Hi,<div><br></div><div>I'm new to this list. Jonathan Gray has asked me to post on what we're doing in NZ.</div><div><br></div><div>I'm hoping to write a blog post for the OKFN site, but in the interim this email is a start.</div>
<div><br></div><div>In NZ we're currently drafting an Open Government Data and Information Charter[1]. This will clearly set into policy a number of aspects around open data that have so far just been the domain of early adopters inside and outside of government. I'm working closely on this with Keitha Booth, one of the government officials that wrote the NZ Govt Open Access Licencing framework[2].</div>
<div><br></div><div>As a part of the Charter we're writing a set of Principles[3]. Tim McNamara has written a post about the workshop[3] we ran on Wednesday this week. This nicely describes the way members of the open data community worked together with government officials to stress test and debug a set of Principles and align it with existing legislation and regulation. We did this by editing the Open NZ wiki, in real time, at the workshop. It was an awesome experience. These Principles draw heavily on the work all of you have done to date. We've taken guidance from the OECD, the UK Open Data Principles, and the work done in the US, Australia, Canada and Europe.<br>
</div><div><br></div><div>The next steps are to draft a Declaration, and a Cabinet paper, including evidence and case studies of the benefits that come from open data. It'd be great to get your input on what we're doing, based on experience in other countries. </div>
<div><br></div><div>It'd also be great get success stories (and stories of failure/cost due to the lack of release of govt data) to help our case. One of the other government officials involved in NZGOAL, has, on his own time and initiative created <a href="http://opendatastories.org/">http://opendatastories.org/</a> for this purpose. It's currently in final development and will be launched very soon. If you've got stories to contribute, please email <a href="mailto:Richard.Best@dia.govt.nz">Richard.Best@dia.govt.nz</a> directly and he can give you access.</div>
<div><br></div><div>In New Zealand we're doing all of this against the backdrop of an economic recession, and a huge natural disaster. I live in Christchurch, and have been massively impacted by the earthquake as has everyone here. 40% of the buildings in our central city have been destroyed. It is an enormous challenge. I myself have said goodbye to six sets of friends in the last three weeks who've had to leave the city due to lost homes, jobs and businesses. My accountant died and 180 other people died, and his colleagues were trapped under desks in the dark, in a collapsed building for several hours.</div>
<div><br></div><div>The silver lining is that much of the bureaucratic inertia that prevented local and central government from using social media, cloud computing, and open data, has been swept away. All of these got used in the emergency response, to great affect. The legacy systems of the past, on computers and in people's minds simply weren't up to the task. They've had to upgrade. There's now a new awareness of the benefits of doing things differently, of embracing open approaches.</div>
<div><br></div><div>I'm enormously optimistic about our future.</div><div><br></div><div>Julian</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div>[1] <a href="http://wiki.open.org.nz/Open_Government_Data_and_Information_Charter">http://wiki.open.org.nz/Open_Government_Data_and_Information_Charter</a></div>
<div>[2] <a href="http://www.e.govt.nz/policy/nzgoal">http://www.e.govt.nz/policy/nzgoal</a></div><div>[3] <a href="http://wiki.open.org.nz/Open_Data_and_Information_Principles">http://wiki.open.org.nz/Open_Data_and_Information_Principles</a></div>
<div>[4] <a href="http://notebook.okfn.org/2011/05/18/writeup-open-govt-data-and-information-charter-workshop/">http://notebook.okfn.org/2011/05/18/writeup-open-govt-data-and-information-charter-workshop/</a></div><div><br>
</div><div><br>-- <br>Julian Carver<br>Seradigm Limited<br>PO Box 30042<br>Christchurch<br>021 684 147<br>03 982 1105<br><a href="http://www.seradigm.co.nz">www.seradigm.co.nz</a><br>
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