the global open data movement
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( It used to be called “transparency,” but then things changed. )
The Global
Open Data Movement
Tom JohnsonInstitute for Analytic Journalism
Santa Fe, NM USAt o m @ j t j o h n s o n . c o m
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Presentation for the Men’s Lunch Bunch
Christ Evangelical LutheranSanta Fe, New Mexico
Feb. 17 2012
PowerPoint slides at TK
The Global Open Data Movement by J. T. Johnson is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License
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How did this find me?
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• Doing workshop in UK• International students • Same week, call for action in
Poland, Mexico and Guatemala• Started following #opendata and
listservs• Global interest – and action --
quickly apparent
What is the Open Data Movement
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• “The People” taking control of their public data
• Global awareness of digital data• Gov’t, NGOs, corporate, research
institutions, “people postings”• Recognized value of collaboration
• Rarely a single person task• DB experts, code jockeys, UI specialists,
journalists, project managers
History of Open Data
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• The Visigoths: perhaps the earliest open-law law
• Flour inspectors in the 1760s, and codification of law
• Disbursements disclosure in 18th century China
• The first FOI law in 18th century Sweden
• Today, >90 nations have FOIA laws; increasingly turning to Open Data
History of Open Data
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• The Visigoths: perhaps the earliest open-law law
• Flour inspectors in the 1760s; codification of law
• Disbursements disclosure in 18th century China
• The first FOI law in 18th century Sweden
• Today, ~90 nations have FOIA laws; increasingly turning to Open Data
Data Sources
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• Gov’t at all levels, incl. international• NGOs• Non-profits• Corporate
Date types• ~400-500 different file types/formats
OD – trending to critical mass
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Cheap, ubiquitous hardware/software
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Asahi Soft Drinks offers free Wi-Fi in vending machines
“The drinks company is to build into each of its vending machines a Wi-Fi router which will offer connection to Japanese network Freemobile.
“Those in the immediate vicinity can then hook up for free high-speed Internet access on their mobile devices or laptops for up to 30 min-utes in one sitting. The router will also store localised content, such as shopping mall maps, regional infor-mation, tourist details, that sort of thing.
“Oh, and they will sell soft drinks, of course.”
OD – trending to critical mass
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Cheap, ubiquitous hardware/software
Ubiquitous digital skills
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OD – trending to critical mass
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Cheap, ubiquitous hardware/software
Ubiquitous digital skills
Affordable, accessible, significant bandwidth
June 2007: The price of Internet access is under a dollar per month for each megabit per second in just three countries -- Japan, Korea and Sweden. The cost in all of the top 10 countries averages less than $5 per month/megabit.
Achieve critical mass c2011
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Cheap, ubiquitous hardware/software
Ubiquitous digital skills
Affordable, accessible, significant bandwidth
Global Open Data Movement
Global Open Data
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2011/12/8 Keserű Júlia <[email protected]>:> Dear Marco,>> K-Monitor Watchdog for Public Funds from Hungary has been working on a> database (called the Network) which scrapes open government data from the> following areas: public procurements, EU tenders and agricultural subsidies> as well as company registry and personal information of politicians and> business people who are close to public funds. Later on, we'll try to add> legislation data to the Network and though we have no public information on> party or campaign financing, one our major goals was to make a database for> detecting conflicts of interest.>> The database is in a beta version yet and will be launched in January, if> you need any more information feel free to contact me!>> Bests,> Julia Keserû> Budapest, Hungary
World Map of Open Government Data Initiatives
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Public Dataset Catalogs Faceted Browser137 Catalogues of public data
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Chicago Shovels
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Human Sensor Networks
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How does it work?
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• Collaboration (and tools for) key• British MP expenses
• Volunteer hack-athons• Smart-phone apps
• Local gov’t – NYC tree census• Small-shop code jockeys
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• Fine-grained data, NOT just summaries• School test scores• Casino revenues tax revenues• Local elections “chain of custody,”
reported voting results and “audits”• Public transit ridership & costs• Actual language of all gov’t contracts
• Access to performance measurement metrics
• No PDFs
New pressures on gov’t , all institutions
Tectonic change
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• The document per se isn’t important, the data is
• Data only valuable with analysis, i.e. “making meaning”
• The data – and/or related reports – only valuable if its genealogy is known
• i.e. Show us the methodology
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• Require methodology documentation with data/reports• Increase skill set and cost of government• ROI
• Less duplication of data collection and analysis
• New tools for citizens• Identify potential for business
opportunities
New pressures on gov’t , all institutions
Inherent contradictions
Challenge of “Big Data/Open
Data”
Desire to retain institutional and
individual “power” via data
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• Exponential growth
• Sorting important from interesting
• Understanding significance
• Two sets of books• Hiding or skewing
data• Fear of making
mistakes
The push-back
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• Already signs of “disappearing” data• Medical doctors reports taken down
The push-back
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• Already signs of “disappearing” data• Medical doctors reports taken down• Ash emission from coal-burning plants• Difficulty – sometimes because of lack
of reporting standards – in getting data related to petroleum industry
Tracking the topic
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• Resources• The Open Knowledge Foundation Wiki• Open Data Cookbook • International Open Government Dataset
Catalog (IOGDC)• Open Data Showroom
• Collect related Tweets with #opendata
• Various listservs (language specific)
( It used to be called “transparency” )
The Global
Open Data Movement
Tom JohnsonInstitute for Analytic Journalism
Santa Fe, NM USAt o m @ j t j o h n s o n . c o m
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