[open-government] introduction to list

[ericnbarrett at gmail.com]

Dear all,

Jonathan asked that I introduce my organization and myself since we are
working on opening up budget data in Tbilisi, Georgia. I work for JumpStart
Georgia and we have implemented a number of technical projects over the last
year and a half. While still a young org, we have mapped the country (data
available at http://omc.ge/data) and worked with local organizations to
manage their info better as well as share it.

We recently received funding from OSI to fund our project TbiliCity, which
intends to open up data about the city of Tbilisi, starting with
budget/spending data. In addition to the budget we are looking at city
services, utilities, transportation and waste management.

I am excited about the project. Though a lot of work, I think we might make
some headway and do some interesting online applications to showcase the
data.

On Sunday I finally heard back from the city in an email that seemed quite
positive. Though I am uncertain if that will turn into tangible displays of
data, this route seems like it will be positive.

I have also started contacting local organizations, as well as larger INGOs,
with the intention of starting an Open Data Coalition. I would like to get
orgs on board that have clout and could help with leveraging and lobbying.
One purpose is to get the Mayor's office (and then on a national level in
the future) to start a open data directive and the other is to focus on
legislation that is related to this and lobby for positive change.

It is great to meet all of you and I look forward to reading your
experiences and posts and getting feedback.

All the best,

Eric Barrett
JumpStartGeorgia
currently http://omc.ge
eric at omc.ge
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