Open Government Primer

Leslie Labrecque: City of Boulder, Colorado

Open Government Primer

Agenda

• What is open government?• Why it’s important• Examples of open

government• How to learn more• Questions

What Is Open Government?

Governing doctrine that citizens have the right to access government documents and proceedings

Excerpt from Wikipedia

• Transparency• Participation • Collaboration

Three Principles

Why Its Important

• Common language/expectations

• Helps build trust in government

• Diverse opinions increase quality of decisions

Expectations For Open Data

Source: 2010 Open Data Benchmark Study by

Delivering Data

Source: 2010 Open Data Benchmark Study by

Open File Formats

Data Producers

• Provide the data• Keep it up-to-date

Open Gov Data PrinciplesComplete Primary

Timely Accessible

Machine readable Non-discriminatory

Non-proprietary License-free

*Compliance to these principles must be reviewable

Data ConsumersConsumer

TypeScientists Researchers

AnalystsEconomists

Media

Programmers Interested Constituents

Data required bulk, downloadable, machine-readable and combined with other data sources

standards-based, open data API, pointing to real-time source of data

consistent, interactive sortable, searchable can be filtered and visualized

ApplicableFile

Formats

JSON, XML JSON, XML,CSV or open linked data in RDF

Application built using the data

Source:

Mash Up

A webpage or application using or combining data, presentation or functionality from two or more sources to create a new service.Excerpt from Wikipedia

API

Application Programming Interface (API) are technologies that enable website interaction. (Examples: REST, SOAP, JavaScript)Excerpt from Wikipedia

Open APIs and Mashups

App Contests

Code For America

Directgov | Innovate

Open Government Directive

City Open Gov Initiative

datacatalogs.org

DATA.gov

data.gov.uk

data.oregon.gov

opencolorado.org

utah.gov/data

DataSF

City Camp Events

Learn More

• Attend a City Camp event• Follow the movers & shakers• Browse existing open data

sites

Educate• Get buy-in from management• Spread the message• Start with “low hanging fruit”

Questions?

@leslielabrecque

leslielabrecque.com/+

labrecquel@bouldercolorado.gov