Andy Oram recently commented on Massachusetts’ newest open government venture, Open Checkbook. Oram writes, “On December 5, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick joined with state treasurer Steven Grossman to create an open government initiative with the promising moniker Open Checkbook. The site launched to some acclaim and has received over 220,000 hits. I decided to take a look at what’s offered and what’s missing from this site, and to ask someone in the government here in Massachusetts to describe their thinking in creating the site. The results can give us some insight into the effort it takes at each stage to release government data–and even more significantly, what it takes to increase the data’s value.” Read more

Semantic Tech & Business Conference Returns to San Francisco

Semantic Tech & Business Conference returns to San Francisco in June! Join us from June 3-7 for complete coverage of Big Data, Linked Data, Extreme Information Management, and Semantic Web. From breakthrough approaches to solving business problems to the big data implications of fast–evolving technologies, SemTechBiz provides you with an unparalleled interactive experience and delivers tangible business value. We're offering a special early rate when you register by February 17. Sign up now!

The Obama administration is seeking the public’s input on the US Open Government National Action Plan. Aneesh Chopra writes, “The Plan was developed through a process that involved extensive consultations with external stakeholders, including a broad range of civil society groups and members of the private sector, to gather ideas on open government.  As we continue our work to implement the National Action Plan, we want your help.  Specifically, we’d like your input and recommendations on how to improve and help facilitate public participation – your participation – in government.” Read more

Steven VanRoekel and Aneesh Chopra recently shared some exciting news about the growing reach of open government initiatives. They wrote, “Last week, President Obama’s unprecedented efforts to advance open and transparent Government reached an important milestone. As part of a joint effort by the United States and India to build an open government platform, the U.S. team has deposited open source code– an important benchmark in developing the Open Government Platform that will enable governments around the world to stand up their own open government data sites.” Read more

What do you get when you join up machine-readable representations of federal government agencies’ strategic plans and spending on IT resources? Expressing these as Linked Data adds value in that it becomes easier to correlate and mash up information, and even to determine how or whether technology implementations are helping to achieve agencies’ big-picture goals.

At next week’s Semantic Tech & Business Conference in Washington D.C., George Thomas, Change Agent at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, will discuss connecting these dots in a session entitled, Realizing the GPRMA using Government Linked Data. The Government Performance and Results Modernization Act of 2010 requires that agencies publish strategic plans, which they’re often doing as Word or PDF documents, on their websites. Meanwhile, the IT Dashboard website is the space for federal agencies to provide details of federal information technology investments. “So the idea of using Linked Data to realize GPRMA suggests we can do better in connecting or linking the strategic goals with the IT resource expenditures,” says Thomas.

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NYC Open Data has created a new Tumblr blog to showcase datasets and visualizations that the organization makes available to developers. According to the blog’s About Us page, “As part of Mayor Bloomberg’s commitment to transparency and innovation, over 800 (and counting!) city datasets are now online for anyone in New York or around the world to explore and access via an API for deeper, real-time integration into apps and websites.” Read more

The Guardian recently published a piece on the vital role of local leaders in pushing Open Data initiatives. The article states, “The starting point for transparency – opening up and democratising public data – should have at its heart public service outcomes for citizens and communities and relevant data should be open to all those deciding upon, designing and creating these outcomes.” Read more

You don’t have to read very far into your iPad news app to learn the latest about government dysfunctionality, debt, and defaults, whether in the U.S. or abroad. It’s all a little overwhelming, and can’t help but have an impact on how so many nations’ citizens view their present circumstances and their futures, too.

Amid so many negatives, perhaps we can take some inspiration from the fact that this month will see the Open Government Data Camp 2011 being held in Warsaw, Poland. Think about that for a minute: A country that not all that long ago was controlled by an iron fist and blocked from the free world by the Iron Curtain is the host site for the Open Knowledge Foundation event — an undertaking that is very much focused on making government data more transparent and interoperable and transformative for the societies whose governing bodies adopt open data principles and values.

Maybe thinking about things in that light will help anyone discouraged by current events to hope still for a brighter future. Among the presenters at the event discussing how open data can be essential to realizing transformation is Bernadette Hyland, co-chair W3C Government Linked Data Working Group and CEO of 3 Round Stones. Hyland also will be co-conducting a half-day Government Linked Data Workshop during the course of the camp. Hyland’s speech, a report on the progress of the W3C Government Linked Data Working Group, will hone in on why it’s important to share government information and the benefits to be attained from doing so, including transforming how governments serve their citizens in the 21st Century. (The W3C Government Linked Data Working Group is chartered to produce standards and document best practices for the publication of governmental data.)

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A recent article asks the question, “What’s the link between open data and access to information?” The article states, “The lack of connection that exists between activists working in both communities… prevents realising the issue.  This civil servant was really interested in how this new evolution would affect the relationship between citizens and the State. The key connection, and it is not always explicit, between open data and access to information is placed in the so called duties of proactive transparency that Freedom of Information Laws impose on States and that actually mandate [the publishing of] certain categories of information proactively, in an easy and accessible way, so citizens can benefit from it.” Read more

A recent article reports, “The Leibniz Center for Law of the University of Amsterdam has made all Dutch legislation available as CEN MetaLex and Linked Open Data through the MetaLex Document Server portal (MDS). ‘The XML source documents currently made available by the Dutch government are simply not good enough’, says Rinke Hoekstra, researcher at the Leibniz Center, and the Knowledge Representation group of the VU University Amsterdam.” Read more

A new article reports that the Cabinet Office “has chosen a proprietary software system to implement the keystone of its policy to create a level playing field for open source. Under pressure to fulfill the government’s election promise to eradicate systemic bias against open source software, the Cabinet Office rushed through a procurement for an asset register last month. But it raised hackles among open source suppliers it invited to bid. They discovered the same problems that inspired Cabinet Office open source policy hindered their bidding for its own work.” Read more