Open data, open government

Structured and machine-readable data can help governments open up to public participation. Washington D.C. is a prime example in the United States. The city releases 428 data sets, ranging from vacant property, to purchase orders, to almost-real-time crime statistics. The data are delivered in a variety of formats (XML, KML, RSS, and others on a dedicated city Web site.

Developers can take the data and do what they will with it. One example is Stumble Safely that takes continually updated crime information and combines it with the location of bars and night spots to help revelers plan a safe night out. Information can also flow the other way. Award winners in a recent Apps for Democracy community edition contest was a program that allows iPhone users to place service requests to the city through the app, Fix My City DC. The app takes advantage of the city's first-in-the-world open 311 API. The system is an API (Application Programming Interface) - that is a program that lets other apps and programs talk to each other. In this case it allows app users to plug right in to the city's 311 system (for non-emergency service needs, as opposed to 911.) The app also takes advantage of other iPod features such as the ability to submit pictures of that monster pothole that are automatically geo-tagged with the exact spot.

I heard about this and other open-government initiatives at the launch conference for the University of Ottawa's Centre for Law, Technology and Society. One of the speakers, David Eaves, was detailing a list of crowd-sourcing and Web 2.0 friendly initiatives in that city. Among these were an app that lets users know in advance when their garbage pickup is (since Vancouver rotates its schedule.) Another new idea is using the Web game Foursquare to monitor how busy bus routes are, adding new buses on the fly if a given route is overloaded.

Another speaker was Daniel Schuman of the Washington, D.C. Sunlight Foundation. Schuman talked about some open government issues in the United States. He linked the issue to the recent Citizens United decision, claiming that if the flood of money into politics cannot be held back, at least it can be monitored. Schuman was enthusiastic about data.gov, a site where the federal government is releasing much information, sometimes in structured (XML, etc.) format. He cited two recent success stories, both involving Congress. The Sunlight Foundation has been able to cross reference data for lobbyists and members of congress to find instances when they have not always matched. Another project mapped the business interest of member of congress. (The main link seems to be having trouble right now. I believe the data behind this story came from the project.)

When government releases information in structured format, apps can be built to tie right into it. In Vancouver this has been made possible by the city's embrace of open-source software and sharing as much information as possible in open standards. (See here.) As you can see from the data.gov site here in the U.S., some of the American federal data is available in such structured formats (and D.C. has those 428 data streams). I asked Eaves and Schuman about standards in the data they get from governments and got two different answers. Citizens in Vancouver have been fairly successful at getting the government to release information in structured format. Schuman said that while that would be best, the Sunlight Foundation often has to settle for old fashioned paper or PDFs that someone else then has to code in to whatever system they are using.

One obstacle that had to be overcome for Vancouver was legal language that Eaves said screamed "Go away!". He showed a slide of proposed language from the city's license to use its open data. It had lots of clauses and disclaimers that were scary looking to the user. Eventually the city settled on less-scary sounding terms of use and a Creative Commons license asking only that credit for the information be given to the city of Vancouver.