Change we can believe in

How can data be used to fuel positive social change? How do we design data to help communities pursue their interests? The Knight Foundation recently brought together a panel of three open data advocates at the 2010 Future of News and Civic Media Conference at MIT to discuss the answers.

The panel discussed ideas about how to foster civic engagement and social change. These strategies primarily focused around the areas of opendata and transparency. The speakers agreed that social change can be fostered by increasing the amount of quality data available and correspondence between residents and their governments.

Speakers included:

• Nick Grossman  - Director of Civic Works at OpenPlans.
• Ellen Miller - Co-founder and executive director of the Sunlight Foundation.
• Laurel Ruma - Gov2.0 evangelist at O'Reilly Media.

(Via KnightBlog)

Mike Bradshaw, Director of Google Federal, testified on to the benefits of cloud computing at a recent House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on federal IT.

According to Google, the primary benefits of cloud computing for government can be summed up as:

• Improving Security - Under legacy computing models, data is stored on local computers – this is the equivalent of keeping cash under your mattress. Storing data securely in the cloud is like keeping cash in a bank.
• Saving Money - Research has  found that government agencies that switched to some form of cloud computing saw up to 50 percent savings. To put that in context, the federal government is currently spending $76 billion per year on IT, with $20 billion of that devoted to hardware, software and file servers.
• Improving efficiency and collaboration - Federal employees can collaborate more easily and effectively because information and applications run in a shared, secure space online, making it easy for people to work together on documents. Millions of individuals, businesses, and governments are already enjoying these benefits.

Bradshaw outlined how many departments are already involved in cloud computing pilots and initiatives, and outlined how these could result in greater innovation and cost savings:

Though the federal government is adopting at a slower rate compared to industry, we are beginning to see government cloud initiatives and pilot programs. The public sector is already adopting cloud at all levels of government to better serve citizens, reduce costs, lower energy consumption and make more effective use of taxpayer dollars overall. Federal entities currently using the cloud include the Department of Energy, Department of Defense, Department of the Interior, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the Social Security Administration, the Security and Exchange Commission, and the General Services Administration.

Simply put, cloud computing is already here and being used every day by individuals, business, and government. But we believe that the federal government could move more quickly, and by doing so it could reap benefits similar to those enjoyed by the private sector. The opportunity to switch to the cloud means that the approximately $80 billion per year market for federal government IT will see more innovation and competition – along with cost and energy savings, which are critical in today’s environment.

See full details of his testimony below:

Testimony Bradshaw

For more on cloud computing in government, check GovFresh's Top 7 'Minds in the Cloud' videos.

(Via Google Public Policy Blog)

Earlier this month, the General Services Administration (GSA) held an Industry Day to discuss ways in which industry and newcomers could team up to offer contest services to government agencies. This forms part of the President Barack Obama’s call for government to be more open and participatory.

As part of this, GSA, in collaboration with ChallengePost, have created challenge.gov, a:

one-stop source for all the challenges and contest being offered across the government

The website will be dedicated to hosting federal agency competitions to showcase innovation. GSA said in a statement:

Challenge.gov is a new platform that allows federal agencies to post challenges, and at the same time, allows the public to find federal challenges. It's now open to federal agencies to create challenges or showcase challenges from other platforms.

Bev Godwin, Director for New Media and Citizen Engagement explained the reasons behind the initiative:

GSA is taking citizen engagement to next level of co-creation by tapping the American spirit of creativity. We are accelerating new ideas and innovation as President Obama asked government to engage citizens to accelerate innovation and solve tough problems.

In the video below, Godwin and ChallengePost founder Brandon Kessler talk about the upcoming public launch of Challenge.gov and the potential of grand challenges to improve government efficiency and increase the speed of innovation.

For more on the launch of the site follow Bev Godwin (@BevUSA), and @challengegov on twitter, or check http://challenge.gov.

(H/T FCW.com)

Alexander Schellong and Philipp Girrger recently released an interesting paper called Government 2.0 in Beta Phase highlighting the use of Web 2.0 applications for eParticipation purposes throughout Germany. The study concludes that — based on the 66 cases studied — "German Government 2.0 activities are still in beta phase".

The study analysed the state of eParticipation and use of Web 2.0 applications for urban planning, budgetary planning, complaints/suggestions, and citizen services in 50 of Germany's largest cities and in its 16 federal states.

Some key findings from the research into these areas are outlined below:

Urban Planning

A rundown of results for each of the 50 cities shows that citizens overall remain in the role of passive information receiver in urban planning processes....

58% of the cities offer citizen the possibility to comment on drafts and concepts but only 6% have virtual polls on urban planning projects. Web 2.0 applications are rarely being used...

Budgetary Planning

40% of cities and 8% of the states make their current budget as well as information on a government’s project realized effects available to the public. 60% of cities try to include their constituents in the early phase of budgetary planning by offering them the chance to submit ideas—mostly through online forms and in 20% of the cases through a participatory budgeting platform. Only one city, however, asks its citizens for a virtual vote on the final budget...

Similar to cities, 60% of states offer citizen the opportunity to submit comments or ideas on the budget—usually this is realized by presenting them an email address. State-level participatory budgeting activities or virtual polls could not be found. Moreover, Web 2.0 applications are rarely being used in budgetary planning.

Complaints and Suggestions

60% of cities and 31% of states offer citizens to submit a complaint or suggestion. Tracking its progress in government’s internal processing or impact is offered by less than 10% of all cases. Online petitioning is possible in 50% of the states and 30% of cities. Web 2.0 applications are non-existent.

Citizen Services and Web 2.0 applications

Most of the 14 Web 2.0 applications set in this survey are not yet being used on the state and local websites. RSS is used in 14 states and 28 cities. Another popular application is video functionality which is part of 68% of state and 36% of municipal websites. Sometimes the term “podcast” is used for video functionality as well. While 36% of cities and 50% have started using micro-blogging, they lack information about the channel on their portals. Tagging, polls, Wikis, blogs and chats are those Web 2.0 applications that are the most seldom to be found on state and local websites.

The image above (taken from the report) displays the % of Web 2.0 applications implemented in cities and states. This emphasises just how prevalient RSS and Video are over and above any other Web 2.0 applications and services.

City Rankings

The study also looked at cities and found up to 80% of these do not have any embedded Web 2.0 applications in their websites. Some noticable exceptions, however, include:

• direktzu.bonn.de - which offers citizens the opportunitie to engage in dialogue with the Mayor through and online platform and to comment on ideas and suggestions by fellow citizens.
• berlin.de - provides a micro-site aimed at encouraging voluntary citizen engagement. It also provides links to numerous citizen participation offerings on the district-level e.g. participatory budgeting in Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg and Lichtenberg.

Conclusion

The study notes that for urban and budgetary planning eParticipation remains mostly on the level of information provision. The web is rarely used as a medium for participation and even when it is these efforts remain hidden deep within government websites. 

It also notes how participatory budgeting struggles with successful adoption rates. According to buergerhaushalt.org, out of 18,040 municipal participatory budgeting offerings in Germany, only 67 cases can be considered active. Therefore, only 0.5% of all 14.000 municipalities in Germany have implemented Internet-based participatory budgeting.

One of the primary onservances from the report is that Web 2.0 applications are mostly applied to disseminate information towards the public. The medium is being used as a push mechanism. Correspondingly, video and micro-blogging applications are the most popular applications deployed with cities and state websites.

The study concludes by recognising that while states and municipalities have eParticipation on their agenda, they lack the willingness or resources to fully engage in it. In order to rectify this the authors believe German authorities should focus on three main areas:

1. Improve knowledge on the potential, limits and implementation of eParticipation and Web 2.0 applications in politics and government.
2. Convince government officials to just try out new things and sail into uncharted waters.
3. Give citizens the opportunity to learn participation in various ways as early as possible.

(H/T Mick Phythian)

Earlier this year, Doug Hadden at FreeBalance and Martha Batorski at Grant Thornton published a white paper called ‘Embracing Government 2.0: Leading transformative change in the public sector’. The paper explores the skills and mindsets governments need to employ to achieve transformative change.

The paper argues that such change requires a dramatic increase in the transparency, participation and collaboration between governments and citizens through Web 2.0 and social networking technologies.

Embracing Government 2.0 Leading Trans Formative Change in the Public Sector

The report identifies some of the benefits of Gov 2.0 as:

• Reduced cost of engagement through more productive tools and processes
• Simplided knowledge creation and retention though usable applications
• Easier knowledge sharing
• Enhanced information discovery through transparency and data mashups
• Effective cross-pollination through bottom-up social collaboration
• Leveraging internal government and external “wisdom of crowds” to improve government results
• Fostering of innovation, through the use of fexible tools.
• Expanded engagement
• Faster completion of review cycles
• Improved citizen and employee satisfaction

The report concludes with:

Government 2.0, through the use of social collaboration tools, can and should represent real transformation. Social collaboration, and even electronic outreach that mirrors traditional processes, can make meaningful improvements in every part of every organization.

Relentless pressure to do more with less in the public sector will continue. To reduce costs, save time, improve results, and create value. To harness and share knowledge more cost effectively. To modernize management practices. All of these factors are creating the need to responsibly leverage new technologies enabling social collaboration. Implication: accelerated organizational transformation and change.

Government 2.0 requires leaders to embrace an enhanced set of change and risk management skills. It requires a paradigm shift from outside-to-inside networks, and right-sizing operational controls. It requires new skills in design thinking, trust, and change leadership. The future is here for public sector organizations, and its name is Government 2.0.

For more on the report, check http://www.freebalance.com/blog/?p=879

Interview with Stephen Goldsmith - Daniel Paul Professor of Government and the Director of the Innovations in American Government Program at Harvard Kennedy School - on the Power of Social Innovation.

Spotlight Webcast: Social Innovation with Stephen Goldsmith from Spotlight on Vimeo.

The interview above discusses Goldsmith's book The Power of Social Innovation. The book describtes itself as providing "tools for civic entrepreneurs to create healthier communities and promote innovative solutions to public and social problems." It does this through detailing case studies of civic leaders and entrepreneurs and the examining the role each plays in transforming a community’s social service delivery systems.

It features illustrative case studies of change-oriented philanthropists, public officials and civic leaders. The book features established organizations such as the New York City public schools, United Way of America, the United Negro College Fund, and Teach For America, and shows how each plays a role in transforming a community’s social service delivery systems.

Social Innovation and Public Service Delivery

For more on how Social Innovation is impacting the provision of Public Services, check Dominic Campbell's research on the Next Wave of Public Service Delivery.

For more on the Power of Social Innovation follow @powerofsocinnov.

The starting point for European tech politics, at least in Scandinavia, is high levels of public trust in the political system, good levels of broadband penetration and a solid legal framework. This has fostered social networking experiments in Nordic politics, and promoted two blogging Foreign Ministers – Jonas Gahr Støre and Carl Bildt who set a policy agenda through their blogs.

For more check out:

• Social Media in Sweden Public Sector
• Opengov.se
• Denmark Open Data Competition
• Open Gov in Norway
• Scandinavian Techpolitics Case Studies

(via Personal Democracy Forum Europe)

John O'Leary interviews John Strigel, one of the architects of the District of Columbia's City's Data Warehouse initiative, on the impact of making the city's data available to citizens in real time.

Over 320 raw data feeds - in multiple different formats - is made available through the http://data.octo.dc.gov. This was the centerpiece of the the seminal "Apps for Democracy" initiative; an open source competition for the creation of services based on open government data. It has since become a template for open data competitions around the world.

Strigel's advice for other cities thinking of getting opening up their data:

• Start small
• Don't wait for perfect data
• Get publishing

For more on the intervew, check From Data to Transparency in D.C.

(H/T @governing).

Jennifer Bell's post on Canada's VisibleGovernment blog describles a great speech given earlier this year by Suzanne Legault, Canada's Interim Information Commissioner, to a Parliamentary Committe. The speech - described as a "blockbuster" - outlines 5 open government principles required to "lead the paradigm shift from reactive to proactive disclosure, and ultimately to open government". 

The 5 priciples include:

• There must be commitment at the top to lead a cultural change conducive to open government. At a minimum, this involves issuing a declaration on open government with clear objectives. The commitment also entails assigning responsibility and accountability for coordination, guidance and deliverables. It requires prescribing specific timeframes.
• There should be ongoing and broad public consultations. Citizens should be encouraged to participate using electronic means. It is critical to determine what government information the public wants and how they want to receive it.
• Information should be made accessible in open standard formats and rendered re-usable. Information should be derived from various sources and integrated to reduce the silos inherent in bureaucratic structures.
• Privacy, confidentiality, security, Crown copyright and official languages issues need to be addressed and resolved.
• Open government principles should be anchored in statutory and policy instruments.

Along with these principles Legault acknowledges the work done by municipalities and engaged citizens in creating practical applications from open government data:

In municipalities, there are a significant number of practical applications being developed by both the cities and citizens. For example, Edmonton, Nanaimo, Toronto and Vancouver, have mounted online data catalogues containing information regarding council meetings, fire and rescue response reports, garbage collection and public transit schedules and building permit statistics. Many of these, such as property searches and restaurant sanitation reports, are supported by online search engines that allow the public to retrieve and manipulate the data. Ottawa is also moving forward to capitalize on new technologies to expand its service offerings. 

It is at the grassroots level where many of the most innovative initiatives are occurring. These initiatives are an indication of the types of information Canadians actually want. In a recent Globe and Mail article entitled “if you won’t tell us about our MPs, we’ll do it for you”, David Eaves, an internationally recognized open government guru, described new websites mounted by what he called “digital democratic activists”. He cited, as an example openparliament.ca, which enables the public to see what Members of Parliament say, explore how they vote, and search related press stories. Another example is howdidtheyvote.ca. This site provides a breakdown of Members of Parliament statistics, including the number of words spoken in a session, the frequency with which Members vote against their parties and Members’ attendance records.

Along with these Canadian efforts, Legault referred to ongoing open government initiatives in the UK, US and Australia as examples of international leadership in this area.

She ends with:

In 2010, democracy, government efficiency and national prosperity share the same core requirement. Citizens, experts and entrepreneurs must be able to easily access, interact with and reuse current and relevant public domain data. To quote from an excellent report compiled by Deloitte entitled Unlocking Government: How Data Transform Democracy:

Government leaders have before them an opportunity to combine the resourcefulness of online citizens and entrepreneurs with the power of factual data to more effectively achieve their mission. In an information-driven age, the ability of governments to seize this opportunity may ultimately determine whether a government fails or succeeds.

(H/T VisibleGovernment.ca)

Tim O'Reilly and Aneesh Chopra, Federal Chief Technology Officer, discussing government as a platform at last month's Gov 2.0 Expo in Washington D.C.

• For more on turning government into a platform check http://radar.oreilly.com/2010/05/data-and-simplicity-can-build.html
• For more on the Community Health Data Initiative check Whitehouse.gov