[open-government] Citizens Engagement in Open Gov't Data

[John Wonderlich]

Hi Gisele,

I love this idea, and would like very much for it to succeed.

For what it's worth, we've tried hard to get the US government to create
such an inventory, and I've written a few times about those efforts.  For
example:

http://sunlightfoundation.com/blog/2012/03/22/the-missing-open-data-policy/

We have requirements in law that this happen from the government already,
but they're pretty much ignored entirely:

http://sunlightfoundation.com/blog/2009/12/19/paperwork-reduction-act-both-irrelevant-and-overbearing/

...and so we're proceeding by trying to get the government to do it, and
the US included a similar commitment in their OGP plan, encouraging
agencies to do better inventories of their regulatory data.  The best job
by far has come from the Department of Transportation plan:

http://regs.dot.gov/docs/DOT%20Draft%20Enforcement%20and%20Compliance%20Data%20Report%20-%2005-18-2011%20-%20OCR.pdf

As you can see in that pdf, the department made a big list of all their
major datasets, and explained whether or not it was available, and also
what they plan to do to improve it.  My very strong preference is for all
governments to do this, and take better responsibility for the decisions
about what should be public and what shouldn't be, and to decide how things
should be released.

Even if the government won't do it, it's (of course) possible to do this
from the outside.  We've tried to do that for some offices of the US
Congress:

http://www.opencongress.org/wiki/House_Office_of_the_Clerk
http://www.opencongress.org/wiki/Senate_Office_of_Public_Records


...and we've considered what it might take to do this for entire categories
of laws and regulations.  Basically, we want to review the information
government is collecting, and audit whether they're releasing it
appropriately.

Hopefully this is helpful for you, and please let us know if there's
anything else that might be useful.


john

On Thu, May 3, 2012 at 3:07 AM, Gisele S. Craveiro <
gisele.craveiro at gmail.com> wrote:

> Dear all,
>
>
> Here in Brazil we are starting a discussion about the creation of a
> information inventory (catalog of all the databases and information
> systems)  in the regional executive level.
>
> I think that the publication of such a catalog in the web, coupled to a
> request for information tool can give valuable clues to the prioritization
> process. But it´s only a guess.
> I really appreciate if somebody could send me information about an
> initiative like this.
>
> Best,
>
> Gisele Craveiro
>
> 2012/4/28 Fabio Shida Fukuda <shidafukuda at un.org>
>
>> Dear All:
>>
>> I would like to have some comments and ideas on how to capture and
>> measure social and citizens demands to the design of strategies of Open
>> Gov't Data.
>>
>> In many countries, opening data might be a costly process due to human
>> and financial resources constraints - thus selecting the datasets which
>> respond to civil society demands can be a good way to start the design the
>> strategy since many public bodies are/can be involved in this process.
>>
>> Thank you in advance for sharing your thoughts!
>>
>> Best regards,
>>
>> Fabio
>>
>>
>> *Fabio Enzo Shida Fukuda*
>>
>> UNPAN Management Unit
>>
>> Division for Public Administration and Development Management | DPADM
>>
>> United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs | UN DESA
>>
>> ) shidafukuda at un.org |  fabio.fukuda1 (skype)
>>
>> É +1 212 963 1070 (office) | +1 917 283 0429  (mobile)
>>
>> G  2 United Nations Plaza | Room DC2-1726 | New York, NY | 10017 USA
>>
>> [image: Home > United Nations Online Network in Public Administration and
>> Finance (UNPAN)] <http://www.unpan.org/Home/tabid/36/Default.aspx>
>>
>>
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