Slide deck for 7/30/12 class on open data for the course Technology in the Public Sector, Northwestern University, Summer 2012.

1. Week 6: Open data
Technology
in
the
Public
Sector
Northwestern
University
MPPA
490
Summer
2012
-­‐
Greg
Wass
1

2. Fiscal crisis motivates transformation
$2,650
$2,550
$2,450
$2,350
$2,250
Millions
($210) ($537)
($453) ($659)
$2,150
$2,050
Revenue
$1,950
Expenses
$1,850
$1,750
FY08 FY09 FY10 FY11 FY12 FY13 FY14 FY15 FY16
2

3. The transparency imperative
¨ Public trust in government at an all-time low? A 2010 study by the
University of Illinois at
¨ Fiscal crisis: most states and local
governments still in a financial crisis brought Chicago called Cook
on by the recession County a “dark pool of
political corruption,”
¨ Difficulty meeting service demands with revealing that nearly 150
declining/stagnant revenues contractors, employees
and politicians have been
¨ New capabilities available through web- convicted on corruption
based, mobile and social networking
technologies charges since 1957.
¨ New demands for open government, --from an October 2011
Government Technology
collaboration, and shared services
magazine article by Brian
Heaton
3

4. The circle of public trust
4

5. The open government movement
¤ Data must be: A 2007 working group
of 30 open government
¤ Complete
advocates in
¤ Primary Sebastopol, CA,
¤ Timely developed the
¤ Accessible 8 Principles of Open
Government Data.
¤ Machine processable
These principles have
¤ Non-discriminatory access become the de facto
¤ Non-proprietary formats starting point for
¤ License-free evaluating openness in
government records.
Source: http://www.opengovdata.org/home/8principles
5

6. The open government movement (cont’d)
¤ Washington, DC
¤ San Francisco
¤ Baltimore
¤ Chicago
¤ Portland
¤ New York City
6

7. Governments globally are using the power of the Internet and Web, including
social media, to transform governance, empower citizens and rebuild the social
contract between political leaders and citizens. Although the emphasis and details
differ from country to country, many central governments are making more
information public and easily available on the Web in formats that citizens can
access, reuse, mash up, remix, visualize, map and share.
Tracking and mapping tools and systems allow citizens to examine government
activities and expenditures. Citizen engagement platforms and tools allow
governments to reach out and incorporate the perspectives and ideas of citizens
in decision-making and policy-making. Still others are building networked
relationships between the public and private sectors to solve challenging problems
that cannot be addressed by either sector working alone.
Excerpt from
The Future of An increasing number of countries are building transparency and accountability
Government: and driving public and private innovation through the use of information and
Lessons communication technologies, including social media.
Learned from
Around the Right to Information. Several countries – including Indonesia, Mexico, Turkey and
World, 2011 India – have recently passed legislation guaranteeing the right of citizens to public
information and requiring ministries to make information accessible to the public.
The Obama Administration has inked an open government partnership with India
to exchange best practices and share data.
Transparency and Accountability. Tracking systems used in countries such as India,
Kenya and Brazil allow and engage citizens in the monitoring and exposure of
Open inefficiencies and corruption.
Government
and Open Open Data. Today, 10 countries or more have open data portals. Significant
Data, Part 1 Data.gov initiatives are now established in Australia, Canada, Estonia, Norway, the
United Kingdom, the United States and New Zealand. These efforts are designed to
make government data accessible in a form that may be used by citizens.

8. These innovations tap not only emerging information and communication
technologies but also the expertise and creativity of individuals, the private sector
and the power of collaboration and participation using data and evidence for
decision-making.
It should be obvious that only those citizens with broadband access and the
digital literacy to engage in these types of activities can benefit directly. Thus,
countries increasingly must focus on education, broadband access and digital
literacy for citizens to gain the benefits of open government and social media use
for citizen engagement.
Moreover, even in wealthy countries like the United States, as downloading of
large datasets increases, older servers are unable to manage such highly
Excerpt from intensive activities, causing computers to crash. Most governments will need to
make careful choices about how much data, what types need to be available
The Future of immediately and in what form. Low- and middle- income countries represent the
Government: “next frontier” for open government and open data reforms.
Lessons
Learned from
Around the To this end, the World Wide Web Foundation launched an Open Government
World, 2011 Data Feasibility Study of the Governments of Chile, Ghana and Turkey to
determine in what ways middle- to low-income countries have the capacity to
develop and maintain open government data projects.
A number of international organizations and foundations have formed a donor
collaborative called the Transparency and Accountability Initiative to foster the
powerful concepts of transparency and accountability through greater use of
networking and information technologies coupled with social media.
Open
Government
and Open Open government and open data represent an emergent “movement”
worldwide although national governments will continue to differ with respect to
Data, Part 2
their definition and implementation of these ideas. Clearly, sharing best practices
and lessons that work as experience accumulates will be key.

9. data.gov.uk
9

10. data.vancouver.ca
10

11. NYCopendata.socrata.com
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12. Data visualizations: 311
12

13. Data visualizations: Viegas/Wattenberg
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14. Data visualizations: Look at Cook
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15. Open government in Cook County
¨ Many residents don’t know what County
government is or what it does
¨ Many residents don’t know how their tax dollars
are collected or spent
¨ Historical lack of transparency means many
local citizen activists are disengaged and
cynical
¨ Lack of transparency breeds doubt, skepticism,
inefficiency and corruption
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16. Open government in Cook County
1. Ordinance: Cook County’s open data ordinance begins making
data public. Agency heads partner with Board President and
Commissioners to make initial high-value data sets public.
2. Data portal: County launches a single-site portal centralizing data
in developer-friendly formats. Data offerings continuously expand.
3. App contests and data camps: County encourages developers
and activists to drive new and improved government services
through mobile apps and data visualizations.
4. Continuous improvement: County expands data offerings,
provides ongoing incentives for developers and activists and
opens a conversation about improving our government.
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17. Open government timetable
March-April
Summer 2011 2012 Beyond
2011
Enact open Host launch Continue fostering developer
data party/ community through data camps, and
ordinance App contest contests and conferences
Use resulting information to improve
Partner with vendor to create single- government efficiency, effectiveness
site data portal
and fairness
Invest County
Expand public data offerings
data owners
17

18. Open data site
18

19. Open data site architecture
19

20. “Apps for Metro Chicago”
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21. Regional open data site
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22. Results and reactions
¤ “The Cook County open data website ¤ “(Metrochicagodata.org) appears to
was launched on-time and it has deliver what public-sector technologists
been a reliable platform for the long have said could be possible—a truly
County to deliver information to regional clearinghouse where all public
citizens and for potential use by data is available for free in one
entrepreneurs developing place.”—Government Technology, May
applications. The shared platform 2012
with the State of Illinois and the City
of Chicago keeps costs down and ¤ “Yesterday, Cook County released an
promotes consistent approaches for unprecedented amount of data on their
data sharing.”—TechAmerica, The website. It’s exciting to see both the City
Cloud Imperative: Better of Chicago and Cook County creating
Collaboration, Better Service, Better new, innovative ways to inform and
Cost, Feb 2012 engage with citizens about important local
issues including public safety, economic
development and especially government
spending.”—Illinois PIRG, Sep 2011
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23. Next steps
¤ Big Data
¤ More use of open data for research and
analysis
¤ Expanding data.gov
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