OpenGov - Open Government Brainstorm

Cory Casanave

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Ideas contributed by Cory Casanave

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  New Strategies and Techniques »

  Who are the open government dialog participants?

  The idea of the open government dialog is great, but who are we having a dialog with? Using the “town meeting” analogy, there are no anonymous participants. When you say something in such a meeting you usually are known or state your name. Perhaps the same should apply here – the participating citizens should identify themselves. Part of a dialog is trust, how can I trust an anonymous voice? How many voices are really ...more »

  The idea of the open government dialog is great, but who are we having a dialog with? Using the “town meeting” analogy, there are no anonymous participants. When you say something in such a meeting you usually are known or state your name. Perhaps the same should apply here – the participating citizens should identify themselves. Part of a dialog is trust, how can I trust an anonymous voice? How many voices are really citizens? Who is bias?

  In the profile for a citizen they should also have the opportunity to identify their positions and any other group they belong to. Lobbyists and similar activists should identify themselves clearly.

  This is probably just due to the speed with which the site was initiated – but it seems odd that you can see that someone voted for something but not how they voted. You can see comments, but not the subject of the comment. You also can’t see all the voters for an idea. You should also be able to change your mind.

  There may be some circumstances where a person would have the right to place an anonymous idea or comment – but this would seem to be the exception.

  Transparency should apply to citizens as well as the government. Even if it is not required I would suggest that people not hide their identities unless they need to.

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  5 comments for Idea: Who are the open government dialog participants?

  Submitted by Cory Casanave 3 years ago

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  39 votes

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  Making Data More Accessible »

  Publish all government information using Open Linked Data standards

  When we say that government information is going to be accessible, what do we mean? Does this mean that you can navigate a web site and find a fact or does it mean that large amounts of information can be analyzed, linked and queried? Only the latter provides citizens with the power to really understand the information, to “mash it up”, to be really informed. We have a vast amount of information, having to click through ...more »

  When we say that government information is going to be accessible, what do we mean? Does this mean that you can navigate a web site and find a fact or does it mean that large amounts of information can be analyzed, linked and queried? Only the latter provides citizens with the power to really understand the information, to “mash it up”, to be really informed. We have a vast amount of information, having to click through web sites is not a practical way to analize it. To realize President Obama’s vision of transparent, participatory and collaborative government we need pervasive access to information.

  The issue is that there are LOTS of ways to publish data and crossing the boundaries between the various data formats, query languages and access methods can be a daunting task. By having some pervasive way to publish information that can be linked, analyzed and queried across the internet is a necessary enabler.

  The idea is that all government information should be published in a selected open and standard format with common web-service based access methods. While the selection of the standards should be evaluated, the “Open Linked Data”, or “Semantic Web” standards of the W3C should be strongly considered. This is a standard web-based data format that allows data of various kinds, vocabularies, sources, semantics and authors to be federated, queried and analyzed. It is based on the “Resource Description Framework” (RDF) – a very open and general way to publish data. There are existing standards as well as open source and commercial implementations of these technologies. An informative video is available here: Tim Berners-Lee: The next Web of open, linked data:

  Publishing all information as open linked data does not preclude other formats – where there are accepted or more efficient mechanisms for some kind of information, the same information can also be made available via that mechanism. Technology already exists to have the same information available in multiple formats and expose existing information, say in a SQL DBMS, as open linked data.

  The data published as open linked data should be very inclusive – everything from the safety ratings of nuclear reactors to the business process OMB uses to approve a budget to the vocabularies to define the data it’s self.

  Information published in this way would not be used directly by a user, other open, government and commercial web sites would be able to consume this information and provide various views of it for citizens. Of course the publishing agency would also provide simple web pages to access the information. So “many flowers will bloom” to consume, analyze and present this data once it is made available by the government.

  This idea relates to two others we posted – that we should Require all information delivered to the government to be delivered in open and standard formats to collect this information and that we should have a Global Architecture Integration Network Initiative to provide the backbone of standards, vocabularies and technologies to make it easy to publish, manage, relate and analyze this information regardless of source or format. While there are other good ideas posted about publishing information using standards, we felt that this specific subject was not presented and have therefore posted this new entry.

  Links:

  Linked data: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linked_Data

  Semantic web: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semantic_web

  RDF: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resource_Description_Framework

  W3C: http://www.w3.org/

  Global Architecture Integration Network Initiative - http://opengov.ideascale.com/akira/dtd/3887-4049

  Require all information delivered to the government to be delivered in open and standard formats - http://opengov.ideascale.com/akira/dtd/4196-4049

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  Submitted by Cory Casanave 3 years ago

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  Legal & Policy Challenges »

  Eliminate multi-award acquisition vehicles

  Most products and services the government purchases are purchased through “acquisition vehicles” – a contract that allows a specific vendor or set of vendors to sell products or services to a specific agency. Such vehicles were created to make acquisitions more “fair and open” as well as faster, but they have the opposite effect. Due to the huge overhead and bureaucracy of a government acquisition these vehicles become ...more »

  Most products and services the government purchases are purchased through “acquisition vehicles” – a contract that allows a specific vendor or set of vendors to sell products or services to a specific agency. Such vehicles were created to make acquisitions more “fair and open” as well as faster, but they have the opposite effect. Due to the huge overhead and bureaucracy of a government acquisition these vehicles become huge and long-standing private clubs – and are very hard to change or get rid of. Instead of making acquisition fair and open they create a closed system where only a few companies can provide a product or service. Look on the web page of government contractors – these vehicles are ASSETS of the company because they LOCK OUT competition. Some of these vehicles are HUGE – billions of dollars and hundreds of companies. Types of multi-award vehicles are: GWAC, IDIQ & BPA.

  Acquisitions should be fair and open and the government should be able to have long-standing relationships with quality providers and use their products and services with minimum hassle. However, when a new product or service becomes available the government should have access to them immediately – and not have to wait years for one of these vehicles to be “re-competed”. The fair and open nature of acquisitions will be served by openness – making any favoritism very visible.

  This idea, which will not be popular with many government contractors, is to eliminate these long multi-award vehicles. Allow any agency to be able to use any supplier or contractor without requiring a vehicle. All that should be required is that the vendor be validated using a simplified “GSA Schedule” process where the vendors declares their capabilities and prices (so that all vendors offerings can be compared and then purchased – just like you do on the internet).

  The only time the government need enter into a long-term contract to acquire something is when it get some advantage for that long term – a set price, result or guaranteed availability. The government should not have to create a vehicle just to avoid the overhead of the acquisition process – that provides no value.

  As a companion to eliminating dysfunctional acquisition vehicles the acquisition process must be made more agile, more visible and simpler. For example, the very time consuming and expensive “bid” process should not always be required when the government already has the information it needs to acquire what it wants. Bids, like vehicles, were created with the best of intentions for a fair and open process – but frequently have the opposite effect and also make agile processes impossible. Vendors should be able to work collaboratively with the government to achieve the best result; the bid system sometimes prevents such collaboration. Of course there are other cases where bids are the right approach.

  Full disclosure: I am a government contractor and have both benefitted and suffered from these vehicles – they are great to have. But, I don’t think they are in the best interest of the government or citizens

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  4 comments for Idea: Eliminate multi-award acquisition vehicles

  Submitted by Cory Casanave 3 years ago

• I agree

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  58 votes

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  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 »

  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 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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  Submitted by Cory Casanave 3 years ago

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  Legal & Policy Challenges »

  Replace regulation and buracracy with visibility

  The way the government manages is business is frightening. The old way of trying to protect the government by restricting the capacity of government employees should give way to a new, more agile and effective approach. The government needs to retain, in the civil service, qualified and innovative minds. Proactive and positive change should be rewarded while protecting the “way we have always done it” should be ...more »

  The way the government manages is business is frightening. The old way of trying to protect the government by restricting the capacity of government employees should give way to a new, more agile and effective approach.

  The government needs to retain, in the civil service, qualified and innovative minds. Proactive and positive change should be rewarded while protecting the “way we have always done it” should be discouraged when that way isn’t working.

  This would then involve trusting these qualified and motivated individuals to perform and rewarding them when they do. Regulations will never stop corruption or inefficiency. What will stop these is visibility.

  So a formula for more effective government is to get the right people in the right positions, give them the authority and flexibility to act. Reward effective risk taking and make everything they do open and visible. When they are not effective, get rid of them!

  Visibility can replace many of the polices and culture that are not working, for example the entire process for government acquisition. Don’t burden this with more regulation – open it up!

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  Submitted by Cory Casanave 3 years ago

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  10 votes

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  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 »

  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 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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  3 comments for Idea: Global Architecture Integration Network Initiaive

  Submitted by Cory Casanave 3 years ago

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