Real Time Emissions Tracking
Provide public real time data on the energy use and associated green house gas emissions of all government buildings, vehicles and programs.
Browse Ideas with tag 'data':
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I disagreeThis idea is active.Making Data More Accessible »3 comments for Idea: Real Time Emissions Tracking -
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I disagreeThis idea is active.Making Data More Accessible »Require all information delivered to the government to be delivered in open and standard formats
The government collects and pays for the collection and development of an enormous amount of information. This information is frequently not delivered to the government in a way that maximizes its value. For example, data may be collected on the processes of an agency, the design of a ship or the number of fish living in a river. If this information is delivered in paper documents or “PDF” files it is very difficult ...more »
Add your comment for Idea: Require all information delivered to the government to be delivered in open and standard formatsThe government collects and pays for the collection and development of an enormous amount of information. This information is frequently not delivered to the government in a way that maximizes its value. For example, data may be collected on the processes of an agency, the design of a ship or the number of fish living in a river. If this information is delivered in paper documents or “PDF” files it is very difficult to analyze, reuse, reference or evolve. Information delivered only as documents is, essentially, dead.
If, however, that data is delivered in a “raw data” form based on open standards that a computer can process, the information can be analyzed, referenced, linked, manipulated, managed and evolved – the information lives! There are existing standards for such information, such as XML Model Interchange (XMI), Resource Description Framework (RDF), XML Schema, etc. While it may not be practical to pick only one standard as the way to deliver all information to the government, such information should be delivered in some standard and open format that is machine readable at the detail level.
The idea is to add a requirement to the Federal Acquisitions Requirements (FAR) that information delivered to the government must be delivered in a machine readable format based on open standards. Specific acquisitions may further define the acceptable standards. When delivering data to the government any structure, schema or ontology inherent in the collection or creation of the data shall be retained in the data delivered to the government using the open, standard and machine readable format. The same information may also be provided in a document format.
Machine readable is defined as structured information able to be read and “parsed” by a computer program based on a known or supplied data formats and schema. Open standards are defined as standards for information representation that are openly available and free to use without cost. Open does not imply that computer programs required to read or analyze that information are necessarily free and open.
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I disagreeThis idea is active.Making Data More Accessible »Global Architecture Integration Network Initiaive
There is a key enabler for collaboration, transparency, and more effective and efficient government. That key enabler is to be able to share, understand and federate our enterprise-business and I.T. architectures at all levels. Architecture, in this sense, is inclusive: embracing everything from a multi-national plan to the structure of a database. Architectures describe organizations, systems of systems, individual ...more »
3 comments for Idea: Global Architecture Integration Network InitiaiveThere is a key enabler for collaboration, transparency, and more effective and efficient government. That key enabler is to be able to share, understand and federate our enterprise-business and I.T. architectures at all levels. Architecture, in this sense, is inclusive: embracing everything from a multi-national plan to the structure of a database. Architectures describe organizations, systems of systems, individual systems, information, services, resources and processes.
To be able to collaborate, understand, share or reuse requires that the information about organizations, systems or data be easily shared, found, understood and federated. When we create a multi-organizational initiative, that initiative has to federate architectures from its components parts and needs to federate with the architectures of organizations it collaborates with. When we want to utilize data, we must understand the architecture and vocabulary of that data. By improving our ability to share and federate our architectures we improve our ability to collaborate, share and reuse. We can’t use what we don’t understand.
Federation is key – none of these organizations, systems or resources stands alone and none can control the other. By federating our architectures we create something larger than the sum of its parts and a critical resource for government and industry. We enable our national priorities.
The problem we face is that this pivotal information is not readily accessible, it is in a variety of standard and proprietary formats and is not able to be published and linked in a way that is easily consumable. To be useful this information must be web-accessible, linked and standards based. We have existing standards and technologies that can help, but they have not been put together for this purpose. We have also not put together the governance framework for managing such a federated environment.
Our proposal is an initiative for a “Global Architecture Integration Network” (GAIN) based on our existing internet capabilities enhanced with open standards and open technologies. GAIN could help with some of our hardest problems: Healthcare, Financial Recovery, Joint Forces, and Terrorism. It could be an important enabler for the President’s objectives that government be transparent, participatory and collaborative.
GAIN would increase the value of data resources, shared services, process improvement, service oriented architectures, enterprise architecture and other architectures to help us share, collaborate, be more efficient and plan strategically.
We have a base on which to create GAIN. We have the Web, we have semantic technologies and linked data, we have standards for modeling and we have open source technologies and resources for managing and using knowledge and metadata. These existing resources provide us with the framework for GAIN.
We have started to develop the GAIN idea on a portal: http://portal.modeldriven.org/project/GAIN (or http://www.GainInitiative.net)
We appreciate feedback on GAIN and welcome participation
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I disagreeThis idea is active.Making Data More Accessible »Ensuring Availability and Accessibility of Government Data and Information
The Federal Government has the unprecedented opportunity to open the doors of government to its people through the web. Today, data and information seem to be what the citizens of the United States want more of. Many types of information may be requested, desired, or needed by various audiences that interact with government. Therefore, it is difficult to address the question of how and what data should be made available. ...more »
1 comment for Idea: Ensuring Availability and Accessibility of Government Data and InformationThe Federal Government has the unprecedented opportunity to open the doors of government to its people through the web. Today, data and information seem to be what the citizens of the United States want more of. Many types of information may be requested, desired, or needed by various audiences that interact with government. Therefore, it is difficult to address the question of how and what data should be made available. Time will answer this question through experimentation and the fulfillment of needs that citizens may not know they had.
In order for the government to be successful, it must interact and reach out to the web and technical communities, to gain insight and understanding to the variety of web and technical standards that are currently available and those coming in the future. Incorporating web and technical standards into the government's work and efforts will allow many purposes to be served. Citizens wanting to manipulate data, can gain access to data files; Citizens wanting to access data via a government provided website/application will be able to do so; Citizens wanting to find the data and information via commercial search engines will be able to do so given adoption of semantic and metadata standards, the data and information will be discoverable; Citizens accessing the government data via mobile devices or other multi-channel opportunities, will be able to retrieve information, data, or services from anywhere, and those who have a disability will be able to use tools and technologies to access web based information and pages. Lets start with the web and technical base needed and specifically adopting proven web and technology standards across all agencies to ensure the government has the ability to meet today's and tomorrow's needs of the citizens.
From the W3C EGOV IG: http://www.w3.org/2007/eGov/IG/wiki/Main_Page
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9 votes
I disagreeThis idea is active.Making Data More Accessible »Promote the Expansion of the Exchange Network Model to Improve Data Access and Transparency
The National Environmental Information Exchange Network (http://www.exchangenetwork.net) is a secure, standards-based system for sharing information about the environment. Partners on the Exchange Network, including U.S. EPA, states, tribes, and territories, use XML and other internet technologies to share and publish data on air, water, wastes, and other information related to the environment. Since data are made available ...more »
Add your comment for Idea: Promote the Expansion of the Exchange Network Model to Improve Data Access and TransparencyThe National Environmental Information Exchange Network (http://www.exchangenetwork.net) is a secure, standards-based system for sharing information about the environment. Partners on the Exchange Network, including U.S. EPA, states, tribes, and territories, use XML and other internet technologies to share and publish data on air, water, wastes, and other information related to the environment. Since data are made available in a standard format, the Exchange Network can become a powerful tool for improving the efficiency and transparency of environmental management and can expand access to higher quality environmental data.
Data consumers can build new tools to mash-up available data sets from the Exchange Network and present new ways of viewing and analyzing information. For example, emergency responders in several states are now using a tool that can reach across organizational lines to gather and display real-time environmental data in Google Earth. Emergency planners can quickly identify potential dangers posed by chemical inventories or hazardous waste storage. In minutes, response teams can assess threats to drinking water infrastructure or other environmental interests.
The Administration should continue to promote the use and expansion of the Exchange Network and consider adopting the model in other Federal agencies and for feeding environmental information to the Data.gov website.
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3 votes
I disagreeThis idea is active.Making Data More Accessible »Importance of Data
data.gov may be the most important idea so far, but it will only work if the government also takes explicit steps to (a) get as much data as possible onto the site; and (b) takes aggressive steps to make the public aware of the site and what is on it. I suggest some or all of the following: 1. prizes for the best app based on data from data.gov 2. prizes for the best use of data from data.gov 3. require/encourage/whatever ...more »
1 comment for Idea: Importance of Datadata.gov may be the most important idea so far, but it will only work if the government also takes explicit steps to (a) get as much data as possible onto the site; and (b) takes aggressive steps to make the public aware of the site and what is on it. I suggest some or all of the following:
1. prizes for the best app based on data from data.gov
2. prizes for the best use of data from data.gov
3. require/encourage/whatever all press releases about new data to mention that such new data is/are available on data.gov
4. mention time and again in speeches from Obama, Biden, cabinet secretaries, Senators and Reps, et al.
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22 votes
I disagreeThis idea is active.Public-Private Partnerships »Accountability for Government Funded Non-Profit Service Providers
Local governments across the United States partner with countless non-profit service organizations to provide all kinds of services to constituents - education, health, children's services, etc. The government spends billions through grants and contracts to these providers, but often does not have the capacity to ensure that these organizations are meeting their goals. For example, supplementary educational organizations ...more »
4 comments for Idea: Accountability for Government Funded Non-Profit Service ProvidersLocal governments across the United States partner with countless non-profit service organizations to provide all kinds of services to constituents - education, health, children's services, etc. The government spends billions through grants and contracts to these providers, but often does not have the capacity to ensure that these organizations are meeting their goals. For example, supplementary educational organizations that receive title I or NCLB funding may provide services that have no impact on student achievement, yet they remain funded year after year. The idea here is to create an independent organization that would support governments to monitor and hold accountable organizations that are receiving funds to provide services to the public.
This organization would be funded by the government and foundations who also have an interest in strengthening the non-profit sector. This organization would create an information system that would 1) collect and aggregate funds that are being spent by governments on service providers 2) collect data about the intended impacts of these programs 3) monitor and evaluate these programs to understand how they are tracking back to their goals and 4) publish the data for governments and constituents so they can understand what kinds of impacts are being made, hold accountable ineffective organizations, and further support organizations that are making a positive impact.
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33 votes
I disagreeThis idea is active.Making Data More Accessible »Open Government Data Initiative using Innovative Technology
Summary Technology advancements like social computing and cloud computing are at the very center of making the goals of a transparent, participatory and collaborative government a reality. In this environment where government transparency is in increasing demand, many government agencies publish raw data for download from their web sites. This is essential but not enough. Making that data easily accessible and queriable ...more »
1 comment for Idea: Open Government Data Initiative using Innovative TechnologySummary
Technology advancements like social computing and cloud computing are at the very center of making the goals of a transparent, participatory and collaborative government a reality. In this environment where government transparency is in increasing demand, many government agencies publish raw data for download from their web sites. This is essential but not enough. Making that data easily accessible and queriable by people and software is critical for making it useful. The Open Government Data initiative aims to encourage and enable data publishing by government agencies and organizations in an easily consumable form.
What is it?: The Open Government Data Initiative (OGDI) is an open source starter kit developed by Microsoft to help government agencies publish data that can be queried by using open web programming interfaces (API’s).
Data housed in OGDI services can be accessed from a variety of client technologies such as Silverlight, Flash, JavaScript, PHP, Python, Ruby, mapping web sites, and more. OGDI enables government, business and “citizen developers” to develop real applications using government data regardless of skillset.
Information about the initiative can be found here: http://www.microsoft.com/industry/government/opengovdata/Default.aspx
Explore the sample site and learn about the OGDI Interactive Software Development Kit at http://ogdisdk.cloudapp.net.
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339 votes
I disagreeThis idea is active.Records Management »Stop the Commercialization of Personal Data Held By Government Agencies
People are required to provide information to the government for lots of purposes – to pay taxes, to obtain licenses, to receive benefits. The personal information that we all provide to the government should not be commercialized or data-mined. Also, our interests in government programs should not be turned over to advertisers without our consent. EPIC recommends the use of new technology to promote the efficiency ...more »
3 comments for Idea: Stop the Commercialization of Personal Data Held By Government AgenciesPeople are required to provide information to the government for lots of purposes – to pay taxes, to obtain licenses, to receive benefits. The personal information that we all provide to the government should not be commercialized or data-mined. Also, our interests in government programs should not be turned over to advertisers without our consent.
EPIC recommends the use of new technology to promote the efficiency of government and to enable new forms of participation. But we also believe that this should not lead to the “monetization” of citizens.
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3 votes
I disagreeThis idea is active.Making Data More Accessible »Government data enhancements (data.gov)
Data.gov should have a crawling program to identify data agencies make available (usually as CSVs) & use a standard page listing the field names. Commonly accessed data should have more in depth description of fields provided by the corresponding agency. Widgets for blogs & other personal pages should be made to allow easy utilization of the data for casual or non-technical individuals. Simple functions could include ...more »
Add your comment for Idea: Government data enhancements (data.gov)Data.gov should have a crawling program to identify data agencies make available (usually as CSVs) & use a standard page listing the field names. Commonly accessed data should have more in depth description of fields provided by the corresponding agency.
Widgets for blogs & other personal pages should be made to allow easy utilization of the data for casual or non-technical individuals. Simple functions could include line graphs, pie charts and YoY chart comparisons. More complex tools could join data from multiple sources such as budget numbers correlated with office incumbent time periods.
The Bureau of Economic Analysis has a decent example in their "locking stubs" graphing feature. Choose a table to see what I'm talking about.
http://www.bea.gov/national/nipaweb/
Google has an API with the kind of visualization features I'm referring to. Providing an online form to generate graphing code for a page/blog would be a big step.
http://code.google.com/apis/visualization/
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45 votes
I disagreeThis idea is active.Making Data More Accessible »Issue directive making federal disaster maps and data public
In recent disasters, such as the California wildfires, there were no publicly available computerized maps and data. At one point, state and local responders were relying on maps posted to Google maps by a local newspaper. FEMA customarily prepares computerized maps (GIS), but does not customarily release that data. It sometimes makes the data available to researchers and, nonpublicly, to other government agencies. ...more »
6 comments for Idea: Issue directive making federal disaster maps and data publicIn recent disasters, such as the California wildfires, there were no publicly available computerized maps and data. At one point, state and local responders were relying on maps posted to Google maps by a local newspaper.
FEMA customarily prepares computerized maps (GIS), but does not customarily release that data. It sometimes makes the data available to researchers and, nonpublicly, to other government agencies. But, there appears to be no set policy making the data reliably available to the public. Other federal agencies, such as the Department of Agriculture, can be even more reluctant to release data. This deprives the public of access to information useful in many respects, from filing insurance claims, assessing the adequacy of emergency response, planning routes of travel around affected area, even lifesaving evacuations, as in the California wildfires.
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I disagreeThis idea is active.Making Data More Accessible »Limit government use of classified satellite data
The Problem: In 2007, the Bush administration decided to allow more federal agencies to use data from intelligence satellites, i.e., classified data. Nearly all federal agencies these days use satellite imagery, but non-classified imagery is adequate to meet most non-intel needs based on my experience as a GIS specialist at a federal homeland security agency. To oversee the distribution of that data, the Bush administration ...more »
3 comments for Idea: Limit government use of classified satellite dataThe Problem: In 2007, the Bush administration decided to allow more federal agencies to use data from intelligence satellites, i.e., classified data. Nearly all federal agencies these days use satellite imagery, but non-classified imagery is adequate to meet most non-intel needs based on my experience as a GIS specialist at a federal homeland security agency. To oversee the distribution of that data, the Bush administration proposed to establish a new government entity that included no external oversight of potential privacy violations resulting from the new policy.
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I disagreeThis idea is active.Making Data More Accessible »Include StratML among sets of data available at Data.gov
About StraML: Strategy Markup Language (StratML) is an XML vocabulary and schema for strategic plans. Its purposes include: * Facilitate the sharing, referencing, indexing, discovery, linking, reuse, and analyses of the elements of strategic plans, including goal and objective statements as well as the names and descriptions of stakeholder groups and any other content commonly included in strategic plans. * Enable ...more »
2 comments for Idea: Include StratML among sets of data available at Data.govAbout StraML:
Strategy Markup Language (StratML) is an XML vocabulary and schema for strategic plans. Its purposes include:
* Facilitate the sharing, referencing, indexing, discovery, linking, reuse, and analyses of the elements of strategic plans, including goal and objective statements as well as the names and descriptions of stakeholder groups and any other content commonly included in strategic plans.
* Enable the concept of "strategic alignment" to be realized in literal linkages among goal and objective statements and all other records created by organizations in the routine course of their business processes.
* Facilitate the discovery of potential performance partners who share common goals and objectives and/or either produce inputs needed or require outputs produced by the organization compiling the strategic plan.
* Facilitate stakeholder feedback on strategic goals and objectives.
* Facilitate updating and maintenance of discrete elements of strategic plans without requiring review and approval of the entire plan through bureaucratic channels, thereby helping to make the strategic planning process more agile and responsive to stakeholder feedback and changing circumstances, thus helping to overcome the tendency of strategic plans to become outdated "shelfware".
* Reduce the needless time, effort, inconsistencies, and delays associated with maintaining data redundantly in myriad "stovepipe" systems rather than referencing the authoritative sources.
* Enable agencies to comply with the provisions of subsections 202(b)(4) & (5) and 207(d) of the eGov Act.
by Erick Gonzalez
Navy Veteran and Government 2.0 Consultant
erick.gonzalez@oracle.com
Also see my idea to consolidate Federal, State and Local data.
http://opengov.ideascale.com/akira/dtd/2613-4049
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I disagreeThis idea is active.Making Data More Accessible »Agencies should create websites that use open source software and distribute data in open formats that are accessible to all sea
The CTO should ensure that agencies create websites that use open source software and distribute data in open formats that are accessible to all search engines. OMB should direct agencies to actively make all their online resources searchable by major public search engines and available in open formats. Similarly, agencies should have a policy to exercise a preference for open-source software for government activities ...more »
8 comments for Idea: Agencies should create websites that use open source software and distribute data in open formats that are accessible to all seaThe CTO should ensure that agencies create websites that use open source software and distribute data in open formats that are accessible to all search engines. OMB should direct agencies to actively make all their online resources searchable by major public search engines and available in open formats.
Similarly, agencies should have a policy to exercise a preference for open-source software for government activities as a means to improve stability, transparency, metadata quality, and cost-efficiency.
Additionally, agencies should strongly consider supplementing increased searchability with proactive efforts to promote and advertise data to potential users who may not know the proper search terms to use to find the data. Agencies’ responsibility does not end with making data easier to find. Agencies also need to ensure that the information inside these databases is presented in a simple, straightforward manner that allows average citizens to understand and use the data.
- From the 21st Century RTK Agenda
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8 votes
I disagreeThis idea is active.Making Data More Accessible »Comprehensive Data Audit
1 comment for Idea: Comprehensive Data AuditAgencies should undertake a comprehensive audit of their information, and the processes they use to collect it. The audit should focus on providing a comprehensive inventory of all data collected by the agency, agency engagement online, and electronic record-keeping practices.
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