HELP SOLICITIED - Senate Committee: Comité permanent de l’accès à l’information, de la protection des renseignements
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HELP SOLICITIED - Senate Committee: Comité permanent de l’accès à l’information, de la protection des renseignements
 
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All, I have been invited to present at this Senate Committe next Monday on Valentines Day. I will be there to speak about data users primarily from the not for profit side, those who do community based research, researchers and civil society. I will of course discuss civicaccess.ca. I was only given a couple of days to prepare a written statement. Below are the questions I should be ready to respond to and to address in my statement.
I would be very grateful for examples, ideas, insignt that you might provide:
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Re: HELP SOLICITIED - Senate Committee: Comité permanent de l’accès à l’information, de la protection des renseignements
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I don't have time to flesh out the following points, but hopefully they will be of use to you.
The government works for the people, and the people should know what the government is doing and how it is operating. As such, information should be made available to citizens, unless privacy or security issues prevent it. It is also easier to fight corruption and fraud in a transparent government. Transparency is good for democracy. (In principle, a democratic government ought to be transparent, so I don't think there needs to be economic arguments in favor of it.)
In principle, all government data ought to be public (privacy/security issues aside, as above). It is important for the information to be timely - a census, for example, is much more useful the sooner it is made available. The data ought to be open, as defined here http://www.opendefinition.org/okd/ There is no need for APIs, etc. Bulk downloads are fine.
Not sure what this means. I want government to be transparent (making information public) and government data to be open (making information freely reusable and redistributable).
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Re: HELP SOLICITIED - Senate Committee: Comité permanent de l’accès à l’information, de la protection des renseignements
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In terms of open data, it seems the focus so far has been on geography, transportation, recreation, and environment. This is good. But what I really want is financial and legal information. The Government of Canada discloses expenses, contracts, grants and contributions, for example, but the data is spread across 132 departmental web sites and is available only in HTML. It's public, but not easy to use.
2011/2/9 James McKinney <[hidden email]>
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Re: HELP SOLICITIED - Senate Committee: Comité permanent de l’accès à l’information, de la protection des renseignements
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And I would suggest using XBRL (http://www.xbrl.org/WhatIsXBRL/) for
governments to report their financials, as is now demanded of US companies by the SEC, and suggested a couple of years ago by Mark Cuban, http://blogmaverick.com/2008/12/16/the-sec-madoff-and-xbrl/ This would be good for internal reasons, and good for presenting an open standard for machine readable public sector financials. I understand that some of the regulators in Canada are looking at XBRL, but know of no government in Canada looking at this. See also: - Using XBRL to Improve Transparency in Brazilian Government http://icgfm.blogspot.com/2010/05/using-xbrl-to-improve-transparency-in.html "Governments in Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and the Netherlands are leveraging XBRL. The Government of Mexico is also considering XBRL. Ms. Oliveira emphasized that the use of open standards enables more cooperation on good practices across governments." - Realizing the Full Potential of XBRL in Government: Case Studies of XBRL Implementation http://www.businessofgovernment.org/report/realizing-full-potential-xbrl-government-case-studies-xbrl-implementation - XBRL in Public Administration as a Way to Evince and Scale the Use of Information http://www.springerlink.com/content/g6q4025529094w61/ - http://techliberation.com/2008/12/22/government-spending-in-xbrl/ - Technology for Transparency in Business and Government [XBRL makes it Possible] http://advice.cio.com/michael_hugos/technology_for_transparency_in_business_and_government_xbrl_makes_it_possible - XBRL and Public Sector Financial Reporting http://www.agacgfm.org/research/downloads/CPAGNo16.pdf - http://www.e.govt.nz/standards/eXtensible-business-reporting-language/current-projects - http://www.cpa2biz.com/Content/media/PRODUCER_CONTENT/Newsletters/Articles_2010/CorpFin/SEC_XBRL.jsp Glen http://zzzoot.blogspot.com/ 2011/2/9 James McKinney <[hidden email]>: > In terms of open data, it seems the focus so far has been on geography, > transportation, recreation, and environment. This is good. But what I really > want is financial and legal information. The Government of Canada discloses > expenses, contracts, grants and contributions, for example, but the data is > spread across 132 departmental web sites and is available only in HTML. It's > public, but not easy to use. > > > 2011/2/9 James McKinney <[hidden email]> >> >> I don't have time to flesh out the following points, but hopefully they >> will be of use to you. >> >>> >>> Pourquoi se diriger vers un gouvernement transparent? >> >> The government works for the people, and the people should know what the >> government is doing and how it is operating. As such, information should be >> made available to citizens, unless privacy or security issues prevent it. It >> is also easier to fight corruption and fraud in a transparent government. >> Transparency is good for democracy. (In principle, a democratic government >> ought to be transparent, so I don't think there needs to be economic >> arguments in favor of it.) >>> >>> En pratique : Identifier les informations à être rendues publiques, >>> comment et quand >> >> In principle, all government data ought to be public (privacy/security >> issues aside, as above). It is important for the information to be timely - >> a census, for example, is much more useful the sooner it is made available. >> The data ought to be open, as defined here >> http://www.opendefinition.org/okd/ There is no need for APIs, etc. Bulk >> downloads are fine. >>> >>> Consultations publiques : que désirent les Canadiens? >> >> Not sure what this means. I want government to be transparent (making >> information public) and government data to be open (making information >> freely reusable and redistributable). >> >>> >>> Un gouvernement transparent dans le contexte canadien : considération >>> dûment accordée aux langues officielles, au droit d’auteur de la Couronne, à >>> la protection des renseignements personnels, aux impératifs >>> de confidentialité et de sécurité. >> >> With respect to personal, confidential, or sensitive data, I think we >> ought to follow Statscan's example; I think our institutions have figured >> out how to deal with those issues. It is okay for works/data to remain under >> Crown copyright, but they must be made available under an open license >> ("open" as defined above). Right now, we can build wonderful apps like >> openparliament.ca or citizenfactory.com that make the House of Commons more >> accessible, but we cannot do the same for the Senate, because only the House >> of Commons has a Speaker's Permission. As for bilingualism, much data is not >> linguistic in nature, but in cases where it is, it should be available in >> both official languages. >> >> >> >> >> > > > _______________________________________________ > CivicAccess-discuss mailing list > [hidden email] > http://lists.pwd.ca/mailman/listinfo/civicaccess-discuss > -- - |
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