The Value of Open Government Data

Sofia, June 5th 2011

tonzijlstra.euknowledge work, learning, social media

good morning everybody. Thank you for inviting me. I am the community steward of the epsiplatform, which is a website by the EC where all developments about reusing government data, and opening government data are tracked and discussed.

There is a lot to say about Open Data, and the value of open data.

To me Open Data is currently the primary potential catalyst for improving our societies and economies. But it is also very easy to loose ourselves in abstract notions when discussing Open Data. So let’s make it real and tangible first.

Meet Tine Müller

http://findtoilet.dk

Meet Dirk Houtgraaf

http://rijksmonumenten.info/ (app)http://www.cultureelerfgoed.nl/ (gov department)http://www.cultureelerfgoed.nl/sites/default/files/documenten/downloads/RCE_Rijksmonumenten_Dataset.zip (dataset)http://www.kich.nl/kich2010/metadata.jsp?metaid=7&herkomst=Voorlopige%20rijksmonumentenkaart (description of dataset)http://wikilovesmonuments.nl/monumenten/ (Wikipedia crowd sourcing project to collect pictures of monuments)

Meet Rudi Kragh

Meet Rudi. He’s a Danish entrepreneur. He built a website where in less than 15 minutes, based on your address and a handful of other questions you will get a complete plan how to save energy for your house, including a financial plan with the subsidies available to you, as well as a list of skilled builders from your town who could do the work.

This is possible because information on the construction of every house, plans for neighbourhood heating, weather in your region, and subsidies etc are available publicly.

His clients are the municipalities, who are seeking energy efficiency, or want to create more local jobs, or see their subsidy programs more succesful. With Open Data Rudi pulls it all together, to create value for home owners, communities and himself alike.

http://www.husetsweb.dk/

Open Gov Data Principles

These are the primary aspects of Open Government Data.

It means every bit of public data is available to everyone, regardless of intended use, without restrictions, in a way that it can be processed by machines.

The basic reasoning is: we already paid for it through taxes, so it is our public data, and let’s put it to good use.

http://www.opengovdata.org/home/8principles and http://www.opendefinition.org/government/

Public trumps all

I said PUBLIC data, as anything that is about individual persons or of explicit national interest may be excluded.

BUT, public data that is public by law does not know these privacy or national interest concerns.For instance that I am the one owning my house, and how much I paid for it, is publicly available, because the housing register is public information in the Netherlands.

Open Data is by definition Public Data, but not all public data is already open data. Publicness is just one of the criteria.

It’s not WikiLeaks

EU PSI Directive (INSPIRE, Aarhus)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/docjohnboy/4106899304/

So why aren’t we there yet? If the value is so obvious.

We have the European PSI Directive which is translated into law in all Member States. That law basically says that everything needs to be opened up, and that if gov is not doing that pro-actively citizens can ask for it anyway. It is the law.

A consistent source of irritation however is the low general awareness within government institutions about the current state of the law concerning open PSI and data.This leads to confusion and general unpredictability for citizens.

Because it seems every institution, and each civil servant is making up their own mind when confronted with a request for information.

So we see data sources in arbitrary formatsWe see arbitrary costs being chargedWe see data being withheld on privacy grounds, when personal information is not involvedWe see downloading of already public information being actively blockedWe see the demand to state your interestOr we’re told that we’re not skilled enough to deal with the information (by statistical offices mainly)Or to register before you can get at the information.Or cease and desist letters from Belgian state railway for even linking to their website!

In general, where there is no clear political incentive (like there is in the UK), we find there is no clear picture of whether you can actually get at data, or will be allowed to get it. Regardless of the law.

Закон за достъп до обществената информация

(Act amending the Access to Public Information Act)

of 07/06/2007, J.O. de Bulgarie, N° 59 of 21/07/2007

http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/policy/psi/docs/laws/bulgaria/en_tra.pdf

Networked life, networked work, networked learningOpen Gov Data

UK

http://data.gov.uk

Greece

http://geodata.gov.gr

Norway

http://data.norge.no

Netherlands

http://data.overheid.nl

Piemonte

http://dati.piemonte.it

Catalunya

http://www.gencat.cat/

Paris

http://opendata.paris.fr

Fingal, Ireland

http://data.fingal.ie/

tekst

München

http://www.muenchen.de/mogdy

Helsinki Region

http://www.hri.fi/fi

data.worldbank.org

http://data.worldbank.org/

Untapped Abundance

Use it to inform yourself

http://vervuilingsalarm.nl/

• value to citizens: service in your neighbourhood, snelste pontje

Use it to build your own services

http://snelstepontje.3r13.nl/ (webversion) https://market.android.com/details?id=nl.Snelstepontje (android application)

See all AppsforAmsterdam applications: http://www.appsforamsterdam.nl/alle-appsAmsterdam open datasets: http://www.appsforamsterdam.nl/databronnenDescription: http://www.epsiplatform.eu/news/news/apps_for_amsterdam_48_reuse_cases_with_local_government_data/

Use it build your own business

http://husestsweb.dk

Citizens will build services gov can use

http://verbeterdebuurt.nl/ UK example: http://fixmystreet.com

Government is biggest re-user

Vancouver parking tickets map: http://geocommons.com/maps/8708

IATI, Gov Data as Gov Instrument

IATI data sets: http://iatiregistry.org/IATI home page: http://www.aidtransparency.net/

Stakeholders?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/twose/887903401/

It’s absolutely of critical importance to keep all stakeholder groups in mind, including government itself!

don’t design openess with just one or a few in mind. It will help keep it simpler.

Infrastructure isn’t build with user groups in mind. Infrastructure is dumb, its intelligence is at the boundaries.

Treat open data as infrastructure, as a general resource, as dumb. Just put it out there.

Stakeholders• Private citizens

• Activists

• Coders

• Entrepreneurs

• NGO’s

• Academics

• Civil Servants

• Gov Institutions

Taking into account all stakeholders is key. Or you will completely largely miss all the value open data generates.

If you think only in terms of companies and economic value, you will never notice that Tine Möllers friends are now able to leave their homes and can find a toilet, participating in society again.

If you think only in terms of transparency you will never notice the number of lives Richard saves due to Open Data in his work as fireman. Or the way Dirk makes his government institution be more effective as well as efficient.

If you only think in terms of cool apps for your smart phone you will not notice the higher quality of decisions Danish home-owners can take regarding their energy use. Saving money as well as the planet.

Applications?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/factoryjoe/195492568/

The same goes for areas of application.

Don’t as a government try to second guess what are useful applications and select data to open based on that.

There is no way to predict this. Look at the apps available for smartphones. No one would have guessed a few years back.

Just put it out there. As a platform for others to build on, as infrastructure.

You will like some apps, you will hate some others. So will I.

But it’s not up to you or me.

Fields of value• Participation / empowerment

• Transparency, democratic control

• Better (gov) products and services

• New (gov) products and services

• Impact measurement

• Gov Efficiency and Effectivity

• Data Journalism

• New knowledge / real innovationHere’s just a small list of areas where open data is already creating value.

Networked life, networked work, networked learningGo Get Your Data!

But it’s not “us against them”

Networked life, networked work, networked learning

“Nobody knows what this is about yet.”

José Manuel Alonso (CTIC)

Lots of barriers

Large version and more detailed versions: http://www.flickr.com/photos/epsiplatform/5737203950/in/photostreamDescription: http://www.epsiplatform.eu/news/news/sharepsi_output_open_for_your_comments and http://www.epsiplatform.eu/news/news/mapping_barriers_to_psi_reuse/

Involve Civil Servants

But don’t see it as US against THEM. Civil servants are citizens too, and I have yet to meet one that does not have a passion for public service, even if that is well hidden. So involve civil servants. Find the ones that care about open government data, and connect them together.

The screenshot is of a Dutch community of over 6000 civil servants, called Civil Servant2.0, of which I am one of the board members. The community is all about using open data, social media, new work methods to improve government.

http://ambtenaar20.ning.com/

Networked life, networked work, networked learning

know the gov does not exist. find 1 civil servant

The Government: Find 1 Local Hero

http://opendataenschede.nl/

Networked life, networked work, networked learningepsiplatform.eu

opendatamanual.org

Everybody in EU is solving same questions

EC is interested in supporting you with information and building connections. We at http://epsiplatform.eu are looking forward to hear your stories, your examples etc. Get in touch if you have news, examples, cases you would like to share, guest blog posts you woud like to submit, or have questions you want to ask.

It is up to you, me, us

We have to make it happen. So I am curious today to hear more about what you are doing in Bulgaria. Inside government, and outside it. What examples exist? And can we show them to all those outside Bulgaria that are interested in government data.

CreditsAll photos: Ton Zijlstra, by nc saExcept where mentioned on the photo.

Slides: http://slideshare.net/tonzijlstraBlog: http://zylstra.org/blogContact: ton@tonzijlstra.euSkype: ton_zylstra

tonzijlstra.euknowledge work, learning, social media

All slides can be found under ‘documents’ at http://slideshare.net/tonzijlstra