{"id":21209,"date":"2017-12-13T16:20:38","date_gmt":"2017-12-13T16:20:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digileaders.com\/?p=21209"},"modified":"2019-12-23T16:39:57","modified_gmt":"2019-12-23T16:39:57","slug":"towards-open-nz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/digileaders.com\/towards-open-nz\/","title":{"rendered":"Towards a more open NZ"},"content":{"rendered":"

The tech industry\u200a\u2014\u200aincluding open source\u200a\u2014\u200ahave a strong role to play in contributing to a stronger, kinder, more resilient NZ.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m going to cover open data, open government, open source\u200a\u2014\u200abut only briefly, as you\u2019re already experts!\u200a\u2014\u200aand how it all ties together into something called \u201ccivic tech\u201d.<\/p>\n

And how all of these could and can have an immeasurably positive impact on our communities, our whanau, and as a result, ourselves.<\/p>\n

Open say what\u00a0now?<\/h3>\n

I reckon that strong, shared definitions of any term are amazingly useful when talking about it.<\/p>\n

So first up, it\u2019s probably useful to make sure we\u2019re all on the same page with what I mean when I talk about open data.<\/p>\n

For the purposes of this talk, we can define open data as any data that\u2019s publicly available, and on an ongoing basis.<\/p>\n

And \u201cpublicly-available\u201d doesn\u2019t mean for a short period of time only. It doesn\u2019t mean for a select group of people. Or with barriers to entry like being charged to access it.<\/p>\n

It means, quite literally,\u00a0publicly\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>available. To anyone, anywhere, anytime.<\/p>\n

Of course, this definition also includes shoddily-made PDFs of council minutes, for example, so the data may be publicly available, but that doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s hugely accessible, or even terribly useful for many use-cases (not without an amount of resource which acts in itself as a barrier to entry).<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s not necessarily live data. To put it another way\u200a\u2014\u200ait\u2019s static, and while it\u2019s still useful to look for past trends and patterns, it\u2019s not useful for any real-time application. It also, very easily, becomes out of date. And one doesn\u2019t necessarily know when that happens.<\/p>\n

One way to counter this, of course, is to make it machine readable. This can be done by the organisation who\u2019s releasing the data, or by members of the public or other organisations. To use our earlier example of Council minutes, someone might take those shoddy (and often rather buried) PDFs and turn attendance records trapped in them into a spreadsheet, for easier analysis.<\/p>\n

An even better thing to do would be to\u00a0also<\/em>\u00a0release the data in the form of an API. An\u00a0open API<\/em><\/strong>\u200a\u2014\u200athat is, one that\u2019s publicly available. With a bit of luck, there\u2019d also be some accompanying documentation about how to\u00a0use\u00a0<\/em>the API, making it nicely accessible, too.<\/p>\n

This allows people to analyse and pipe the information into just about any form they choose, from maps to apps. Not only is the data the most up-to-date available, but, as we know, it can be used to make realtime,\u00a0living<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0resources.<\/p>\n

I know the devs I, er, know far prefer an API to being handed an Excel spreadsheet (which may or may not have become corrupted along the line, too).<\/p>\n

I hear a lot of puzzlement from people about why on earth one should\u00a0give<\/em><\/strong>away data. After all, data leads to information, which leads to knowledge.<\/p>\n

And knowledge is\u00a0power<\/em><\/strong>, right?<\/p>\n

Open data has huge social\u00a0value<\/h3>\n

I\u2019ll answer that question from a lens focussing on open data\u2019s social value. If you\u2019re interested in its commercial value, feel free to contact me afterwards! Because there\u2019s definite commercial value to it, too\u00a0\ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a strong case to be made that data that\u2019s generated by publicly-funded institutions\u200a\u2014\u200aeg government\u200a\u2014\u200ashould be available to the public who paid for it. Of course, I\u2019m not talking about\u00a0all<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0data, and certainly not in raw form. We must be very careful around privacy, and not victimising or revictimising people.<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s plenty of data that can and should be shared. And a tonne of organisations, and research, backing up that open government data is a powerful thing.<\/p>\n

It enables ordinary citizens to understand better what\u2019s going on in their societies, and make more informed choices about the decisions they, and their elected officials, make.<\/p>\n

It enables people to push for change\u200a\u2014\u200aor the status quo\u200a\u2014\u200abased on\u00a0evidence<\/em><\/strong>, not anecdote, opinion or emotion. Although we know that emotion is hugely important in making decisions.<\/p>\n

It builds higher levels of digital literacy\u200a\u2014\u200asince people need to understand the basics (or know people who do) in order to use the data, they have a stronger incentive to learn about it.<\/p>\n

It builds more transparent government and power structures, enabling people to hold their governments to account (sometimes to the horror of said governments, which is great).<\/p>\n

And it gets people\u00a0engaged<\/em><\/strong>. Fewer black boxes into which data disappears, never to reappear, means a less cynical and disengaged society. And the more people are engaged in our society, the better. After all, we live in a\u00a0democracy!<\/strong><\/p>\n

And we get to interrogate our gods.<\/p>\n

Talking of which, open government\u2026<\/h3>\n

Let\u2019s segue into open government, then. I\u2019m not suggesting they\u2019re our gods, but they do have a powerful effect on our lives!<\/p>\n

Across the world, more and more governments are turning to the principles of open government as they look for how to stay relevant, do more with less, and be more responsive.<\/p>\n

Open govt, as the quotation says, means that people living in a country have the right to access information about what the government is doing\u200a\u2014\u200aoften in the form of open data. Of course, exactly what people can access, and how, differs hugely between countries, but the principles of open government\u200a\u2014\u200atransparency and accountability, participation and engagement\u200a\u2014\u200aremain the same.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s simple: open governments make for better democracies.<\/p>\n

It enables the public to better oversee their government\u2019s activities.<\/p>\n

It empowers the people in that country to be more informed, and potentially more engaged.<\/p>\n

And it helps push governments to be more accountable, effective and responsive.<\/p>\n

One of the major international open government initiatives is the Open Government Partnership, or OGP.<\/p>\n

It was founded in 2011, to \u201cprovide an international platform for domestic reformers committed to making their governments more open, accountable, and responsive to citizens.\u201d (OGP<\/a>)<\/p>\n

As you see, the OGP people over here have\u00a0some noble aims<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u201cNew Zealand\u2019s action plan provides opportunities for us to do even better in the areas of:<\/p>\n