Keya Dannenbaum and Michael ToppaRoom 307
Saturday 11:30 a.m., Room 307
Keya Dannenbaum and Michael Toppa
A fundamental purpose of journalism in the United States is to inform citizens, so that they can effectively engage in democratic self-governance. The ongoing disappearance of local newspapers in the digital era is well known, resulting in the decline of traditional watchdog journalism at the local and state levels. There are discussions of “news deserts” and unchecked malfeasance by elected officials. At the same time, we're seeing the rise of citizen journalists, the growth of organizations that harvest, enhance, and distribute an ever-expanding range of data on government activities, and the creation of new opportunities to share, discuss, and analyze information vital to civic engagement.
For the goals of achieving government transparency and effective self-governance, what has been lost and what has been gained in all these transformations? Is the net effect positive or negative, and what lies ahead? In this talk we'll lay out the different arguments in this debate, and we'll engage the audience in the conversation.
Hudson HollisterRoom 413
Saturday 11:30 a.m., Room 413
Hudson Hollister @hudsonhollister
During the 112th Congress, the transparency community mobilized to support such U.S. legislative proposals as the DATA Act and the Access to Congressionally Mandated Reports Act, which would have required federal spending and agency reports, respectively, to be published in open formats. The Data Transparency Coalition is seeking your suggestions on how to incorporate these ideas and others into a comprehensive legislative agenda. There is not yet a clear consensus on what the full landscape of open data mandates - spending, performance, regulation, legislative text, judicial filings, etc. - should look like. Let's build one! Which federal data compilations need to be opened up by an act of Congress? What policy changes can Congress impose to create an open data culture throughout the U.S. government? A comprehensive legislative agenda for open data could answer these questions - and could be pursued, year after year, by advocates like the Data Transparency Coalition, the Sunlight Foundation, and all of you.
Join this session to help us brainstorm an agenda that can direct our pursuit of open data in the 113th Congress and beyond.
Mjumbe PoeRoom 302
Saturday 11:30 a.m., Room 302
Mjumbe Poe
Transparency has a PR problem. All of us at Transparency Camp have drunk the Kool Aid, but outside of our bubble there are thousands of decision makers who are wary and distrustful of the things we talk about. Terms like "open data" conjure security concerns, and "transparency" just seems like a inviting constant scrutiny over how you and your staff do your jobs. Overall, there are looming questions of "why should we do this?".
A combination of messaging and education is needed to increase the reach of transparency advocates. In this session, we would examine the problem (for the benefit of those who have had the good fortune to never encounter it first-hand), hear about some strategies that work to communicate ideas about transparency to "normal people", and brainstorm how to scale these strategies.
Micah SifryRoom 402
Saturday 11:30 a.m., Room 402
Micah Sifry @mlsif
Did you ask a good question today? Good questions insist on accountability, and good questioners insist on real answers, not obfuscations. When we as individuals and as a society fail to ask good questions of those with power or those who act in our name, democracy falters. So, how can we foster more asking of good questions (and less of bad ones)? Let's brainstorm together!
One idea to be discussed: Should we create a sub-Reddit that would crowdsource activity focused on the weekly Sunday morning political TV talk shows? Every Friday these shows list the guests they have booked for the coming Sunday, which creates an opportunity to focus on high-profile guests and/or hosts.
See GoodQuestionProject.com for more on this work in progress.
Ben BalterRoom 308
Saturday 11:30 a.m., Room 308
Ben Balter @benbalter
Open Source has revolutionized the way we build the Internet, but can the core principles of open source —open, no-fault forkability— help to make government more transparent and collaborative?
As we encourage government to expose more and more process to the public, we increasingly see that internally, that very process is fatally opaque. Business units rarely communicate with one another, fiefdoms are the norm... it's every man for himself. How can we expect government agencies to better engage citizens, when internally, collaboration is viewed as a costly political liability?
How can we help government to co-opt the open source ethos and begin to build collaborative commons around shared challenges, rather than simply publishing the results? If culturally, government sees itself as a team sport, will transparency naturally follow? What about open-source legislation? Will the revolution be forked? Brief lightning talk followed by an open forum to brainstorm actionable steps.
James McKinneyRoom 404
Saturday 11:30 a.m., Room 404
James McKinney
A major barrier to increased re-use of the growing number of open-source civic tools is the lack of agreement on how to name things. To give a very simple example: if one project's elected officials API calls a person’s name "name" and another calls it "full_name", and you're writing a Q&A platform to ask questions to these elected officials, you'll need to write an adapter for each API. Committing to a standard way of naming things would maximize interoperability, reduce wheel reinvention and make re-use that much easier.
This session is for anyone who can benefit from standards in their work. Depending on who attends, it can begin with a brief presentation of existing efforts, such as http://popoloproject.com/ which unites a number of existing standards to address common open government uses cases. Attendees are encouraged to present their own work on data and API standards/specifications. The session's goal is to get people working together better towards establishing standards, and to prioritize what data requires standardization first.
If you'd like to join the conversation before TCamp, please join the recently created W3C Open Government community group (http://www.w3.org/community/opengov/) and its mailing list (http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-opengov/).
Chris LintnerGrand Ballroom
Saturday 11:30 a.m., Grand Ballroom
Chris Lintner @Chris_Lintner
Governments and organizations have been releasing information to the public for years. Federal government has made local, and state data available online. Local governments are now creating transparency systems that allow citizens to view data. However, these sources do not typically integrate, or present the data in a way that allows people to understand and gain insightful analysis from it. Both citizens and local governments seem to be drowning in data, but thirsty for information.
During this session, we will talk about what types of data is available at both a state and local level and why this data needs to integrate with analytics to see the best results for both governments and citizens alike.
Kathryn PetersRoom 310
Saturday 11:30 a.m., Room 310
Kathryn Peters
Persuading data owners to publish openly. Building useful tools off existing datasets. Assessing the potential value of new data projects. Working with data involves building narratives -- about what government is doing, what citizens need, and where change is necessary. This session will provide a narrative toolkit to help you build more persuasive stories about your work and its potential.
We'll cover storytelling tools from the strategic to the tactical: theory of change, to describe how your project affects the world writ large; user stories, to help define how you're working with specific audiences; and public narrative, to build relationships with specific partners and allies.
Bring your own big ideas and current projects as case studies.
Emma Carew Grovum, Marisa Lopez-Rivera, Sarah FrostensonRoom 405
Saturday 11:30 a.m., Room 405
Emma Carew Grovum @CarewGrovum, Marisa Lopez-Rivera @chronmlr, Sarah Frostenson @sfrostenson
Nonprofit's special status as tax-exempt orgs are regulated by the government, which means they play a part in the OpenGov scene. Join The Chronicle of Philanthropy's data team to talk about what's easily available, what you can fight for, and what's on the horizon.
Sam Lee, Felipe Estefan, Prasanna Lal DasRoom 403
Saturday 11:30 a.m., Room 403
Sam Lee @OpenNotion, Felipe Estefan @FelipeEstefan, Prasanna Lal Das @PrasannaLalDas
When it comes to open data, much has been done around what we can publish, but much more can be done on identifying what others might need and want (http://bit.ly/OpenDataDemand). Many open data initiatives have been started as supply-driven efforts seeking to increase transparency and leverage new information dissemination technologies--and that's been a good way to start. However, being supply-driven is not the only way forward--a genuinely demand-driven approach would allow data providers to respond to, rather than anticipate, the data needs of users.
So what is the demand for open data? This is a simple question that is difficult to answer. Unearthing even elements of the answer would help to increase understanding, inform the continued practical growth of open data efforts and activities, and hopefully result in more relevant, accessible, and widely-used data.
Another challenge for open data initiatives in an international development context is that many efforts exist online while many beneficiaries of development assistance live in "offline" communities. Some estimate this group to include around 65 percent of the world's population. Even with "infomediaries" to contextualize data for specific audiences, understanding what information is relevant at the ground level, in offline communities, is important to unlocking the potential of open data in development.
During this session, we will explore ways to discover, measure, and understand the demand for open data. The discussion aims to be useful for both publishers and users of open data and to inform activities that will result in more relevant, accessible, and widely-used data.
Kaitlin DevineRoom 414
Saturday 11:30 a.m., Room 414
Kaitlin Devine
Want to help the transparency community but aren't sure where to start? Lots of projects are open source, but may not have the documentation or help available to help you get started contributing right away. Here are 10 projects that you can jump into right now. Audience participation welcome!
Ashley Williams, Noel HidalgoRoom 311
Saturday 11:30 a.m., Room 311
Ashley Williams, Noel Hidalgo
The ideal of a “digital city” has left us an opportunity to create a hyperconnected roadmap to the future. As we feel our current infrastructure struggling to accomplish its goal of effectively and efficiently supporting the masses, New York City is building a collaborative path forward. Miming the message of the seminal pamphlet we ask, "What is to be done?"
We reply with, “The current times charge those of us who are of a civic-mind to scaffold a community that can properly advocate for and serve us as citizens in this new model.”
betaNYC, as part of the Code for America’s NYC Brigade, is taking the vanguard. Starting with updating FDR's 4 freedoms for the 21st Century, we have created a road map.
In this talk, we will discuss the history NYC’s participatory government, how we fostered community involvement, attracted talented supporters, got noticed in a sea awash with fish, and made effective changes to government policies and attitudes. Also, we will be asking you the questions we are currently asking ourselves: how do we continue to build this community? What should its values be and what products should it produce? How to sustain a civic technology, civic startup, and open government ecosystem?
Sean KrossRoom 309
Saturday 11:30 a.m., Room 309
Sean Kross @seankross
You've worked tirelessly creating a data set that you're proud of, and now you want to share it with the world! Whether it's the results from research, an annual report, or a hodgepodge of repurposed data, learn the best practices for formatting, licensing, and distributing your organization's data. The non-technical are especially invited to learn the ABCs of CSV, XML, and JSON! Data hackers, programmers, activists, and members of the public will love you and your data after you attend this session!
Rachel ShoreyRoom 301
Saturday 11:30 a.m., Room 301
Rachel Shorey
Collections of documents are frequently released as part of lawsuits or government declassification. For larger collections, it can be difficult to find important documents, discover themes or connections among documents, or even just get a good summary of the contents. Many computational methods and models from the machine learning and natural language processing communities can help solve these problems. Let's explore these ideas and some available software to help process large document collections more quickly and thoroughly.