Re: CivicAccess-discuss Digest, Vol 66, Issue 9

Posted by Ted Strauss on Jan 11, 2013; 7:09pm
URL: http://civicaccess.416.s1.nabble.com/Re-CivicAccess-discuss-Digest-Vol-66-Issue-9-tp5298.html

My two "favorite" problems would be:

1) the disconnect between the data published and the data that people
want (I'm still waiting for open 311 data, police blotter data, and
municipal voting, contracts and real estate / zoning)

Figuring out what people want is a great challenge, since it's complicated

to know what data exists, why it should be open, and what problems can

be solved with it. How can we take some of the mystery out of that process, 

so more people can contribute their ideas, and imagine

 

2) the lack of use of the open data that has been published (which is
connected to problem 3) lack of funding for open data projects that
don't have viable business models.

I think Tim Berners-Lee's 5 stars of open data would go a long way to address 

your #2, interoperability being the big barrier.