open data - Page number 3

A few weeks ago Colin Hansen - a politician in the governing party in British Columbia (BC) - penned an op-ed in the Vancouver Sun entitled Unlocking our data to save lives. It's a paper both the current government and opposition should read, as it is filled with some very promising ideas.

In it, he notes that BC has one of the best collections of health data anywhere in the world and that, data mining these records could yield patterns - like longitudinal adverse affects when drugs are combined or the correlations between diseases - that could save billions as well as improve health care outcomes. » Read more

The last few months has seen a growth in open data, particularly from governments and libraries. Among the more recent open data adopters are the Austrian government, Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research, Italian Chamber of Deputies, and Harvard Library. » Read more

One of the first publicly available open dataset/API from the City & County of Honolulu is the one made available by O`ahu Transit Services, provider of The Bus service. With open data, anyone could develop an app using The Bus API and three such apps were built, Hea.theBus.org, Allb.us and an iPhone app called DaBus. Both Allb.us and DaBus were developed as a result of the City's CityCamp Honolulu and Hackathon, this past December 2011 and January 2012, respectively. » Read more

Last Monday I had the pleasure of being in Mexico City for the OECD's (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) High Level Meeting on e-Government. CIO's from a number of countries were present - including Australia, Canada, the UK and Mexico (among others). But what really got me going was a presentation by Chris Vein, the Deputy United States Chief Technology Officer for Government Innovation. » Read more

Last month, we posted a survey asking, "If you could open one of the following data sets tomorrow, which one would you open and why?" We got a great response–279 people voted and there were several comments.

One commenter remarked that we should have made it multiple choice, avoiding an all-or-nothing outcome. And another pointed out that 'non-classified government data' could include private personal information--like tax records, for example. So, as always, how we ask these questions is incredibly important. » Read more

Open Data is fast becoming a ‘hot topic’ in government. I’m proud to see my colleagues & fellow open gov supporters helping governments around the world launch their cloud-powered open data catalogues: from the Government of Columbia and the European Union, to the Canadian cities of Regina, SK and Medicine Hat, AB. But it’s not all, as they say, Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows.

My recent involvement with the failed Open Data resolution in Milton, Ontario caused me to re-think some of the basics for a successful open data initiative. Taken from a municipal open data initiative perspective, the 3 steps below will help make an open data, open government or open data motion stick:

» Read more

The Handbook discusses the ‘why, what and how’ of open data – why to go open, what open is, how to make data open and how to do useful things with it.

Read on to find out more about what’s in the Handbook, who it’s for, and how you can get involved – for example by adding to and improving the Handbook, or by translating it into more languages. » Read more

There’s been a great deal of discussion lately around the topic of government innovation, especially here in San Francisco, with the appointment of a new chief innovation officer, a new “civic accelerator,” a new venture with a consortium of Bay Area technology companies and a new technology and innovation task force led by SF Mayor Ed Lee.

All signs point to a bright gov 2.0 future for SF but, before we get too excited, let’s look back so we can learn how to best overcome the past two years of innovation inertia. » Read more

Selling the idea of open data seems straightforward. If taxpayers paid for it, a government should share it. But there have to be exceptions for National Security and privacy. » Read more

The theme that emerged from the first CityCamp Honolulu, held on December 3 (the 17^th CityCamp held worldwide), was restoring citizen confidence in their government. In a very collaborative and participatory atmosphere, organizers looked to citizens to generate ideas for the City of Honolulu's upcoming Code for America project and to harness the power of design thinking to rapidly prototype ten topics generated during the unconference. » Read more