In conjunction with the Data.gov launch, Sunlight Labs in partnership with Google has launched the Apps for America 2 competition to find the best mash ups using US Federal government data. Over US$20,000 is being given away for open source online applications using the Federal datasets at Data.gov based on the following criteria: Transparency: Does…
The US government has taken the first step towards meeting President Obama’s pledge to make US taxpayer funded information freely available online in reusable formats late last week with the launch of the Data.gov website. At launch the site featured dozens of datasets from around 20 Federal agencies ready to be used by the public,…
Cisco’s global strategic consulting arm (IBSG), has released an interesting white paper on Government 2.0 (PDF). It takes a long hard look at the opportunities for the public sector in using online media to engage the public, arguing that, In a world where sharing information is so easy, public agencies should aim to improve citizens’…
Information held by the Government is a national resource and should be managed in the public interest. Access to government information increases public participation, and leads to increased scrutiny, discussion, comment and review of government activity. It would be great to hear an Australian government make a statement like the above, acknowledging that much of…
In the US President Obama’s newly appointed (and first) Federal Government CIO Vivek Kundra has committed to finding new ways to make government data open and accessible. The Computer World article, First federal CIO wants to ‘democratize’ U.S. government data, discusses how, In a conference call with reporters, Kundra said he plans to create a…
The US government has taken the first holistic step towards making federal data available online in bulk. This would allow the public to reuse the data, mash it up with other sources and repackage it online in innovative ways – potentially uncovering relationships and new uses that were never conceived of by the government. Reported…
NSW has been the scene of an interesting series of events over the last week regarding the right of iPhone developers to republish NSW Rail timetables in their applications. Covered in the Sydney Morning Herald articles, CityRail puts brakes on iPhone timetable app and How RailCorp’s derailing commuter ‘apps’, last week it emerged that NSW…
Dave Fletcher has published a post on his Government and Technology Weblog about how the community is making use of Utah government traffic data to create innovative tools to help drivers. Covered in If it could all be so effective as this, Dave covers how the information is shared with the public – much in…
The National Diabetes Services Scheme (NDSS), an Australian Government initiative administered by Diabetes Australia, last month released the a national online map of the spread of diabetes in Australia. Located at www.diabetesmap.com.au), the service is a wonderful example of how online map systems (in this case Microsoft’s free Virtual Earth tool) can be ‘mashed-up’ with…
Governments collect and distribute a massive amount of public data each year. It is a continual challenge to make this data accessible and usable for citizens, commercial organisations, researchers, scientists and policy makers. This challenge isn’t limited to a few dedicated statistical organisations, such as the ABS. Many other government departments collect, collate and publish…
This archive mirrors the original eGov AU blog — Craig’s professional commentary on AI, digital government and technology in public life, running since 2006.
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