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Your Guidelines to Open Data Guidelines Pt. 2: Stages of Development

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In revisiting Sunlight’s Open Data Policy Guidelines for our Version 2.0 release, we took a closer look at other sources for open data guidance that have been released over the years. To see a comprehensive round up of open data guidance (complete with a timeline!) see Part 1 of Your Guideline to Open Data Guidelines: The History.

Although it’s only been eight years since the first resource of this kind was created with the Open Knowledge Foundation's Open Knowledge Definition, exploring open data guidance in its totality not only shows how much these recommendations build on each other, but how the movement has matured. Moreover, many of these resources occupy separate-–but overlapping-–arenas of expertise, though an outside perspective may not immediately catch their nuances. Below, we’ll explore in more detail the three major themes of open data guidance: How to Define Open Data, How to Implement Open Data, and How to Open an Open Data Discussion.

The sequence, prevalence, and layering of these themes showcase the developmental stages of the open data movement thus far. Over the years we have seen open data advocacy emerge from its nascent expert-driven defining period to becoming (quite self-referentially) a public discussion. We’ve seen different missions of the major players in the open data movement inform nuanced definitions and implementation recommendations, and we have seen an increase in best practice assessments, academic critique, and diverging schools of thought.

To understand this larger story, let us look at each piece.

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Partying for dollars: Mapping five years of political fundraisers

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When it comes to political fundraising, Congress doesn’t travel very far; 76 percent of all political fundraisers in D.C. take place within three city blocks of the U.S. Capitol, a new study by the Sunlight Foundation shows. Additionally, these fundraisers are concentrated in and around congressional working hours and on days when the House and Senate are in session (more to come on this trend tomorrow). What this map illustrates, in interactive color, is how deeply ingrained fundraising has become in the day-to-day life of Washington and in the routines of the people who work here.

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Today in #OpenGov 9/12/2013

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National News

  • Agencies may be holding out on the National Archives and Records Administration, according to a new GAO report. NARA is trying to find out where all Federal agencies store their physical records, but hasn't received responses from a number of agencies. The report criticized NARA for relying on agency provided data and not doing their own legwork. (Fierce Government)
  • In other NARA news, the agency recently decided that high-level administration officials can continue to use private email addresses to conduct government business on the condition that they agree to preserve the records and turn them over the the Archives at some point. The accounts also must comply with Federal record keeping rules and be available under the FOIA. (Washington Post)
  • Officials from USAID and the State Department are venting their frustration with the watchdog appointed to ensure that their operations in Afghanistan are not mismanaged and wasteful. Unfortunately for them John Sopko, appointed as special inspector general for Afghan reconstruction last year, has found numerous examples of both. (New York Times)
  • Despite the appearance that our political system is drowning in money, many GOP outside spending groups aren't happy with their fundraising pace ahead of the 2014 elections. The GOP has high hopes of taking control of the entire legislative branch, but right now they're having trouble convincing their wealthy benefactors to kick in huge sums following the party's frustrating performance in 2012. (POLITICO)
  • A new poll of the impending Kentucky Senate bloodbath shows that Mitch McConnell might be vulnerable for his strong support of massive, opaque political spending. His Democratic opponent, Alison Lundergan Grimes, has strong fundraising appeal and might be able to use McConnell's own rules against him. (Washington Post)
International News
  • Officials and civil society groups are working in Afghanistan with the goal of using technology to enhance transparency and participation in the country's electoral process. With a Presidential election scheduled for next April, now is the time to make improvements and boost the public's confidence in the system. (NDI Democracy Works)
  • Certain factors, like the civil society participation, concrete goals, and independent monitoring mechanisms, make the OGP stand out. However, it is still an imperfect process as recent independent reports have pointed out. Among the issues raised are the ease with which countries can join, the lack of real consultations between government and civil society, and minimal or weak commitments. (Open Knowledge Blog)
State and Local News
  • Open Twin Cities issued an open data questionnaire to candidates for Minneapolis' City Council and Mayor. Candidates have until October 1 to complete the form, which is intended to highlight open data as an important issue and identify where candidates stand. (Open Twin Cities)
  • Meanwhile in the Twin Cities, the Minneapolis Police Department pulled their excel crime data reports shortly after the MinnPost launched a crime app that makes use of the data. The Police Department cited accuracy concerns with the editable spreadsheets and used the flimsy excuse that they still release information in PDF format.  (MinnPost)
  • The Chicago City Council took a controversial vote yesterday to eliminate their gun registry. Gun owners in the city will no longer be required to register their weapons or obtain a permit, although they will have to apply for a license if they want to conceal that they are packing heat in public. (Washington Post)

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Announcing Sunlight’s Open Data Guidelines for Procurement

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clearspending_graphicSince we started our new research initiative around procurement in March, we've spent months doing research into policies and data availability relating to procurement at all levels of government, as well as interviewing all kinds of people on the subject. Today we're excited to launch the culmination of our efforts so far, as well as an extension of Sunlight's previous work on our Open Data Policy: The Open Data Guidelines for Procurement.

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Sunlight Joins Effort Across the Pond as Britain Tries to Rein In Influence Buying

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The sign for K Street, NW in DC - the home of lobbying in America.A heated debate over proposed lobbying legislation is underway in Great Britain, where lobbying reform legislation has been offered as a result of a scandal in which Members of the House of Lords apparently offered assistance to fake solar energy lobbyists in exchange for payment. Prime Minister David Cameron proposed lobbying reform legislation in 2010, but it took the scandal to muster enough outrage to spawn reform efforts. Much of the outcry over the bill is focused on provisions that would limit the amount of money third parties could spend on elections.  But even more fundamentally, the bill fails to do what it set out to do—that is, shine a light on the activities of lobbyists. The bill is so poorly and narrowly crafted that it may result in less transparency than is currently provided by the UK’s voluntary (and woefully incomplete) lobbyist registry.

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Today in #OpenGov 9/9/2013

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National News

  • Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) is standing up for Federal whistleblowers after a troubling court decision last month. Grassley sent a letter to the Obama administration urging it to ensure that large swaths of workers will not have their right to appeal to the Merit Systems Protection Board taken away. (Washington Post)
  • Despite the media's enduring love of coverage about new super PACs, many of the groups, including some run by big political names, are having trouble raising money this year. (POLITICO)
  • Soon-to-be Senator Cory Booker is ending his cutting his ties with Waywire, an internet startup that he helped pull together by leveraging his connections in Silicon Valley. Stories about the startup have not been able to stop the Newark, New Jersey Mayor's roll towards Capitol Hill, but they have become embarrassing.  (New York Times)
International News
  • President Obama stressed the importance of freedom of the press, assembly, and speech at a meeting with Russian civil society organizations during his trip to the G-20 last week. Russia has taken a restrictive view of press and civil society, with recent controversies over gay rights highlighting some of the issues.  (POLITICO)
  • Britain is considering a plan to significantly change the scope of their census. The plan would save money, but experts are concerned that it would not provide necessary levels of detail to researchers and businesses who rely on the data. (BBC News)
  • South Australia is jumping into open data feet first with a series of initiatives including a new data portal, an open data action plan, and an open data challenge to encourage use of government data. (FutureGov)
  • The Declaration on Parliamentary Openness continues to line up support around the globe, recently adding the first International Organization to its list of backers. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe Parliamentary Assembly endorsed the declaration this month. (NDI)
State and Local News
  • Escalating fears of a municipal credit crisis are resulting in higher debt service costs for local governments. One way to alleviate some of these concerns is to make more information available to investors in better formats, specifically, according to this post, XBRL. (Tabb Forum)
  • The long fight to get California to post raw campaign and lobbying data online may be coming to an end. According to Secretary of State Deborah Bowen both datasets will now be available for download through the Cal-Access portal. (Tech Wire)

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