The following includes notes from a lecture given by Laura Gordon-Murname at Websearch University, in September 2009, plus additional information I added later.
What should our government be?
- Transparent government
-- Accountable
-- Informs public of what it is doing
- Participatory government
-- Utilizes the skills, expertise and experience of people outside the govt.
-- Solicits feedback and input on how to make govt better
-- Has better decision-making capability and should be more effective
-- Reaps benefits from collaborating between individuals, corporations, non-profits & universities - Collaborative government
-- Uses technology to foster team building
-- Creates a culture of engagement
-- Taps the expertise of those inside and outside govt
-- Fosters a partnership between govt and its citizens
-- Not just talk and discussion, but INFLUENCE, DECISION-MAKING, and RESULTS/OUTCOMES DRIVEN
Technology can help government be more transparent, accountable, and results-oriented.
Government Data MUST BE:
- Accessible
- Searchable
- Findable
- Usable
- Reusable
We need to standardize govt data in standard non-proprietary formats that are machine readable and platform independent, such as XML, CSV and KML/KMZ (for geodata)
Federal Government data
USA.gov
Our number one spot for accessing government information is through USA.gov. USA.gov provides a portal to virtually any U.S. government site.
Data.gov
Our number one spot for accessing government information is through USA.gov. USA.gov provides a portal to virtually any U.S. government site.
Data.gov
The purpose of Data.gov is to increase public access to high value, machine readable datasets generated by the Executive Branch of the Federal Government. Citizens may suggest datasets.
How the federal government is spending its money
The IT Dashboard provides the public with an online window into the details of Federal information technology investments and provides users with the ability to track the progress of investments over time.
Recovery.gov (NOT Recovery.com)
Recovery.gov is a website that allows you, the taxpayer, to see how the money from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is being distributed and managed.
State Government Data
State Recovery Sites - access individual state recovery data via Recovery.gov. Here is Maryland's
Third Party Sites
Some third party groups have created their own sites that keep tabs on government activity.
GovSpot.com is a non-partisan government information portal designed to simplify the search for the best and most relevant government information online.
conducts research and analysis to help shape public debates over proposed budget and tax policies. Its analysis is used by policymakers and nonprofit organizations across the political spectrum.
"ProPublica" is an independent, non-profit newsroom that produces investigative journalism in the public interest. Our work focuses exclusively on truly important stories, stories with “moral force.” We do this by producing journalism that shines a light on exploitation of the weak by the strong and on the failures of those with power to vindicate the trust placed in them."
"The Sunlight Foundation is committed to helping citizens, bloggers and journalists be their own best watchdogs, by improving access to existing information and digitizing new information, and by creating new tools and Web sites to enable all of us to collaborate in fostering greater transparency."
A contest that was designed to demonstrate that when government makes data available, it makes itself more accountable and creates more trust and opportunity in its actions. Some of the best were:
The Federal Register is the official journal of the federal government of the United States. In it, you'll find any kind of proposal, notification, or solicitation for data that a federal agency puts out. It's the pulse of your government. Gives you a way to browse the Register (from 1994 on) and use filters to decide what is important to you.
Explore U.S. Government data about YOUR area.
(the winner) The Federal Government produces an immeasurable amount of data each day. DataMasher helps citizens have a little fun with those data by creating mashups to visualize them in different ways and see how states compare on important issues. Users can combine different data sets in interesting ways and create their own custom rankings of the states.
More third-party organizations:
by the Pew Charitable Trust
aims to raise public awareness about the role of federal subsidies in the economy.
by the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington
Keeps track of where TARP funds have been spent, how this money is being used, and who is in line to receive taxpayer dollars
The Bailout Watch project is a collaborative effort to research, investigate, and analyze the federal government's bailout activities and publish resources and data for policymakers, the media, and interested citizens.
Allows citizens around the country with local knowledge about proposed "shovel-ready" projects in their city, to find, discuss and rate those projects. Sort of a watchdog project.
"Onvia developed Recovery.org to bring unprecedented levels of transparency and accountability to recovery spending* and to ensure that every business, regardless of size, has equal access to the projects associated with the recovery efforts."
More Data:
"Freebase provides datasets about millions of things, from movies to dog breeds to beers of the world. These datasets are built by the community, for the community, and are free to use with no complicated license agreements."
Google U.S. Government Search If you prefer to stay in Google, you can use their filter for government sites. Just use keywords of "Google government" and it should come up as the top choice.
COOL. A search tool that helps you quickly build a collection of facts from the Web for any topic you specify. It instantly creates a spreadsheet of data.
Enter your question or calculation, and Wolfram|Alpha uses its built-in algorithms and a growing collection of data to compute the answer. Very interesting to experiment with!
Keeping Up
Mashable is the world's largest blog focused exclusively on Web 2.0 and Social Media news
Committed to helping citizens, bloggers and journalists be their own best government watchdogs, by improving access to existing information and digitizing new information, and by creating new tools and Web sites to enable all of us to collaborate in fostering greater transparency.
techPresident is continuing to cover how political campaigns--presidential, congressional and state--are using the web, as well as how voters are using the web to affect those campaigns.
"a big part of our business is paying attention to what's new and interesting in the world of technology. We have a pretty good record at having anticipated some of the big technology developments in recent history."
Open Government Blog - www.whitehouse.gov/open/blog/
Shows what's going on at the whitehouse.
Office of Science and Technology blog - http://blog.ostp.gov
Congress established OSTP in 1976 with a broad mandate to advise the President and others within the Executive Office of the President on the effects of science and technology on domestic and international affairs.
No comments:
Post a Comment