[OpenSpending] spendingdata.org: Developing a standard for transaction-level spending data

Tue Jul 10 10:11:07 UTC 2012

This is really exciting - looking forward to contributing however I can.

Mark

-----Original Message-----
From: openspending-bounces at lists.okfn.org
[mailto:openspending-bounces at lists.okfn.org] On Behalf Of Friedrich
Lindenberg
Sent: 09 July 2012 22:01
To: openspending
Subject: [OpenSpending] spendingdata.org: Developing a standard for
transaction-level spending data

Hi all,

we've been considering the idea of creating a reference format for
spending data for a while now. It's a good idea: what if many governments
- on different levels - were to release their spending in a uniform,
compatible format? Governments would have it easier to figure out how to
their publish data. Techies like us could begin to build tools for
analyzing the data that truly scale. NGOs and think tanks could easily see
what's in the data, without having to embark on a technology project
first. Eventually, the data could even become comparable across different
environments, raising many interesting questions.

We'd like to invite you to brainstorm with us: how would a simple,
pragmatic standard for spending data look? Through the recent GIFT report,
we've surveyed lots of similar initiatives [1] and collected some rough
ideas. Building on this, we're now looking for your support in
contributing your ideas against this straw man:

http://openspending.org/resources/standard/index.html

It's by far not concrete enough to actually build a validator ("rough
consensus and running code"), but with all of your help I'm hoping that
we'll get there quickly. If we can build support for such an idea, we can
convince some of those countries who have already opened up their data to
use better formats to do it; while giving concrete guidance to those who
are only now starting to share their spending data.

Best wishes,

 - Friedrich

[1] http://openspending.org/resources/gift/index.html

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