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The General Services Administration (GSA) announced on May 21 that Data.Gov partnering with the Government of India National Informatics Centre has produced an open source version of Data.gov

The General Services Administration (GSA) announced on May 21 that Data.Gov partnering with the Government of India National Informatics Centre has produced an open source version of Data.gov that is being made available today, the third anniversary of Data.gov. The open source product, called the Open Government Platform (OGPL), can be downloaded and evaluated by any national Government or state or local entity as a path toward making their data open and transparent

The Open Government Platform (OGPL) is a growing set of open source, open government platform code that allows any city, organization, or government to create an open data site

You can build it but they won’t come. All successful open source projects build communities of supportive engaged developers who identify with the project and keep it productive and useful.

Ongoing maintenance and distribution of the data hasn’t been budgeted for almost all the data sets we have today. This attitude has to change, and new projects give us the chance to get it right, but most existing datasets are unfunded for maintenance and release.

there are at least five different types of Open Data groupie: low-polling governments who want to see a PR win from opening their data, transparency advocates who want a more efficient and honest government, citizen advocates who want services and information to make their lives better, open advocates who believe that governments act for the people therefore government data should be available for free to the people, and wonks who are hoping that releasing datasets of public toilets will deliver the same economic benefits to the country as did opening the TIGER geo/census dataset.

"Big data is a topic of growing interest for many business and IT leaders, and there is little doubt that it creates business value by enabling organizations to uncover previously unseen patterns and develop sharper insights about their businesses and environments," David Newman, research vice president at Gartner, said in prepared remarks. "However, for clients seeking competitive advantage through direct interactions with customers, partners and suppliers, open data is the solution. For example, more government agencies are now opening their data to the public Web to improve transparency, and more commercial organizations are using open data to get closer to customers, share costs with partners and generate revenue by monetizing information assets.

The company's report noted that enterprise architects could play an important role in fostering information-sharing practices

Gartner suggested open data application programming interfaces (APIs) are a lightweight approach to data exchange. These APIs can be new sources of revenue, spur innovation, increase transparency and improve brand equity

I find business cases for data publishers much more compelling than examples of how open data can be used. For a start, I don’t think it’s possible to predict how open data will be used or what that will mean in terms of economic or societal impact: the wide world into which it’s released is just too complex to know.

One argument I’ve heard made about government open data is that releasing it can help organisations avoid the costs of Freedom of Information requests.

The reverse of cost avoidance is finding sponsors for open data publication.

How, then, does the public get access to data, and ideally, to raw data streams?

Using force, by changing the laws or creating new regulations

Using intimidation, by enlisting the news media to pressure the agency

I would argue that the new license has virtually the same constraints as the UK Open Government License (OGL) and even the Creative Commons CC-BY license

The report finds that 3 key groups or ‘layers’ were crucial to the successful introduction of open data. An influential and active civil society provided the ‘bottom up’ pressure for change through traditional advocacy and by setting up innovative websites demonstrating how open information could be used. Civil servants and state and federal administrators who saw open data as a way of improving efficiency provided the ‘middle layer’. Finally, high-level political leaders including Heads of States and Ministers provided the third layer.

UK open government data: the results of the official audit

not yet systematically assessed the costs and benefits of the Government's specific transparency initiatives

Government departments reckon on spending from £53,000 to £500,000 each year on just providing and publishing open data

Being the monopoly holder of transit data does not benefit TransLink.

Consumers don't turn to who has the data, they turn to who makes the data easiest to use.

It should be focused on shifting the competitive value in the marketplace from access to accessibility.

this has been a civic adventure driven by pure patriotic adrenaline

passionate, patriotic group of people I’m proud to now call friends

Over the past few months, I’ve tried to work on establishing a sustainable business model, but the challenge around building an immediate solid foundation has turned into a case of ‘too little, too late.’

This document is a best practices guide for governments embracing the notion of "open data". It discusses why open government data is beneficial to society, i.e. how it is civic capital, and what kinds of technological considerations must be made when making government data open.

Nutzen von Open Data für Rettungskräfte und das Informationssystem “RESC.info

What are the elements of the Commission's Open Data package

A revision of the Decision governing re-use of Commission's own information

the Communication will support the creation of Europe-wide open data portals, making public data easily useable.