Jason Geeks Out, Part 4: Transparency by the Terabyte

This is really exciting. The federal government has created, and is still adding to a new website, data.gov, which rolled out May 21. This site is a central repository for all the raw, unclassified data that the government generates or is privy to, making it available to anyone in as many useful formats as possible. It's one step in support of Obama's campaign promise for radical transparency in government. And it promises much more than that.

The president created a new position, Federal Chief Information Officer and on March 5th named Vivek Kundra, previously the Chief Technology Officer for the District of Columbia as the first person to occupy the title. Vivek started the data.gov project because he views it as essential not only as a portal, allowing the public easy access to information it is entitled to, but also as a tool for efficiency and innovation. He knows from experience that if you give the private sector access to reams and reams of raw data from diverse arenas of public life they will create all sorts of novel applications, useful to the government and public alike, that the government doesn't have the resources, or time to create itself. By fully sharing, in one place every hidden statistic, every obtuse spreadsheet, and every data stream the government's sitting on or currently sharing through a hard-to-navigate system of 24,000 separate online sites, Vivek hopes to create a platform for crowd-sourcing innovation the likes of which have never been seen.

An example of the sorts of data mashups we might see comes from Vivek's work in DC. Streams of previously unreleased data were similarly made available to the public, some of which were harnessed by an individual to create Stumble Safely. It's creator took maps, crime statistics and liquor license information and created an application that knows where you are and can show you the safest route when walking home drunk from a bar. It's an app with limited usefulness, granted, but it demonstrates how novel applications can spring from the combination of disparate and sometimes unrelated data sets.

I'm really excited to see the project completed and the resulting technologies. I think we're on the cusp of interesting times.

Bureaucracy, Simplified

I love the fact that even local government is going "online". I recently paid my water bill online through a Baltimore City service, and it wasn't convoluted, overly complicated or half functional, It was easy and worked perfectly. How often do you find yourself uttering the words, "government", "easy" and "perfectly" all in a sentence that isn't, "It's so easy to get angry at a government that so perfectly screws things up."

I think it's time to alter our perception of local government. Kate's on unemployment currently, as many of you know. Baltimore (or Maryland, I'm not sure at what level of government she's operating) has made the process extremely easy. Kate filed online, submits her weekly "proof of job contact sheets" through the same site, and almost never needs to speak with anyone in person. Her payments, which normally get added to a government-supplied debit card, are now direct-deposit to her bank account, an option she signed up for online.

Where we live parking permits are required. It would be such a hassle if we were annually required to drive into the city, on a weekday, to renew our permits. No need. Baltimore City has another online service that lets you renew and pay for your permits, and then pick up the display stickers at local pick-up spots on specific days around the city. As long as you remember to take advantage of the service (which we didn't this year), you never have to set foot downtown.

Is government transforming itself? I've only supplied you with three examples of efficiency in cyber-space, and I'm sure if I tried I could come up with stories of government waste and bureaucracy. But it's heartening to see local government moving in the right direction, taking advantage of the tools at its disposal.