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A lightning talk given at the 27C3 that should inspire to start OpenGov/OpenData initiatives on a local level.
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OpenGov on the city level
A call for action
Konrad U. Forstner
http://konrad.foerstner.org
December 29th, 2010 - 27C3, Berlin, Germany
Screeshots of http://data.gov.uk/ and http://www.whitehouse.gov/open
Image by Wikimedia Commons user Dbxsoul
Image by flickr user wwworks
Planned text to each slide:
Slide 1: In the recent years some countries - e.g. the USA and UK - have started Open Government and Open Data initiatives. The aimis to increase transparency by making data like the documentations of spendings better accessible to their citizens in open and easilyprocessable formats. Additionally, feedback channels are created to make participation in the decision process possible.
Slide 2: So far the number of countries practicing OpenGov and OpenData is quite limited. Hopefully more countries following thementioned examples and this becomes a global trend.
Slide 3: But in my opinion it is hard to start this change on the country level. To increase the speed of this process it might be beneficialto initiate the change from the city/community level. People in charge on the local level are usually easier to reach than the high levelprofessional politicians.
Slide 4: Many politicians start their career on the local level. If they would learn the principles of OpenData and OpenGov they might getused to it and take to the higher levels.
Slide 5: Additionally, the effort to work on the local level is lower and it is easier to recruit further people to become active.
Slide 6: Starting is pretty easy. First check on the website of your city which data is available already and what you personally miss there.E.g. Can you find a list of spendings of the last years? How detailed is this list? Is there a proper archive of this data? Is the data hiddenin PDF of doc files or available in an easy to process formats like XML or CSV?
Slide 7: Tell your result to politicians and other people and mention why you think transparency matters and that OpenGov/OpenData isan important part of modern democracy.
Slide 8: Make visualizations of available data and show them how useful this can be. They are an powerful tool to grab the essence ofinformation quickly.
Slide 9:If you want to spend more time help building tools and streamline the publication and analysis of data. Be creative!
Slide 10: I hope I could inspire some of you to become active. Thanks for listening.
