Listen to a live GovCampus recording to celebrate the first anniversary of the re-booted data.gov.au portal.  Hosted by John Wells, the podcast conversation features (pictured below from left-to-right):

• John Sheridan, Australian Government Chief Technology Officer
• Pia Waugh, Director Coordination and Gov 2.0, Australian Government Department of Finance

During the podcast recording John and Pia were joined remotely by international special guests:

• Prof Sir Nigel Shadbolt, co-founder Open Data Institute, UK
• Jacques Mailloux, CIO, Elections Canada / #OGT14 Ottawa champion
• Richard Pietro, host, Open Government Tour 2014 (#OGT14), Canada

This event was recorded in front of a live audience as part of Australia’s national Innovation Month in 2014 convened by the Canberra-based Public Sector Innovation Network.

About the Australian Government’s data.gov.au portal

Data.gov.au provides an easy way to find, access and reuse public datasets from Government. The main purpose of the site is to encourage public access to and reuse of government data by providing it in useful formats under open licences. It was created following the Government’s Declaration of Open Government and response to the Government 2.0 Taskforce Report.

The purpose of this online service is to encourage public access to and reuse of government data by providing it in useful formats and under open licences.

data.gov.au was originally launched in 2010. In subsequent years open data technologies matured rapidly leading to a relaunched in 2013 using best of breed technologies and techniques adapted from data.gov.uk and around the world. The new platform (CKAN) has proven to be extremely flexible, scalable, extendable, easy for data custodians to publish data and easy for the community to discover, reuse and visualise government data. More on the state of open data in Australia can be found at http://data.gov.au

On 2 July, Richard Pietro will start an epic journey of 20,000 kms, riding a motorcycle across Canada to start a series of city conversations about Open Government.

We’re excited to be a social communication partner for the Open Government Tour 2014.  In the countdown to Richard’s departure, and throughout his journey, we’ll be producing a special series of interviews with Canadian leaders and practitioners of open government, as well as local city event organizers from across Canada.

Check out the Open Government Tour 2014

The Dashboard enables Edmonton-ains (and others) to use  simple visualisations or dig deeper to look at performance measurement data as well as the legislation underpinning them.

I think this has really set a precedent for making performance measures really understandable.

About Ashley Casovan

Ashley is the Strategic Coordinator for the Chief Information Officer at the City of Edmonton. Passionate about creating open government and enhancing community engagement, she is currently working on several innovative projects within the Information Technology Branch, the City of Edmonton and beyond. Prior to working with the City of Edmonton, Ashley was a political organizer in Canada and the United States. Outside work, Ashley is an active board member with Next Gen, Equal Voice Alberta North, and the Institute of Public Administration, Canada’s New Public Servant Committee.

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Episode links and resources

• City of Edmonton Citizen Dashboard
• Transforming Edmonton strategic plan

60-second snapshots

On gaining organisational support for open data activities:

On lessons learned from the citizen dashboard so far:

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Nigel Shadbolt discusses the realities of harnessing the potential of open data for governments, businesses and citizens. With Sir Tim Berners-Lee, Professor Shadbolt is the joint head of the newly formed Open Data Institute in London which he summarises as “… building the supply side; building capability and empowerment; developing a demand side”.

Calling for “a real forensic commitment to open data”, he explores new economic models needed around open data as well as the need to better understand where and knowing how the value is being generated.

There’s a feeling that the job is never done – it’s eternally vigilant process of trying to improve the quality, improve the format, improve the ease of publication.

Professor Shadbolt also shares his hopes and aspirations for the Open Government Partnership in the next 12 months.

About Prof. Nigel Shadbolt

Nigel Shadbolt is Professor of Artificial Intelligence and Head of the Web and Internet Science Group, Electronics and Computer Science, University of Southampton.  With over 400 publications he has researched on topics ranging from cognitive psychology to computational neuroscience, Artificial Intelligence to the Semantic Web. He was one of the originators of the interdisciplinary field of Web Science and is a Director of the Web Science Trust, and of the Web Foundation – both organisations have a common commitment to advance our understanding of the Web and promote the Web’s positive impact on society.

In 2009 the Prime Minister appointed him and Sir Tim Berners-Lee as Information Advisors to transform access to Public Sector Information. This work led to the highly acclaimed data.gov.uk site that now provides a portal to over 9000 datasets. In May 2010 he was asked by the UK Coalition Government to join the Public Sector Transparency Board – this oversees Open Data releases across the public sector. In April 2011 he became Chair of the UK Government’s midata programme – which seeks to empower consumers by releasing their data back to them. He is Chairman and Co-founder of the Open Data Institute, based in Shoreditch, London.

He was also a founder and Chief Technology Officer of ID protection company Garlik Ltd. In 2008 Garlik was awarded Technology Pioneer status by the Davos World Economic Forum and won the prestigious UK national BT Flagship IT Award. In December 2011 Garlik was acquired by Experian Ltd.

Prof Shadbolt is also an international speaker at the  ICEGOV 2012 conference – to see more about the conference, visit here.

Feature images courtesy josema and RSLN

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Episode links and resources

• About Prof Nigel Shadbolt
• About the UK Open Data Institute
• Data.gov.uk
• UK Open Data Innovation Community
• UK Public Data Principles
• 5 stars of open data
• Legislation.gov.uk
• Wired magazine article: “Professor Nigel Shadbolt outlines plans for Open Data Institute” – 22 May 2012
• The Guardian article: “Government data PDF enthusiasts will be ‘dealt with’, says Maude” – 17 Oct 2012
• A Right to Data – interview with Chris Yiu of Policy Exchange

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The US Data.Gov platform now features more than 470,000 datasets from 172 agencies, as well as thematic communities representing such diverse interests as health and education through to developers and consumers.  Jeanne Holm shares some of the lessons learned over the last 12 months of escalating the platform, reinforcing the importance of a focus on people rather than the data itself.

I think the most important aspect of Data.gov is not necessarily the data it provides but the voice that it gives to people across the country.

Jeanne also discusses the collaboration between the US Data.gov and Indian data.gov.in teams to develop the open source Open Government Platform, and give us an update on the activities of the W3C e-Government interest group.

About Jeanne Holm

Jeanne Holm is the Chief Knowledge Architect at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, CalTech. She chairs NASA’s Knowledge Management Team, which facilitates access to and reuse of the knowledge to support future missions and drive innovation. Her team’s solutions help people manage space missions, learn virtually, and share lessons learned by transforming NASA into a learning organization through innovative techniques in developing communities of practice, harnessing the power of social media, and ensuring lessons are shared and embedded across the organization.

Jeanne was the manager for the award-winning NASA public and internal portals. She supports several DoD organizations in multi-generational learning, utilizing social media, creating collaborative structures, and identifying emergent technologies. Her activities range from social media, virtual worlds, gaming, ontologies, to collaborative systems. As a Fellow of the United Nations International Academy of Astronautics, she leads teams that set standards for how space missions should manage knowledge and share data in the future. She is the former chair of the Federal KM Working Group with 700 members across government, and serves on international standards and conference boards.

Jeanne is also a speaker at the ICEGOV 2012 conference – hear her sneak preview (5 mins) of the conference here.

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Episode links and resources

• Data.gov
• Data.gov communities
• Data.gov blog
• Open Government Platform
• Data.gov.in beta site
• Open Government platform on Facebook
• W3C eGov interest group
• W3C eGov LinkedIn group

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In 2001 Professor Jim Hendler jointly conceptualised the semantic web along with Tim Berners-Lee and Ora Lassila. When he invented the World Wide Web, Berners-Lee always envisaged it as highly linked, and the idea of the semantic web – a web of linked data with meaning – is now emerging as a reality.

Data is most interesting when you add it to other data.

Jim Hendler takes us on a journey into this semantic web, unpacking related terms such as Web 3.0, and exploring its potential for government. He emphasises the importance of linked open government data, and points to some useful tools and demos of how linked data can be used to create new insights.

The excitement of the data web is better understanding of the world we live in through what’s being collected about it in the information space.

About Professor Jim Hendler

Jim Hendler is the Tetherless World Professor of Computer and Cognitive Science, and the Head of the Computer Science Deparment at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI). He is also a faculty affiliate of the Experimental Multimedia Performing Arts Center serves as a Director and Trustee of the UK charity Web Science Trust and is a visiting Professor at DeMontfort University in Leicester, UK. Hendler has authored over 200 technical papers in the areas of Semantic Web, artificial intelligence, agent-based computing and high performance processing.

One of the inventors of the Semantic web, Hendler was the recipient of a 1995 Fulbright Foundation Fellowship, is a former member of the US Air Force Science Advisory Board, and is a Fellow of the American Association for Artificial Intelligence, the British Computer Society, the IEEE and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). He is also the former Chief Scientist of the Information Systems Office at the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and was awarded a US Air Force Exceptional Civilian Service Medal in 2002. He is the Editor-in-Chief emeritus of IEEE Intelligent Systems and is the first computer scientist to serve on the Board of Reviewing Editors for Science, and also serves as an “Internet Web Expert” for the U.S. government, providing guidance to the Data.gov project.

Prof. Hendler is also a speaker at the ICEGOV 2012 conference – hear his sneak preview (5 mins) of the conference here.

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Episode links and resources

• Linked Open Government Data project
• Linked Open Government Data project demos and datasets
• Jim Hendler’s blog and articles on SciLogs
• Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute 
• Semantic Web on Wikipedia

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OTF Chair Terry Cutler and General Manager Steve Schmid tell us why the Foundation is a timely initiative, and how they are working to federate data, code and experiences to escalate open technology take-up across all tiers of government.

The Open Technology Foundation is here to support all levels of government around 2 things – one is the open technologies… and the second is open standards.

About Dr Terry Cutler and Steve Schmid

Dr Terry Cutler is an industry consultant and strategy advisor with a background in the information and communications technology sector. Terry has authored numerous influential reports and papers on the Digital Economy and innovation.  During 2008 he chaired the Australian Government’s Review of the National Innovation System which culminated in the Report, Venturous Australia.  Among other appointments, Terry is currently the chair of the Open Technology Foundation.

Steve Schmid is the General Manager of the Open Technology Foundation, having come from a background in both the commercial and public sector environments, particularly as the director of the SA Government’s ICT Division.

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Episode links and resources

• Open Technology Foundation
• Venturous Australia report
• Open Ray

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Jenny Clark and David Kane from the UK’s National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) are bringing civil society to the open data table through their Voluntary Sector DataStore and associated initiatives.

Jenny and David talk about ‘dipping the toe in the water’ to bring together the data collected held and collected by voluntary and community organisations in the UK, and support civil society to contribute to and benefit from open data for the public sphere.

We had this idea that open data was the next big thing for the voluntary sector and possibly something that could really help organisations to change the way they run themsevles and the work they do… but we also knew the sector was starting from scratch.

About Jenny Clark

Jenny is the Research Manager for the NCVO and has managed NCVO’s quantitative research programme since 2008. Jenny has specialist skills in labour market analysis, survey design and data analysis and has written a number of user friendly research publications including the NCVO Almanac series.  Jenny has nine years research experience within a public policy department and holds an MSc with distinction in Advanced Social Research Methods and Statistics.

About David Kane

David Kane is a research officer, leading on the quantitative analysis of data for NCVO’s work on the size and scope of civil society, and is an author of the UK Civil Society Almanac 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2012, the State and the Voluntary Sector and the UK Voluntary Sector Almanac 2007. David leads NCVO’s involvement in research to classify voluntary sector organisations and in open data.

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Episode links and resources

• NCVO website
• Voluntary Sector DataStore
• Jenny Clark’s blog
• David Kane’s blog
• London DataStore
• data.gov.uk

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In advance of the Open-Data Cities Conference in Brighton, UK, convenor Greg Hadfield talks about the ways in which all elements of a city – leaders, government, local institutions and businesses as well as citizens – have a role to play in creating open and sustainable cities of the future.

Data and the openness of that data, openly published, freely available, available for re-use without strings attached in non-proprietary formats – all that 5-star openness  will be embedded in the DNA of our cities

About Greg Hadfield

Greg Hadfield is a former Fleet Street journalist, founder of Soccernet and Schoolsnet and most recently, he was head of digital development and Telegraph Media Group and director of strategic projects at Cogapp, a leading digital agency.

Greg is also the founder of Open-data Brighton and Hove Group, and is organising the Open-data Cities Conference in Brighton and Hove on April 20, 2012.

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Episode links and resources

• The Open-data Cities Conference website
• Open Data Brighton and Hove

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Join Gov20 Radio for a discussion talk with Cook County’s Deputy Director of New Media Sebastian James.

We chat about about the launch of data.cookcountyil.gov, and the challenges facing counties in moving ahead with open data initiatives.  Sebastian also previews some of the upcoming initiatives that the County has planned.