways in which a piece of government information can be considered
> permanent, so assigning a number on a 1-5 scale, for example, can be an
> unhelpful simplification.  To be broadly successful, I suspect that the
> principles (whichever were adopted) would have to be broken, in turn, into a
> variety of other evaluative criteria.  Or, instead, judged rather
> subjectively, in more of a narrative form.
> >>
> >> This is something that Josh Tauberer has done quite well at time in the
> US.  For an example of the data principles applied, see his post here:
> >>
> >> http://razor.occams.info/blog/2009/12/01/congressional-disbursements/
> >>
> >>
> >> On Mon, Jul 11, 2011 at 8:08 AM, Javier Ruiz <
> javier at openrightsgroup.org> wrote:
> >> Thanks John
> >>
> >> please keep us posted on the OGP anyway, it seems an important
> development that will probably have consequences, besides driving a wedge
> through the BRICs
> >>
> >> Javier
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> On 9 July 2011 00:48, John Wonderlich <johnwonderlich at gmail.com> wrote:
> >> It seems to me that the OGP event next week would be a good place to
> discuss the idea, but may not be the ideal place for further refinement of
> broad open data principles and guidelines, since it's limited to a few
> countries, and based on mutual encouragement for particular governance
> reforms more than it's based on the broad collective action involved in
> standards creation.
> >>
> >> Others more closely involved in the OGP process may feel differently, of
> course.
> >>
> >>
> >> On Fri, Jul 8, 2011 at 11:31 AM, Javier Ruiz <
> javier at openrightsgroup.org> wrote:
> >> John and Rufus
> >>
> >> you are participating in this
> >>
> >> http://www.state.gov/g/ogp/index.htm
> >>
> >> do you think this is going to be the international governance space for
> open data?
> >>
> >> javier
> >>
> >>
> >> 2011/7/8 John Wonderlich <johnwonderlich at gmail.com>
> >> Here are two:
> >>
> >> https://public.resource.org/8_principles.html
> >>
> >>
> http://sunlightfoundation.com/policy/documents/ten-open-data-principles/
> >>
> >> On Fri, Jul 8, 2011 at 7:13 AM, Jonathan Gray <jonathan.gray at okfn.org>
> wrote:
> >> 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
> >>
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> >>
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> >>
> >>
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>
> --
> Jonathan Gray
>
> Community Coordinator
> The Open Knowledge Foundation
> http://blog.okfn.org
>
> http://twitter.com/jwyg
> http://identi.ca/jwyg
>
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-- 

-- 
Philip Ashlock
Open Government Program Manager | *OpenPlans.org*<http://www.openplans.org/>|
*@philipashlock* <http://www.twitter.com/philipashlock>
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