A presentation I gave to the 100% Digital Brazil conference about open data, data.gov.au, GovHack and Gov as an API. Enjoy!

1. 1
The Shift to {Open|Big|Linked} Data
Or, how I learned to stop worrying and love the data
Pia Waugh
Director of Coordination and Gov 2.0
Technology and Procurement Division
Department of Finance

3. 22
Great expectations
http://www.flickr.com/photos/zebble/8212264/

4. http://www.flickr.com/photos/advocacy_project/5810581322/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/lowfatbrains/2588450228/

6. Dados abertos → libertad
● Better government
● Powerful citizens
● Collaborative problem solving
● A first step towards gov as an API

7. 1515
NationalMap

8. 1414
data.gov.au – discovering Commonwealth data
Free, cloud, scalable API enabled platform for linking/hosting data
(CKAN, Geoserver, data model register, CSW harvester)
Staged approach
1. Publishing (mid 2013 – late 2014)
Improving the functionality and ease of
publishing for agencies with training and
documentation
2. Value realisation (Late 2014)
Providing useful front end tools for data.gov.au
including data visualisation and analysis tools.
Publishing quality data a pre-requisite.
3. Data quality (Late 2014)
Looking at ways to provide agencies the ability
to accept iterative data improvements in a
verifiable way
Done!
• Manual and automated publishing options
• API access for spatial and tabular data
• Basic data visualisation capability
• Use cases and site/data/org analytics
• Data Request Site
• Metadata mapping (DCAT, AGLS, ANZLIC)
• National Map integration
• Data model registry
In Planning
• 5 star quality plugin
• Selective crowdsourcing for updates
• Federated search for discoverability
• League Table (from eGov Policy)

9. Reduces bureaucratic overhead
• More efficient to share data across government and with public
• Proactive automated publishing for common data requests
Improves government operations
• Enables collaboration and consistency across gov and with public
• Improves policy analysis, development, implementation, reporting
• Data APIs support mobile and digital service delivery
• Improves data quality through verifiable public contributions
• Improved opportunities for evidence based and iterative policy
• Reduces opportunities for corruption
Innovation
• Enables government to tap into internal and external innovation
• Starts to change the culture of what “innovation” means & costs
• Enables greater capacity for public contributions to gov

10. 44
Key Benefits to Community/Industry in Opening Data
Economic
• Creates opportunities for industry to value-add to government data
• New services, systems and industries
• New opportunities and innovation in industry, research, civil society
Accountability
• Visibility to government spending, projects, effectiveness, etc
• Increases incentive to follow evidence based approach
Better policy and programs
• Enables greater participation in policy planning and implementation
• More informed public → better decision making
• Improvements to data → better policy and decisions

12. 1212
Data Portals
Local Portals:
• City of Melbourne

13. 1313
Open Data Network and Discovery Model
National
Map
Datavis Application
development
Analysis
& Policy
Value Creation
Discovery
Data
Full Discovery
New
Services
FIND
National
spatial index
(gov, private,
research)

14. 1717

15. 1818
DSS and ATO Statistics

16. 1616
Spatial Case Study
http://www.finance.gov.au/blog/2014/02/24/guest-post-on-the-value-of-open-roof-prints/
1) Reduced work
2) Value adding
3) Quality
improvements
4) Zero cost API
access to their
own data

17. Some useful case studies
• Publishing Budget 2014 Data Report
• Open data – Transforming the Provider / Stakeholder Paradigm
• On the Value of Open Roof Prints
• 100 years of patent and IP data released on data.gov.au
More available soon at http://toolkit.data.gov.au
Other Australian case studies/documentation
• SA Open Data Toolkit
• QLD Government Case Studies
• Victorian Government Showcase
• NSW Apps Showcase
• ACT examples

18. 2323
Some Challenges
• Education
• Legislative
• Culture
• Systems
• Privacy and anonymisation
• Reactive vs proactive
• Metadata/semantic context
• Too much data
• Real time vs historic
• Definitions and common references
• Limited skills and over specialisation

19. 2222
Open by Design – drawing a line in the sand
Building proactive publishing into:
• Systems
• Processes
• Procurement
• Planning
• Records management
Leveraging open data through:
• Public APIs
• Analysis tools and datavis
• Internal processes looking for external sources

21. 1313
Some building blocks for the future
From FOSS, open data, open standards
• Improving how gov does tech
• On the shoulders of giants... globally
• Models of collaboration (and healthy competition)
• Modular and interoperable design – best tool for each job
• Exposing data/APIs as a service
• Mashable government
• JFDI - scratch an itch, don’t just dance with mosquitoes
• Meritocracy
•Technical excellence and cleverness as a core tenet

23. http://xkcd.com/898/
The rise of the technocracy
The geek has inherited the earth?

24. Why do hackfests?
➔ Public engagement
➔ Tap into real innovation
➔ Skills development
➔ Community building
➔ Motivation to publish data

25. Civic Hacker Motivation
➔ Public good
➔ Fun and community
➔ Fame and glory!

27. The history of GovHack
GovHack 2009 – the beginning
Government run, 1 location, 40 hackers
2009–2011 - Corporate events only
The rise of community frustration
GovHack 2012 - volunteers
2 locations, 180 hackers, 40 projects
GovHack 2013 - volunteers
8 locations, 800 hackers, 130 projects
GovHack 2014 - volunteers
12 locations, 1300 hackers, 200 projects
GovHack 2015 – 3-5 July!
Around 16 locations across Aus/NZ, ~2000 hackers
Federal, State and Local Government engagement.
Participants are students, professionals, community, public servants.

28. @BrisBert

29. 2525
Hypothetical: Government as an API
Care of fedAPI.gov

30. The future is here, it is already widely distributed.
Governments are learning to be part of our world
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mr_matt/35688926
22/
Challenge #1: Collaborate
Challenge #2: Design the future
Challenge #3: Lead the way
Challenge #4: Have fun
Questions?
@piawaugh
@datagovau
http://pipka.org
data.gov.au
toolkit.data.gov.au