We talk with John McMillan, the Australian Government’s Information Commissioner, about what the OGP might mean for a nation well-known for its early adoption of Gov 2.0 and other forms of connected government.

Professor McMillan is a long-time advocate of the principles and practices of open government. His model for open government balances freedom of information with privacy protection and the promotion of information policy, and he offers some thoughts about the practical challenges facing Australia and other governments in the pursuit of greater openness, and the opportunities that OGP membership presents for collaboration.

One of the strong themes in information policy reform has been the need for a better framework to enable information sharing within government, between governments, and between government and the community, and that involves a commitment to open data, it involves a commitment to proper privacy and security protection – so governments need to be cooperative and [the OGP] is another platform for them to do that..

About Professor John McMillan

Prof John McMillan AO was appointed Australian Information Commissioner in November 2010 to head a new office responsible for freedom of information, privacy protection and advice to government on information management policy.

John was formerly the Commonwealth Ombudsman from 2003–2010 and the Integrity Commissioner (Acting) for the Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity in 2007. He is an Emeritus Professor of the Australian National University. He is co-author of a leading student text, Control of Government Action.

In the 1970s, John was a founding member of the Freedom of Information Campaign Committee, which led the public campaign for enactment of the Freedom of Information Act 1982 . He is a National Fellow of the Institute of Public Administration Australia, a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Law and former President of the Australian Institute of Administrative Law.

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Episode links and resources

• Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) website and on Facebook
• Open Government Partnership
• OAIC Report: Open public sector information: from principles to practice
• Govhack
• My School website
• US Government’s OGP Action Plan

60-second snapshots

On the role of all tiers of government:

On the economic impetus of open government:

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Ahead of taking formal applications, an “inspiration phase” has been launched for the 2013 Knight News Challenge. Some $5 million of Knight Foundation funding will be announced in June for innovative projects around Open Government. Amid much talk (and much tech) focused on more open, transparent, connected governments – as well as the emergence of the 58-nation Open Government Partnership – this Challenge program aims to enable projects that in the broadest sense foster better communication in support of the Open Gov movement.

We hear from Chris Sopher, Project Manager for the 2013 Knight News Challenge, about the Challenge goals and how the inspiration phase will help potential participants to shape their submission ideas through a new online space developed with OpenIDEO.

What are the ideas in Open Government that can help build the field, can help explore new ideas, new approaches to trying to engage people in Government or inform them about what’s happening in their community in a new way?

The Knight News Challenge is international and open to submissions from governments and public sector agencies as well as civic innovators, private sector and non-profit organisations. If you’re considering a pitch, don’t miss this episode!

About Chris Sopher

Chris Sopher is project manager on Knight Foundation’s Journalism and Media Innovation team. He has written and spoken around the world about young people’s engagement with news and civic life through his project Younger Thinking.

Prior to Knight, Chris researched digital media and public policy at the Emerging Media Research Council and helped found the national college mentoring nonprofit Strive for College. He earned a bachelor’s in public policy analysis from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and is a Morehead-Cain and Truman Scholar.

Feature image courtesy Joichi Ito

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Episode links and resources

• Knight Foundation News Challenge site and FAQs
• Knight Foundation website
• Blog post about why Knight is doing the Open Government challenge
• Blog post: An opportunity for massive reinvention
• News Challenge winners from each of the three rounds in 2012: Networks, Data, Mobile

60-second snapshots

On framing Open Government:

On what the Knight Foundation is hoping to achieve from the Challenge:

On making public information useful as a key focus area:

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Jean-François Gauthier and Mario Asselin from Démocratie Ouverte discuss how they have been working with the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie (OIF) as well as their colleagues across the French speaking world to support Governments to broaden and deepen the opengov and open democracy movement.

About Jean-François Gauthier

Government relations expert, Jean-François Gauthier has worked in the strategic ICT support field since 2004. Passionate about public affairs and technology, Jean-François is an advocate of leveraging of technology for more efficient public service.

Until recently a strategic advisor to the Office of the Chief of Information, he is now working on initiatives to support innovation in the public service. Jean-François has also worked in several political offices and in public administration

About Mario Asselin

Strategic Advisor at le Groupe Loran, Mario Asselin started out one of the most successful experimentations in integrated computer-assisted training at school: Cyberportfolio at Institut St-Joseph in Quebec City. At that time, after teaching Elementary and High School level and leading activities, he was appointed Head of School, a position which he held for 15 years at Elementary and High School level. He advises institutions, business, Canadian Government departments and Ministries of French Government in order to support best practices and initiate the emergence of vast learning and open organizations. Member of Démocratie Ouverte, he also teaches organisational communication at Université de Montréal.

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Episode links and resources

• Kinshasa Summit announcement
• Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie (OIF)
• Démocratie Ouverte

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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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For instance, the decision by the Danish Government to open up their address register so anyone could use it had a ROI over its first 4 years of 2200% – that’s 22 times as much in benefits as in cost.

Andrew also highlights some of the key themes emerging from open government practitioners at the Open Knowledge Festival recently held in Helsinki, Finland.

About Andrew Stott

Andrew Stott was the UK’s first Director for Transparency and Digital Engagement and a former Deputy CIO for the UK Government.  He led the work to create “data.gov.uk” and the implementation of the UK Government’s commitments on Transparency of central and local government.  Following his retirement in December 2010 he was appointed to the UK Transparency Board to continue to advise UK Ministers on open data and e-government policy.  He also advises other governments on Open Data both bilaterally and through the World Bank and the World Wide Web Foundation, and he continues to contribute to the international development of the Open Data and Open Government agendas.

Episode feature background image courtesy FloApps

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Episode links and resources

• Manchester Open Data project
• Danish addressing data return on investment study
• EU POPSIS study (PDF)
• Open Government Partnership
• Open Knowledge Foundation
• Open Knowledge Festival

Andrew Stott – Implementing an Open Data programme within government at the Open Knowledge Foundation

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The Sunlight Foundation brings together developers, journalists and citizens to explore issues of transparency and openness in the public sphere.

Sunlight’s Director of Policy John Wonderlich shares national and international perspectives on open government, where collaboration between government and civil society, and good decision-making about data are the next open government frontiers for public agencies.

John also highlights key learnings from their 2012 Transparency Camp as well as the Open Government Partnership meeting in Brazil.

A vision for open government has to be developed collaboratively or else it’s not open government – it’s going to turn into something else because there’s lots of different kinds of stakeholders. In a sense, it’s one of the broadest issues imaginable becuase anyone who works on any other kind of issue us going to have a stake in open government.

About John Wonderlich

John Wonderlich is the policy director for the Sunlight Foundation and one of the nation’s foremost advocates for open government. John spearheads Sunlight’s goal of changing the government by opening up key data sources and information to make government more accountable to citizens. He is one of the foremost authorities on transparency policy, from legislation and accountability in Congress to ethics and information policy in the executive branch.

John has spoken internationally on technology and transparency and has testified before the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee and the House Energy and Commerce Committee. He has appeared on NPR, Fox News and C-SPAN, and his expertise has been cited by The New York Times, The Washington Post and other media outlets..

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Episode links and resources

• Sunlight Foundation website and blog
• Transparency Camp
• Open Government Partnership
• Scout alerts initiative
• Reporting at Sunlight Foundation
• Influence Explorer
• Other Sunlight Foundation projects
• Blog post on the Missing Open Data Policy

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About Nicholas Skytland

• Nicholas Skytland is a NASA engineer, designer, entrepreneur, and advocate for NASA’s Open Government Initiative. He has a passion for engaging all generations in the adventure of space exploration and is continually working to help NASA embrace new technologies, increase public participation and innovate on how the Agency does business. Combining elements of space exploration, science, technology, visual art and storytelling, Nicholas is well known for many of his presentations promoting NASA, the human space program, participatory exploration and the Open Government initiative.

About Alicia Llewellyn

• Ali Llewellyn is OpenGov Community Advocate at NASA.  Ali has almost 5 years of experience at NASA, developing better and more open business processes, telling stories about NASA’s exciting life sciences work, bridging the gap between generations in the workforce on use of technology, and co-leading an international education outreach pilot project encouraging students to “train like an astronaut.” She has a bachelor’s degree in classics from the University of Texas and studied cross-cultural communication and people movements in graduate school.

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Episode links and resources

• NASA Open Government Plan 2.0
• The downloadable NASA Open Government Plan 2.0
• Infographic: A Plan for Openness
• Infographic: NASA OpenGov progress report
• NASA Open Government website
• International Space Apps Challenge website
• Open Government Partnership website

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Space Apps Challenge

Chris Vein, Deputy US CTO for Government Innovation and Nicholas Skytland, head of NASA’s Open Government Initiative, discuss how momentum for open government and open data is building internationally within policy leadership and also practical on-the-ground problem-solving events and initiatives.

Chris Vein shares some insights into how open data and code-a-thon events are a useful ‘sensemaking’ tool for open government, and ways in which this can turn into sustainable innovation inside governments. He encourages public sector agencies to…

…find groups of people, bring them together around an issue or problem that needs to be fixed, then step out of the way and let the collective energy of the people in the room come together and really take that data and solve things in creative and imaginative ways that we would never have done ourselves.

Nicholas Skytland talks about the inspiration and background to the initiative, which currently has 25 cities, around 70 organizations and more than 800 people across the world signed up to participate.

You’re able to solve challenges that might take months to do in government, but only take a weekend when you get the right people in the room together.

About Chris Vein

• Chris Vein is the Deputy U.S. Chief Technology Officer for Government Innovation in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. In this role, Chris searches for those with transformative ideas, convenes those inside and outside government to explore and test them, and catalyzes the results into a national action plan. Prior to joining the White House, Chris was the Chief Information Officer (CIO) for the City and County of San Francisco where he led the City in becoming a national force in the application of new media platforms, use of open source applications, creation of new models for expanding digital inclusion, emphasizing “green” technology, and transforming government.

About Nicholas Skytland

• Nicholas Skytland is a NASA engineer, designer, entrepreneur, and advocate for NASA’s Open Government Initiative. He has a passion for engaging all generations in the adventure of space exploration and is continually working to help NASA embrace new technologies, increase public participation and innovate on how the Agency does business. Combining elements of space exploration, science, technology, visual art and storytelling, Nicholas is well known for many of his presentations promoting NASA, the human space program, participatory exploration and the Open Government initiative.

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Episode links and resources

• International Space Apps Challenge website
• NASA Open Government website
• Open Government Partnership website
• US Government’s Open Innovator’s Toolkit

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John Wells chats to David about his reflections inspired by the meeting, and his perspectives on the value of these intergovernmental gatherings to people working in the trenches. This opens up a wider discussion about the ways that governments create and leverage roles such as CIO and CTO, and what this communicates about a Government’s attitude towards technology.

I think we’re at a really interesting place around the role of ICT in government…I always like to look to see where the CIO sits in the org chart – it’s a very ‘old school’ thing to do, but it tells you a lot about how that government understands technology.

About David Eaves

David is a public policy entrepreneur, open government activist and negotiation expert and frequent speaker on these topics. He is retained by several governments to advise on open government and open data, works with two spin-offs of the Harvard Negotiation Project, and advises businesses on open source strategies and community management. Three years ago David advised the Mayor of Vancouver on Open Government and Open Data and helped draft the Open Motion. He has also launched a number of open data projects including Recollect.net and emitter.ca.

David blogs regularly at eaves.ca where you can read more about his projects and upcoming speaking engagements.

CC feature image courtesy http://owni.fr/

About the OECD Public Governance and Territorial Development Directorate (GOV)

The Public Governance and Territorial Development Directorate (GOV) assists countries in adapting their public sector governance arrangements to the changing needs of society.

Through the sharing of country experiences, the OECD work on Public Sector Innovation seeks to develop a better understanding of innovative approaches and tools, and their impact on government performance and public service delivery.

OECD work on e-Government explores how governments can best exploit information and communication technologies (ICTs) to embed good governance principles and achieve public policy goals.

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Episode links and resources

• OECD Public Sector Innovation and e-Government
• OECD E-Leaders: Strengthening the strategic agility of the public sector
• OECD National e-Leaders meeting: E-Government: New ICT Solutions for Public Sector Agility
• OECD and the Internet Economy
• David Eaves’s blog

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Tune in to a Gov20 Radio conversation with Nathaniel Heller, the founder and Executive Director of Global Integrity.

We speak about the international Open Government Partnership program, with an ever-increasing list of countries signing up, and the innovative Networking Mechanism that Nathaniel and his team are coordinating that aims to connect Open Government practitioners inside and outside Government.