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Gov 2.0 Events Calendar (Test)

Transparency and the Digital Divide

As I start this post I'm on the Orange line of the Metro heading home from Transparency Camp 2010. I timed my arrival almost exactly with that of the train using an iPhone app. Now I'm typing on a super-powerful laptop with a huge display. Many Metro stations have 3G access and even though I don't tether my phone to my computer to use 3G on my laptop, I'm sure it can be done. I have nearly all of the comforts of the digital age at my disposal nearly all of the time.

I often use these tools to stay in touch with what is happening in and around my community, my local and state governments, and the federal government. I use access to Web sites, data, and social networks to stay informed and engaged. These tools offer me many choices of how much info I want to consume and how much I feel like engaging.

But what can people who don't have these resources do to be informed and participate? What choices do they have for receiving information and offering feedback? So much of Gov 2.0 and open government relates to the Web that we must be careful not to exclude those who lack digital resources.

This topic came up in multiple sessions at Transparency Camp and we generated some good ideas (we think) on how to address this issue responsibly. One idea in particular that resonated was placing LED message boards around town to broadcast key indicators, initiatives, and citizen feedback.

The basic idea is to place LED signs at heavily trafficked locations. These signs would display information about the city in which people are most interested. Some of this content would be generated the city and some of the content would be generated by citizens. Information, especially that generated by citizens, would vary somewhat by neighborhood.

On the participation side of the conversation the minimum barrier to entry would be a mobile phone. Anyone who can send a text message can contribute. Of course, there would be other ways to contribute. On the information side of the equation would be these message boards.

This would be a way for people to simultaneously tell their city what they want and to see what the city is getting by way of feedback.

There is plenty of reason to think this can be effective, too.

But before I go on, I need to add some context. This all came up during a session I facilitated called "Local Government Transparency." In the beginning of the session I gave several examples of transparency happening at the local level. One example was Localocracy. Hart Rossman quickly pointed out that, while I'm able to easily cite these examples, most people hardly know what I'm even talking about. The point being: we need to make this relevant to the vast majority of people who aren't aware of what's going on in this space.

Keying on that, Bryan Sivak, CTO of Washington, D.C., shared with us his concerns about the "digital divide" in his city. In the poorest wards in D.C., broadband Internet access is about 30%. The point being: we can make all the cool open data and participation websites we want, but we won't be serving key constituencies in his city if those people can't access these online resources.

After some back and forth a gentlemen, whose name regrettably escapes me at the moment made a reference that reminded me very much of "The Blackboard Blogger of Monrovia," Alfred Sirleaf. Alfred is not just dealing with a digital divide. He has customers who are not literate. Still, he manages to provide useful information about what matters around them.

At lesser extremes we see other examples of this idea already working. Metro transit signs are one great example.


What else do people want to know about their city that can be easily provided on on a billboard in the public square?

It's worth noting that we don't necessarily need government to provide (and maintain) the billboard. Alfred Sirleaf makes a living doing what he does. People who visit his blackboard buy goods from him. We probably need government to issue permits for signs in public spaces. Then again, What if food vendors in D.C. hung LEDs on their carts?

We do need from government data that is open and accessible so that it can be easily used by anyone at low or no cost. Given this and a touch of inspiration from Alfred Sirleaf, maybe we can succeed at engaging citizens in their own government in ways that are widely accessible.

Post Script:
Gwynne Kostin pointed out the next day, that the digital divide is as much cultural as it is economical. There are plenty of people who aren't resource constrained who are nonetheless struggling with relevance of transparency and open government in their lives.

Thank you to Erik Hersman for the image of Alfred Sirleaf

How to Mash-up Open Data APIs + Google Docs to Visualize City Data

Full size: http://www.screencast.com/users/kmcurry/folders/Default/media/342827dd-99f2-4744-9bf0-3eb3eec7e67c

What's Happened Since City Camp?

At the start of the second day of City Camp we challenged ourselves to think about what happens after City Camp. We focused our sessions around concrete actions we would take after we all scattered back to our homes. Here's a quick rundown of some of our post-City Camp activities:

1. We've been editing the Open Muni wiki
2. We started a help-desk for journalists who want to use data
3. We're planning spin-offs and meet-ups in a number of different cities
4. We connected experts in crime data mashup & visualization with a local paper's crime data API
5. We stay active online
6. We started Colorado Smart Communities
7. We reported back to local government
8. Update 02.15.10: We set up a development environment for open source government data feeds

In fact, in their report back to City of Edmonton, Devin Serink & Ashley Casovan, listed six "next steps" for their city:

1. [Participate in] Inter-city collaboration
2. [Contribute to] Open Data Cookbook
3. Experiment in 3D virtual worlds
4. Develop understanding and excitement internally
5. [Initiate] Apps for Edmonton
6. [Support creation of] Code for Canada

To be sure, many of these activities were initiated prior to and/or separately from City Camp. That said, we all connected through City Camp to these activities and those connections are moving us foward.

P.S. This City Camper won an award.

My Initial Takeaways from City Camp

I posted this in a comment thread in GovLoop; copying here so it can be read without requiring a login:

My biggest takeaways:

It's essential to get a good mix of perspective. We had civil servants, vendors, journalists, non-profits, and citizens. It would not have been as successful if it was gov-to-gov, vendor-to-vendor, or even gov-to-vendor.

It's essential that the conversation not revolve entirely around tech and data. In 2010 we can assume that technology and data are involved. We're just scratching the surface on process. And the processes involved are not just about methods and means for collecting-publishing-visualizing data. Providing greater opportunities to get citizens' voices heard and to increase their engagement in civic duty is important.

There is a new and important role for journalism: tell the stories behind the tech and the data. However, journalists may not have the education and knowledge to do this well. Interpreting stats is hard. I am excited to see Global Integrity stepping up to start a "help desk" specifically to work this problem. I think there is a new "extreme programming" model that papers could adopt; or perhaps to put it in terms papers already understand: pair your journalists up with data-viz-stats people like you pair them up with photographers.

People want what City Camp provided. We are going to learn from it, refine it, and keep it going.

Don't wait for me or Jen to keep City Camp going. Anyone can do this anywhere at anytime. Copy what works. Adapt for your local perspective. Just do it.

http://citycamp.eventbrite.com

Visits to

http://citycamp.eventbrite.com

as of January 4, 2010

World

U.S.

Canada

Mashing up Virginia Beach Police Data with Google Docs

Last Sunday, 10/18/2009, the editor of the neighborhood section of my local paper, The Virginian-Pilot, said that he was looking for ways to improve how he reports crime data. At the same time, I know that neighborhood crime is a hot topic in our community league meetings, casual get-togethers, and email lists.

Witness: hyperlocal supply and demand in Gov 2.0.

In fact, there's plenty my local paper can do to improve the reporting of [crime] data in our city. In the printed edition of the neighborhood section they only print the police "blotter" from the previous week. Online they use Google maps to report crimes by location, but interfaces are constrained and inconsistent.

What my paper should do to improve crime reporting is go to the source.

The Virginia Beach Police Department publishes crime data on a city website. Here's the URL:

http://www.vbgov.com/vgn.aspx?vgnextoid=8f770d066c0dd010VgnVCM1000006310640aRCRD&vgnextchannel=

6a0a1c17717ec110VgnVCM100000190c640aRCRD&vgnextfmt=default

Gnarly.

You can query for all crimes going back to January 1, 2006 (why only that far back?) up to the present day. But you can look at exactly 15 results at a time.

So what my local paper should do is appeal to the city to make [crime] data more accessible to everyone; where everyone includes The Virginian-Pilot. Short of that, the Pilot should take the energy it invests in supporting its Web presence and use it to scrape and publish city data. If only there were a "Machine Friendly" link next to the "Printer Friendly" link. (Both are designed to help people.)

Shortcomings notwithstanding, here's what Pilot reporters can do right now for free:

Compile and publish Google spreadsheets with charts:

http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AtBw9czGJjSTdGZGVzh3MzdzWEQ1SzJ6NTJDbl9taHc

http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AtBw9czGJjSTdFdlaEEwT2Y1RGotdGNWU2w4WDh3Nnc

Wow, who knew that 72% of all crime in Virginia Beach> occurs at the Oceanfront?

Update: HUGE, HUGE ERROR in my reporting of this stat. The pie chart above does not show all crime in Virginia Beach. It shows only the top 5 neighborhoods.

This chart, below, is the correct chart. It shows that, while still a standout piece of the pie, 4% of all crime happens at the Oceanfront.

I'm feeling really dense right now, but in a way I'm glad this happened. This is a perfect illustration of a fundamental in data viz (and reporting).

Ten Things My City Can Do to Improve Our Website

1. Publish events in iCal format
2. Publish electronic police reports as XML
3. Publish 311 data (as XML)
4. Geocode public works projects
5. Implement short, guessable URLs
6. Use a free mapping service
7. Update the Transportation Data Management System
8. Add a "Web-Friendly" link next to "Printer-Friendly"
9. Create a data catalog
10. Get a .gov address

Details to be added here...

Gov 2.0 Doers

There has been some criticism that Gov 2.0 is:

1. Just another buzz word
2. Just people talking about stuff, no one doing stuff

I disagree, certainly with the 2nd point. Most of the Gov 2.0 people I know and/or follow on Twitter are the doers. Here's a list of who some of them are, certainly not comprehensive, in no particular order:

1. Brian Sobel, InnovationGeo, Are You Safe, iLive.at
2. Dmitry Kachaev, D.C. OCTO R&D
3. Philip Ashlock, Open Planning Project, Open 311
4. Josh Tauberer, GovTrack.us
5. Jim Gilliam, act.ly, GovLuv.org, TweetProgress.us, WhiteHouse2.org, and NationBuilder.com
6. Andrew Turner, GeoCommons, FortiusOne
7. Everyone at Sunlight Labs
8. Carl Malamud, public.resource.org
9. Jen Pahlka, Code for America
10. Leonard Lin, Code for America
11. Steve Ressler, GovLoop
12. Noel Hidalgo, New York State Office of the CIO
13. Raymond Yee, UC Berkeley
14. Peter Corbett, iStrategy Labs, Apps for Democracy
15. Kevin Merritt, Socrata.com
16. Hillary Hartley, NICUSA, Citizen Space
17. Guy Martin, Forge.mil
18. Silona Bonewald, League of Technical Voters, citability.org
19. Kevin Connor, LittleSis.org
20. Greg Elin, United Cerebral Palsy
21. Noel Dickover, DoD Office of the CIO, DoDTechipedia.mil
22. Jon Udell, Microsoft, ElmCity
23. Kim Patrick Kobza, Neighborhood America
24. Jay Nath, City of San Francisco
25. Wayne Moses Burke, Open Forum Foundation
26. Micah Sifry, Personal Democracy Forum
27. George Thomas, GSA
28. Alan Silberberg, You2Gov.org
29. Steve Lunceford, GovTwit.com
30. Joseph Porcelli, Neighbors for Neighbors
31. Luke Fretwell, GovFresh
32. Chris Rasmussen, Intellipedia, NGO
33. Pam Broviak, MuniGov 2.0
34. Bill Greeves, MuniGov 2.0, Roanoke County, VA
35. Jeff Levy, EPA Web Manager, Federal Web Managers Council
36. Adrian Holovaty, Everyblock, chicagocrime.org

BTW, we need both "talkers" and "doers." Some people are both. Some people are connectors. Not everyone is an implementer. I tried to stick to implementers; to pick people who have projects and/or organizations dedicated to or related to Gov 2.0. There are some obvious names not on this list. That's probably because they are not implementers. Doesn't mean they're not important. If I missed someone you think should be on the list leave a comment. Be sure to tell me what project they're on. I certainly don't know everyone.

I'll try to come back with links and pictures.

Why Gov 2.0 Matters To Me

I posted this here last night but took it down because it felt too personal and too much about my story. The reason I wrote it this way is because I didn't want to presume why it should matter to other people, but rather describe why it matters to me and let others find commonality in it...or not. Tim O'Reilly just posed the question: "What does Gov 2.0 mean to me?" I think he may be asking a slightly different question (definition vs. motivation), but given that I decided to put this back out there.

Friends and family have been asking me why I'm into Gov 2.0 and what I get out of it. I'm going to attempt to answer these questions for them and for me here in this post.

For me, Gov 2.0 is personal. I can't answer the question without relating it to my own story:

I was born on October 14, 1970 at Portsmouth Naval Hospital in Portsmouth, Virginia. My father was stationed at Naval Air Station Oceana in Virginia Beach. From where I sit writing this, Oceana is not more than a quarter of a mile away (as the jets/crows fly).

My mother was a teacher in the Virginia Beach Public Schools system. I grew up in that school system and my daughter is in it now, 5th grade. I have not always lived here. I spent about 10 years in the New River Valley of southwest Virginia for college, work, and graduate school. I did not intend to come back to Virginia Beach after grad school. In 1999 I was graduating with a Master of Science in Computer Science and Applications degree from Virginia Tech. It was decent ticket to anywhere and I was looking west to San Antonio, San Francisco, and Redmond. But events unfolded and I transitioned from a part-time graduate research assistant at Virginia Tech to a full-time Research Associate at Old Dominion University Research Foundation, in Norfolk, VA. Fast-forward to today, in the late summer of 2009, and I'm right back where I started. I think my internal magnets have this lat/lon set as my home base.

I'm not at ODU anymore. Today I'm a government contractor at a company I co-founded. Mostly I am a Defense contractor. I didn't set out to be that either. In fact, I was explicitly trying to avoid it. I don't want to get into all of the reasons why. It's far too complicated for anyone but me to understand and I'm not even sure I do. At risk of abusing a metaphor, suffice it to say that my internal magnets draw me to other things. But I have grown and learned as Defense contractor. I have banished narrow prejudices and have adopted new world views. I have also rekindled something in me that was instilled at a very early age by my parents: the importance of public service.

I can still see my dad standing in our driveway at my childhood home, as I would have looked up to him, telling me about public service. I remember he tended to talk specifically about civil service. Though he was in the Navy he didn't necessarily talk about military service. Grandma Curry worked for the U.S. Customs Service and I know my dad admired that. Dad also talked a lot about how involved Grandpa Curry was with Miami-Dade Parks & Recreation, in Miami, FL.

I've rarely shied away from taking initiative where I see something needs to be done and participation in organizations comes naturally to me. I've ignored the call to service once or twice. After 17 years growing up a Navy brat, the effects of having a parent coming and going every 6-8 months, and lacking any of my own life direction, I steered away from ROTC and a long term commitment to a military career. I could have gone into civil service, I suppose, but another thing about my internal composition: I'm an entrepreneur and I don't care much for layered, abstract bureaucracy. I'm not so much into rising up through the ranks as making my own way. It's not that rising up through the ranks is bad. It's highly admirable, in fact. It's just not me. For me, patience is a trained virtue. If there's one thing I've learned as a government contractor is that working either with or for government requires intense patience.

So here I am. I'm a Generation Xer. I have not served in the military or civil service. I am easily frustrated by government process. Yet, I have an intense inclination toward public service. How do those add up? What can I do to serve government? (I think this is a question lots of people like me are asking themselves.)

I think today the answers are non-traditional.

I am active in the PTA for my daughter's school. I try to remain active with our Community League. For the past two years I've organized our neighborhood's participation in Clean the Bay Day. Before then our neighborhood didn't participate in CTBD. Of course, these aren't government activities. I think they help government activities, though, and that's significant.

For me, Gov 2.0 represents a near-perfect fit with my personality, direction, and goals. I feel like it was made just for me or that I was made just to live at this time. I really do.

There is and will continue to be no shortage of debate about what Gov 2.0 is, exactly. In fact, during the second week of September there is a "summit" in Washington D.C. dedicated to the topic. Is it tech? Does it include non tech? How does it work? Who can participate? I'm not sure framing it is as important as learning to recognize it from multiple perspectives and acting. I tend to take a literal interpretation. For me, that means there is a distinct connection between Gov 2.0 and Web 2.0. Therefore, for me, Gov 2.0 tends to be significantly Web/tech enabled. But as someone experienced in working for government, I know that tech requires policy and that both are intended to work for people.

This year I attended three important "unconferences" for Gov 2.0 movement: Transparency Camp East, Gov 2.0 Camp East, and Transparency Camp West. I will be at the Gov 2.0 Summit in a couple of weeks and at Gov 2.0 Expo next Spring. What most interests me is how I can use Gov 2.0 techniques to improve the way my city functions. I am interested also in how my customers will respond to Gov 2.0 and how I can apply it to their needs, but my motive is not winning more contracts. Sure, some will say that if they think it's what other people want to hear. Let there be no doubt that I want my business to succeed and I want to prosper from it. But I'm willing to take it on faith that both things will happen if I just keep following my passion and don't resist the pull of my internal magnets. I just want to "work on stuff that matters."

Increasingly, I want to work on stuff that matters here in Virginia Beach and in my region. But I also want to work on stuff that matters for my state, our nation, and our world. I am particularly drawn toward applications in education, where I see a growing gap between public and private education that is not just affecting the fringes, but is squarely squeezing out the middle and making our nation "dumber" as a whole. I see Gov 2.0 as a means for correcting this troublesome situation. (In general, I think Gov 2.0 can be particularly effective in areas that lack models, process, and funding.)

Early next year I hope to be kicking off the inaugural CityCamp, along with Jen Pahlka from Tech Web. Our goal is to start an unconference around the theme "Gov 2.0 goes local." Jen also has another project in the works that is very much in line with this theme. It's called Code for America and it's modeled after the successful Teach for America program. I look forward to seeing that take shape.

So, this is about the examples set by my parents (and their parents) and the lessons they taught me. It's about wanting to be a part of the solution in my community and my school system; not just a sideline complainer. It's about recognizing that I have something to offer that government needs. This is my opportunity to serve. This is why Gov 2.0 matters to me.

U.S. Code as Linked Data

Recently the Office of the Law Revision Council released a request for proposal (RFP) to upgrade their website.

"The Office of the Law Revision Counsel prepares and publishes the United States Code, which is a consolidation and codification by subject matter of the general and permanent laws of the United States."

We responded to that RFP. We = Bridgeborn, Inc, and Business Bullpen, LLC.

The Law Revision Council's recognition that the online home of the United States Code needs upgrading translates into a wonderful opportunity for the LRC, our companies, and the American People. This is much more than an opportunity to redesign web pages for an online presence.

This is an opportunity to publish the U.S. Code as linked data.

Linked data is important for the U.S. Code because it will make the Code more searchable, navigable, and usable by orders of magnitude. Linked data will also increase accessibility and lower costs of integration by making it easier for more consumers to treat the information according to their needs and possible constraints.

Sites exist already to provide the U.S. Code through styled web pages. The Legal Information Institute of the Cornell University Law School, for example, publishes a searchable HTML index of the U.S. Code. This version, however, is not well-formed, linked data. These sites also omit important text included in the official record published by the LRC, such as the Positive Law Codification actions that have been taken. These sites play an important roll is the dissemination of U.S. Code, so it is our hope that this effort will also make the U.S. Code more accessible and usable for consumers like Cornell's LII.

The LRC Web site isn't too bad really. Essentially what it needs is a global site navigation scheme, search on every page, and a good Cascading Style Sheet. There are features that could be added, such as public request for comments with voting. But the most important thing anyone can do with this site is Tag the

Code.

For example, the following text:

-CITE-

THE ORGANIC LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

-End-

-CITE-

USC THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE - 1776 01/03/2007

-EXPCITE-

THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE - 1776

-HEAD-

THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE - 1776

-MISC1-

THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE - 1776 (!1) IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776 THE UNANIMOUS DECLARATION OF THE THIRTEEN UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

...

Could become:

From here, there is nowhere we can't go with the Code. We can put put it in any container, we can transform it into any view, we can access it from any device. Given tagged, well-formed, linked data, we can address every element of U.S. Code from a standard Internet URL.

While tagging the code with XML may not fully constitute linked data, it is a big step in the right direction. Decorating the those tags with RDF is easily accomplished.

There is no point in enumerating the potential applications of an endeavor such as this. They are infinite.