Open Data & The Civic Network

A basic understanding of the principles and culture of open data are often the most critical elements needed to catalyze broad data release by a government, but having a vision for how that data can be part of a global ecosystem of applications and analysis is also important to help sustain and guide an open data initiative into the future. This long term vision is particularly important to graduate to higher classes of data release: from PDFs and HTML to raw data and then on to standardized APIs and linked data. The reality is that sometimes the value of open data isn't even realized until it's made available in standardized machine readable formats. This talk will examine a few case studies including Open311, the General Transit Feed Specification (GTFS), and DemocracyMap to demonstrate how information that was already publicly available can help bring transformative change when made available in standardized formats by governments around the world. Ultimately, we can begin to sketch out a civic network that connects us to common datasets across borders in a decentralized way just like the web itself.

Transcript

1. Philip Ashlock | CivicAgency.org | BC Open Data Summit 2013
   Open Data
   &
   The Civic Network
   

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3. Civic Agency
   

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4. Civic Infrastructure
   

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5. UBC
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   December ,
   

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9. GTFS
   (General Transit Feed Specification)
   

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16. An open communication standard for
    public services & local government
    Open311
    

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29. Boston NYC Portland Pisburgh
    Reinventing the Wheel
    Should everyone have a custom app? Or just different branding?
    

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31. • Governments can’t easily manage these different apps
    and communication channels.
    • People don’t always have clear expectations set for
    whether government can respond or act.
    • Many apps aren’t actually connected to the official
    government CRMs.
    • Most apps aren’t compatible with one another and
    everyone has a different app.
    Problems with proliferation
    

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32. Distributed innovation
    API
    API
    API
    Standards establish
    platforms of collaboration
    

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33. Interoperability
    Consistency
    Ubiquity
    Efficiency
    Shareability
    Benefits of an open standard
    

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34. API
    PC / Web
    SaaS
    Cloud Integration
    CRM
    SMS
    Tablet
    Mobile
    Web
    Smart Phone
    Voice
    IVR
    

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35. • Governments can beer manage how apps connect and
    how they are used.
    • Governments can provide automated responses and set
    more accurate expectations for addressing the issue.
    • Many different apps and communication channels can
    simultaneously connect to the official CRM.
    • With many apps and services working interoperably using
    the same API, people and government have more choice.
    Benefits of a web API
    

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36. Open311
    GeoReport v2
    Established March 2011
    

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37. Edmonton
    Vancouver
    Portland
    San Francisco New York City
    Washington D.C.
    Toronto
    Chicago
    Boston
    Baltimore
    Miami
    Philadelphia
    Seattle
    Bloomington
    New Orleans
    Tuscon
    New Haven
    Grand Rapids
    See http://wiki.open311.org/GeoReport_v2/Servers
    St Louis
    Houston
    

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38. Barnet
    Southampton
    Cebu
    Helsinki
    See Map of
    North America
    Open311 Worldwide
    Dominican
    Republic
    Darwin
    Bonn
    

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39. ~ 35 city endpoints
    ~ 10 vendor supported products
    ~ 5 open source servers
    ~ 7 open source clients
    ~ 6 client libraries
    For details see:
    http://wiki.open311.org/GeoReport_v2/Servers
    http://wiki.open311.org/GeoReport_v2/Support
    http://wiki.open311.org/GeoReport_v2/Resources
    Open311 GeoReport v2 Stats
    

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41. Innovation from the
    Open311 Community
    

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44. Open311 Dashboard
    

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45. Open311 on uReport CRM from Bloomington
    

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54. GeoReport v2 Service Requests
    Inquiry v0.1 FAQ Knowledgebase
    Open311 Specifications
    ✓
    ✓
    ✓ Ideation: Answers/suggestions
    

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58. GeoWeb DNS / LoST
    http://api.democracymap.org
    

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59. www.citysdk.eu
    pdxcitysync.org
    my.usa.gov
    

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66. Civic Agency
    phil@civicagency.org / @civicagency
    Philip Ashlock / @philipashlock
    

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67. Aribution
    Forward on Climate Rally photo by 350org on Flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
    Vote Icon by Jens Windolf, from The Noun Project (CC BY 3.0)
    

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