Open Government Links of the Week – June 10, 2011
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New Reports
New Report: Information Needs of Communities (by the FCC)
- “The FCC Working Group on the Information Needs of Communities today delivered an in-depth analysis of the current state of the media landscape along with a broad range of recommendations. The staff-level report, titled “Information Needs of Communities: The Changing Media Landscape in a Broadband Age” [full PDF here or read by chapter here] was delivered to the FCC at an open commission meeting.” (source)
New Report on Reviving Civic Communication
- “The paper—“Civic Engagement and Community Information: Five Strategies to Revive Civic Communication” by Peter Levine—proposes practical strategies to strengthen civic communication and citizen engagement with an emphasis on a civic information corps and the role of youth and digital communications.”
News
“GSA: More social media apps free for the taking”
- “The General Services Administration has added 13 free social media applications for federal agencies on its Apps.gov website since spring 2010, bringing the total to 51.”
- See what some of them are in the article…
Opinion/Interviews
Here’s an Interesting Take on Municipalities’ Use of Social Media
- “‘This is about policy, performance appraisal, making every employee more productive. Most of the focus is on social media policies, how to stop or prevent people from doing stupid things, rather than encouraging people to do the right things.’”
“Digital Media and Youth Civic Engagement”
“Maryland’s New Chief Innovation Officer Speaks Out”
- “Bryan Sivak speaks about why failure is a necessary part of innovation.”
- One of the questions in the interview: “I read an article where you said one of your biggest challenges will be trying to show people that there are different ways of doing things, that failure’s OK and it’s not going to get them fired. Can you explain why that’s so important?”
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New Report: Information Needs of Communities (by the FCC)
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“The FCC Working Group on the Information Needs of Communities today delivered an in-depth analysis of the current state of the media landscape along with a broad range of recommendations. The staff-level report, titled “Information Needs of Communities: The Changing Media Landscape in a Broadband Age” [full PDF here or read by chapter here] was delivered to the FCC at an open commission meeting.” (source)
The report also talks about Government Transparency (download just that chapter here [PDF]).
Here are some key findings from the report as it regards to transparency in government and related issues (this list is not fully-inclusive)…
Government Transparency
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“Greater openness by government—at all levels—can make it easier for Americans to inform themselves and for both citizen and professional reporters to hold institutions accountable.” (p. 350)
- “Make it easier for citizens to monitor their government by putting more proceedings, documents and data online” (p. 350)
- “First, citizens should be able to more easily monitor the workings of state and local government.” (p. 350)
- “every state should have a vibrant public affairs network, a state-based C-SPAN.” (p. 350; emphasis in original)
- “Second, and just as important, governments at all levels should put far more data and information online, and do it in ways that are designed to be most useful.” (p. 350; emphasis in original)
- “Government transparency improves information flow three ways: directly to citizens themselves, through “information entrepreneurs,” and through journalists.” (p. 204, emphasis added)
- “Greater transparency by government and media companies can help reduce the cost of reporting, empower consumers, and foster innovation.” (p. 28)
- “We offer no magic bullet or magic app. Rather, government policy changes should focus on three primary goals: increasing transparency, making better use of the public’s existing resources, and removing obstacles to innovation” (p. 346, emphasis added)
FOIA
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“Public records law should carry a presumption in favor of releasing documents… (cont’d below)”
- “…whose disclosure would not undermine national security, public safety, compelling privacy interests, trade secrets, or law enforcement. Those responsible for compliance with open records laws should be fully trained, so that they are aware of the relevant laws governing what counts as “confidential” versus “public” information. Agencies should post responses to information requests online to avoid duplication in requests and redundant compliance efforts.” (p. 351; emphasis added)
- More on FOIA-related statements can be found in the chapter on Government Transparency (PDF)
Open Data
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How it helps government: “These approaches can make government more effective and efficient.” (p. 351)
- “For instance, the FCC recently undertook to document broadband speeds in different parts of the country. Instead of sending out, say, half a dozen researchers to report on variations, they built an application that allowed citizens to perform tests themselves and report the data to the FCC. Two million submissions resulted.” (p. 351)
- “There is great variety in the city datasets that prove popular. In May 2010, San Franciscans searched most often for traffic accident data, school dropout data, information on library books available in the San Francisco Public Library, and information on Treasure Island development plans.[23] In Seattle, neighborhood maps, crime statistics, active building permits, and a list of the locations of the city’s public toilets were among those most-frequently accessed.[24] The District of Columbia’s most popular datasets are those on juvenile arrests and charges, crime incidents, purchase orders, and public space permits.[25] In Ann Arbor, Michigan, the most downloaded datasets are the city boundary data, records of checks or fund transfers issued to the city, and a graphic representation of land use planning parcels.[26]” (p. 204; emphasis added; see here for footnote details)
- “Not only do open government initiatives support direct citizen access to information, they support private sector and nonprofit entrepreneurs who create applications to organize and structure government data so that it can be searched and utilized.” (p. 204; emphasis added)
- “It matters greatly how this information organized. It needs to be put out in standardized, machine-readable, structured formats that make it easy for programmers to create new applications that can present the data in more useful formats, or combine one agency’s information with another. Data releases should include an Application Programming Interface (API) that allows the data to be shared easily with other computers and applications.” (p. 351; some emphasis added/in original)
*The quotes for this were taken out of various places from the full report. The headings that they are under here do not necessarily mean that they were under those headings in the report.
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Gov't & Technology, Miscellaneous, News & Events, Open Government
National Broadband Map Released
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One view of the National Broadband Map
“Where is broadband available? How does it compare with other areas? Who are the providers? And what can you expect for your home broadband speed?” (source)
Well, on the new National Broadband Map’s website, you can type in your address or browse the map to research various information about broadband access in your area (or across the country).
The National Broadband Map even has it’s own blog. The opening line to it’s 2nd post says:
Welcome to the first-ever public, searchable nationwide map of broadband access.
Why was it created? They answer that on the post: “We created the map at the direction of Congress, which recognized that economic opportunities are driven by access to 21st Century infrastructure.”
Another view of the National Broadband Map
According to the website for the National Broadband Map, it “is a tool to search, analyze and map broadband availability across the United States.”
The website also says:
We are very excited to provide a rich collection of data about the state of broadband availability across the country, along with tools to analyze, explore and share.
According to @NTIAgov:
The National #Broadband Map is now live http://www.broadbandmap.gov @fcc #arra #digitaldivide #opengov #gov20
NTIA
NTIAgov
HT The WallStreet Journal, techPresident, National Journal, and @BaileyMcC Tweet on Twitter (and probably others)
Update (2/22/11): Government Technology has an article out called “National Broadband Map’s Accuracy Questioned“. (HT)
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Gov't & Technology, Miscellaneous, News & Events, Open Government
