What is Open Government? (part 3)

This is the third post in a series on Open Data and Open Government. I'm assuming the audience is not technical, but has heard these terms used in the media. See the first post for more about me and my motivation.

Disclaimer: I've monitored the Open Data space for some time, and I'm a software professional, but I'm not an expert (yet).  I am passionate however, attending the 3rd IODC in Ottawa in May as vacation. I'm also non-partisan. Though I hope to participate in a dialogue at the municipal and provincial level, I'm not endorsing any party or platform.

Prelude

As I've blogged these posts and talked to people about them, I've realized that my intended audience include my friends and family: i.e. thoughtful Islanders who may not be familiar with these ideas. Because this series is intended to be conversational, rather than academic, it grants me some leeway in terms of definitions and historical record.

That's good, because Open Government is slippy.

Open Government 1.0

According to the dreary Wikipedia page, the basic principle of Open Government (Open Gov) is that citizens must have access to documents, proceedings, and other workings of government. The language conjures up images of Freedom of Information laws, Sunshine legislation, Open Meeting protocols, and so on.

These ideas are certainly important, but they've been around for a long time. e.g. Canada passed the Access to Information Act in 1983. Yet now, provinces such as Newfoundland are promoting Open Government Initiatives, and terms such as accountability, transparency, collaboration, and civic engagement are all the rage.

How did we get here? Why all the fuss?

Open Government: The Next Generation

There has been a second wave of Open Gov. This wave was initially called, in some circles, "Gov 2.0", but appears to have settled on the term "Open Government". That's confusing, because this is not our parents' Open Government! It's modern, energized, and inextricably linked to the Open Data movement and Open Source culture described in previous posts.

Here's a timeline of landmark events (at least in my journey... there's that leeway again) of the second wave:

• US President Obama's Open Government Initiative, issued in 2009. Its philosophy and language specifically mentions "transparency", and government being "participatory", and "collaborative".
• The book, Open Government: Collaboration, Transparency, and Participation in Practice. Published by tech darling O'Reilly in 2010, the book is a collection of essays on a new era of Open Gov. Highly influential in terms of motivating techies to enter "civic hacking": that is, using software skills for the public good.
• Online evangelists such as Tim O'Reilly and Beth Noveck.

In 2012, Canada joined the Open Government Partnership, which specifically mentions transparency and civic participation. Today, there's many Open Provinces and Municipalities in Canada. 

By 2014, these ideas have become a full-fledged movement, as demonstrated by Richard Pietro's Open Government Tour (and subsequent podcast). During Open Gov 1.0, did anyone ride across Canada on a motorcycle, to talk about civic policy?

Generation O

Here are some characteristics of the new Open Gov, that unites ideas from Open Data and Open Source:

Freedom-of-Information requests are great, but it's better to publish info proactively (within privacy constraints). Open Data is more efficient, and clearly heightens accountability and transparency. e.g. Imagine a world where federal Senators' expense reports are published online, in a standardized format.

Government should borrow tools from Open Source in the tech world. There is a virtuous circle where, first, government opens data, enabling software developers to create apps or visualizations. These apps attract the interest of citizens, and shine light on phenomena that impact their lives. (Alternatively, artifacts could be published to sites like GitHub and encourage an open, 2-way dialogue.)

Either way, the citizens are informed, provide feedback to government, and the circle is complete. This is truly civic engagement and collaboration. Critics might claim that no one really cares about the Paris budget, but as with most things, it is simply a matter of finding an issue that resonates (techies call this "scratching an itch"). You may not care about financials. Fine. Perhaps you'd like to avoid getting sick at a sketchy restaurant?

The Answer is in the Question

When someone in government -- be it municipal, provincial, or federal -- mentions "Open Government", our first question should be (replete with air quotes):

Do you mean "open government" (1.0) or "Open Government" (2nd wave)?

What is Open Source? (part 2)

This is the second post in a series on Open Data and Open Government. I'm assuming the audience is not technical, but has heard these terms used in the media. See the first post for more about me and my motivation.

Disclaimer: I've monitored the Open Data space for some time, and I'm a software professional, but I'm not an expert. (I am passionate however, attending the 3rd IODC in Ottawa in May.) I'm also non-partisan. Though I hope to participate in a dialogue at the municipal and provincial level, I'm not endorsing any party or platform.

What is Open Source?

The term Open Source is often used in conversations around Open Data and Open Government, but it is rarely explained. In my view, the concept and especially its culture form a critical bridge between Open Data and Open Government.

Rather than struggle through definitions, let's consider a non-geek example that will be familiar to residents of PEI.

Fruitcake Recipe

Fruitcake has a long tradition on The Island, at weddings and Christmas, and my parents' house is no exception. My mother's fruitcake has won several awards and many raves; for decades, I've seen many people beam with delight at receiving one of hers.

I've also heard, often, that baking one ain't easy. The recipe was handed-down by a dear, elderly neighbour, Granny MacPhail, decades ago. There's a long list of ingredients. Some are obvious, such as many types of raisins and nuts etc. Others are more involved: e.g. fresh-brewed coffee and homemade strawberry jam! The preparations start on the night before, and the fruitcake must bake for 3-4 hours. Though the odds improve with experience, there's simply no guarantee on how it will turn out.

What if ... we went 'open source' ?

As a thought experiment, what if my mother were to share her recipe with the world?

If she published the recipe online, it's likely the following would happen:

• Others would benefit by trying the recipe for themselves. They might try it outright, or use it as inspiration for new ideas.
• If they contributed ideas back to my mother, she might incorporate them into her own recipe.
• In any case, it's unlikely that anyone would match my mother's baking, as they simply don't have the experience. That is, opening the source doesn't really compromise her talent, or her potential to make the best fruitcake around.

Now, to be honest: my mother will never publish the recipe. She from a generation where such things are guarded secrets. (I'm working on her, but there's little cause for hope.) Either way, the example gives us enough material to define some terms.

Open Source

In the parlance of Open Source, the fruitcake recipe is, you guessed it, the source. The act of publishing it online makes it open. (The current state of Mom's recipe is called closed or proprietary source.) 

As with Open Data, the source is published with a license that dictates the terms of use. For example, my mother may insist that any recipes derived from hers are also published openly and so on.

Publishing & Collaborating

There are many ways to publish the recipe as open source, but these days, the king is a site called GitHub. GitHub is a darling with software nerds, and is used for a lot more than just software code (including recipes,  the US Budget for 2016, and -- spoiler alert! --  legislation proposals).

GitHub is built on top of a technology called Git. Together, they allow a collaborative workflow where:

• Alice publishes the source
• Bob copies the source and works on it independently
• Bob can offer changes back to Alice
• Alice can accept and incorporate the changes into the original work

This workflow is very common in Open Source and differentiates it from Open Data. With a dataset (such as weather info), we don't often contribute back: we consume and build upon; with source, we can collaborate in a 2-way dialogue.

Got it. But is this cyber-communism?

Nope. Many open source nerds want to maximize what is open, but it's not a requirement. e.g. GitHub, itself, is not open source (!).

And there's nothing preventing anyone from making money by adding values via services, advertising, and so on. I've already mentioned that my mother could go open source without fear: no one can match her decades of experience. In fact, if we were to start a fruitcake business, it might be a clever marketing campaign: "here's the recipe... Betcha can't beat our product!".

OK. When will you get to Open Government ?

Soon. The reason I wanted to introduce Open Source is because of the 2-way dialogue and collaboration. In the Open Gov space, this collaboration goes by another term: civic engagement.

If you're interested in chatting more about Open Data/Gov, please contact me at codetojoy @t gmail dot com

More on Open Data

A couple of notes on Open Data in Canada, as a follow-up to Part 1.

In this episode of the Open Government Podcast, near the 3:30 mark Tracey Lauriault mentions the following situation, back when the government charged $ for information (near late 1980s):

"... a decade of lost research on Canada. Because census data were so cost-prohibitive at that time, Canadian faculty and Canadian students became experts on the US because data there were free."

I have nothing to add. Just let that sink in.

Also, in this session (below) on Open Government in Winnipeg, Mary Agnes Welch describes the frustration of receiving PDF files (near 47 min 24 sec).

Although PDF files are "open" in the sense of disclosing information, they aren't machine readable. We can't easily write a program to use the data within, and so they're not in the spirit of the Open Data philosophy.