[OpenSpending] [CivicAccess-discuss] [open-gov] Fwd: Fwd: [sunlightlabs] MapLight Launches New US Money and Politics Data Set

Tue Oct 2 23:19:37 UTC 2012

While this issue should be discussed more and there is lots to dive into here it is deeply, deeply problematic to link making Stats Can's data open with the cut backs faced by Stats Can. There is no evidence that those two are linked (indeed, many of the cuts to its service predated the decision to make its data open), the revenue generated by statscan for its data was incredibly small. The budget cuts come from a government that (sadly) simply does not value data or the organization's role - this is a serious problem, but let's not conflate it with the opening of their data.

Dave

On 2012-10-02, at 4:10 PM, Heather Morrison wrote:

> Opening up data for commercial use takes more than a license. In many cases, it will be necessary to reconsider the funding model for producing the data in the first place. The experience with Statistics Canada is a case in point; Stats Can went to open data, then shortly thereafter to cutbacks which meant losses in staff and data collection. 
> 
> Governments in recent decades have expected departments to move to cost-recovery. To move to open, new sources of funding are needed. This is not easy to do in these times of fiscal restraint.
> 
> Stats Can references:
> 
> See the Statistics Canada Open Data License Agreement, March 29, 2012:
> http://www.statcan.gc.ca/reference/licence-faq-eng.html
> 
> Budget Cuts leave StatsCan girding for fewer surveys, less staff, Globe & Mail article, April 23, 2012:
> http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/budget-cuts-leave-statscan-girding-for-fewer-surveys-less-staff/article4103776/
> 
> best,
> 
> Heather Morrison
> 
> 
> On 2012-10-02, at 2:52 PM, Karl Fogel wrote:
> 
>> Thomas Lord <lord at emf.net> writes:
>>> For what it might be worth I'd also like to weigh in to express some
>>> hope that MapLight might reconsider and drop its restrictions on some
>>> forms of commercial use of some of the data they offer. [...]
>> 
>> What Tom said.  This may be "open" in some sense, but it's not "open
>> source" in the sense of giving people true freedom to do the unexpected.
>> Enforcing non-commerciality is indeed "contrary to the spirit of the
>> open government movement", as he put it.
>> 
>> People often use non-commerciality restrictions to accomplish what they
>> could better accomplish with a simple Share-Alike provision -- and the
>> latter would be truly open too.  (Of course, there's more going on in
>> this case than just commercial-use issues.)
>> 
>> I hope MapLight sees the light.
>> 
>> [Speaking only for myself, not Civic Commons; I just used that address
>> because I believe it's the one I'm able to post here with.]
>> 
>> -Karl
>> 
>>> Another licensing term I think is horribly, horribly
>>> problematic says:
>>> 
>>> "User will, upon MapLight's request, provide 
>>> MapLight with monthly traffic statistics (visitors
>>> and pageviews) for web pages that use MapLight 
>>> Data. MapLight does not distribute user-specific 
>>> traffic statistics except in cases where we have
>>> obtained the user's permission. MapLight reserves
>>> the right to publish usage statistics aggregated
>>> across multiple users. News media exemption: The
>>> requirements in this section 5 do not apply if you
>>> are using the MapLight Data only as part of news
>>> reporting, research reports, or commentary published
>>> on your site."
>>> 
>>> And then there's this one:
>>> 
>>> "These terms may be modified at any time. 
>>> MapLight will send notification of changes 
>>> to the MapLight Data Users email list."
>>> 
>>> With those terms I personally can't see any good way
>>> to build anything at all on MapLight data.  There
>>> are too many restrictions and too much uncertainty.
>>> This effectively silos the data in a way that I
>>> think runs contrary to the spirit of the 
>>> open government movement.
>>> 
>>> -t
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> On Tue, 2012-10-02 at 21:18 +0200, Jonathan Gray wrote:
>>>> My mistake, Heather!
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> I was under this impression from the press release, which says: "The
>>>> MapLight Money and Politics Data Set can also be downloaded or
>>>> accessed via API by citizens and journalists for free *non-commercial*
>>>> use in websites, widgets, and apps." (my emphasis).
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> I will forward the data license to the Open Definition Advisory
>>>> Council [1], to see if they think this is compliant with the Open
>>>> Definition [2]:
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> http://maplight.org/data/get/federal-money-and-politics-dataset/license
>>>> 
>>>> J.
>>>> 
>>>> [1] http://opendefinition.org/advisory-council/
>>>> [2] http://opendefinition.org/
>>>> 
>>>> On Tue, Oct 2, 2012 at 9:13 PM, Heather Morrison <hgmorris at sfu.ca>
>>>> wrote:
>>>>       Cool resource - thanks for sharing this, Michael!
>>>> 
>>>>       The Open Knowledge Foundation's Jonathan Gray's comment
>>>>       misportrays the license for this resource.
>>>> 
>>>>       Here is what it actually says: "free of charge for all uses
>>>>       that are freely available to the public. For example, you may
>>>>       use the MapLight Data on free public websites (including
>>>>       ad-supported websites); in news reporting available to the
>>>>       public; in academic research; in blog posts; and in mobile
>>>>       apps offered free of charge".
>>>>       http://maplight.org/data/get/federal-money-and-politics-dataset/license
>>>> 
>>>>       This is not a CC license, but it more closely resembles
>>>>       Sharealike than Noncommercial.
>>>> 
>>>>       best,
>>>> 
>>>>       Heather Morrison
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>>       On 2012-10-02, at 11:57 AM, Michael Lenczner wrote:
>>>> 
>>>>> fyi
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
>>>>> From: Jonathan Gray <jonathan.gray at okfn.org>
>>>>> Date: Tue, Oct 2, 2012 at 2:50 PM
>>>>> Subject: [OpenSpending] Fwd: [sunlightlabs] MapLight
>>>>       Launches New US
>>>>> Money and Politics Data Set
>>>>> To: open-government at lists.okfn.org,
>>>>       openspending at lists.okfn.org
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> Might be of interest. Shame it is all under a non-commercial
>>>>       license!
>>>>> 
>>>>> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
>>>>> From: Daniel Newman <dan at maplight.org>
>>>>> Date: Tue, Oct 2, 2012 at 8:23 PM
>>>>> Subject: [sunlightlabs] MapLight Launches New US Money and
>>>>       Politics Data Set
>>>>> To: sunlightlabs <sunlightlabs at googlegroups.com>
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> Free, Public MapLight Money and Politics Data Set Launches
>>>>       Today,
>>>>> Includes All Federal Campaign Contributions
>>>>> 
>>>>> Hosted on Google Fusion Tables for Easy Searching and Bulk
>>>>       Download
>>>>> Accessible by API
>>>>> 
>>>>> Oct. 2, 2012—MapLight, a nonpartisan research organization
>>>>       that
>>>>> reveals money's influence on politics, announces the launch
>>>>       of the
>>>>> MapLight Money and Politics Data Set, an easy-to-access,
>>>>       downloadable
>>>>> database of MapLight-enhanced Federal Elections Commission
>>>>       (FEC)
>>>>> campaign finance data for free public use. The data set
>>>>       includes all
>>>>> federal contributions, independent expenditures (including
>>>>       super
>>>>> PACs), and candidate and committee totals and will update
>>>>       regularly
>>>>> with the most current data from the FEC.
>>>>> 
>>>>> "MapLight is excited to offer this critical civic data in a
>>>>       way that
>>>>> is more timely and accessible than ever before, said Daniel
>>>>       G. Newman,
>>>>> MapLights co-founder and president. "It will be wonderful to
>>>>       see what
>>>>> the web community builds with this continually-updated free
>>>>       public
>>>>> data, using the latest tools from Google Fusion Tables."
>>>>> 
>>>>> Citizens, journalists, and programmers can now view, search,
>>>>       sort,
>>>>> filter, and visualize (with charts, line graphs, bar graphs,
>>>>       scatter
>>>>> plots, and timelines) federal campaign contributions using
>>>>       Google
>>>>> Fusion Tables. Data can also be merged with outside
>>>>       databases, and
>>>>> visualizations can be easily embedded into blogs, media
>>>>       sites, and
>>>>> more.
>>>>> 
>>>>> The MapLight Money and Politics Data Set can also be
>>>>       downloaded or
>>>>> accessed via API by citizens and journalists for free
>>>>       non-commercial
>>>>> use in websites, widgets, and apps. The data set includes
>>>>       continually
>>>>> updated information on all current candidates for the House,
>>>>       Senate,
>>>>> and U.S. Presidentincluding how much each has raised and
>>>>       spentmaking
>>>>> it easy for election-related websites to integrate this
>>>>       newsworthy
>>>>> information.
>>>>> 
>>>>> Read more:
>>>>       http://maplight.org/maplight-launches-fec-money-and-politics-data-set
>>>>> 
>>>>> -----
>>>>> Daniel Newman
>>>>> President & Co-Founder
>>>>> MapLight
>>>>> 
>>>>> --
>>>>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the
>>>>       Google
>>>>> Groups "sunlightlabs" group.
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>>>>> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
>>>>> sunlightlabs+unsubscribe at googlegroups.com.
>>>>> For more options, visit this group at
>>>>> http://groups.google.com/group/sunlightlabs?hl=en.
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> --
>>>>> Jonathan Gray
>>>>> 
>>>>> Head of Community
>>>>> The Open Knowledge Foundation
>>>>> http://www.okfn.org
>>>>> 
>>>>> http://twitter.com/jwyg
>>>>> 
>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>> openspending mailing list
>>>>> openspending at lists.okfn.org
>>>>> http://lists.okfn.org/mailman/listinfo/openspending
>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>> CivicAccess-discuss mailing list
>>>>> CivicAccess-discuss at civicaccess.ca
>>>>> http://lists.pwd.ca/mailman/listinfo/civicaccess-discuss
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> -- 
>>>> Jonathan Gray
>>>> 
>>>> Head of Community
>>>> The Open Knowledge Foundation
>>>> http://www.okfn.org
>>>> 
>>>> http://twitter.com/jwyg
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> -- 
>>>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google
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> 
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