Contents tagged with Open Gov
US Falling Behind in Race Toward Open Government
Parts.Common.Body.Summary.cshtml – The template for summary of a content item's body.Here’s an interesting article in Bloomberg about open government initiatives around the world and how the US is falling behind.
From the article: (emphasis added)
When Brazil’s government buys anything from fighter jets to a fancy villa, details are available online within 24 hours. Such disclosures are a powerful way to combat corruption, and are a model for official openness that could inspire other nations.
Brazil’s online portal started in 2004. Among its contents: information about Brazilian outlays in advance of hosting the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games. The site includes an online channel for whistleblower complaints.
Because corruption is a major problem in Brazil, timely release of spending data, including daily information about the use of government credit cards, is designed to help the media and opposition politicians in Brazil reveal crooked behavior. If a minister buys a truckload of wine with her government card, or pays off a cousin, someone will notice.
And it’s not just in Brazil, the open government movement is gaining steam around the world:
Enthusiasm for open government is taking hold not just in Brazil, but in countries such as Kenya, India and the U.K. Kenya last month became the first sub-Saharan African country to launch a government-data portal. India is a beehive of activity; it has initiated ambitious plans for providing public services with the help of mobile phones in rural areas and for electronic citizen engagement in government generally.
Later this month, President Obama is set to address the UN General Assembly meeting to praise open government and announce an Open Government Partnership led by Brazil and the U.S.
This sounds like a great opportunity for IT developers to take a closer look at open government. As pressure mounts to make spending more accountable, there is sure to be demand for solutions that enable transparency.
Public Sector DevDinner Returning Nov 17
Parts.Common.Body.Summary.cshtml – The template for summary of a content item's body.The popular DevDinner series my team at Microsoft puts on for is back!
Due to construction at the Microsoft Reston office, we’re going to have this meeting at the nearby Sheraton on Sunrise Valley Road.
Register now as space is limited.
Microsoft Public Sector Developer Dinner - Open Government Data: From the Cloud to the Phone
Event ID: 1032498321
Sheraton Reston Hotel11810 Sunrise Valley Drive
Reston Virginia 20191
United StatesRegister by Phone: 1-877-MSEVENT (9AM-7PM EST M-F)Meal: Yes Language(s): English. Product(s): Windows Azure. Audience(s): Architect, IT Decision Maker, IT Manager, Pro Dev/Programmer and Tester. In this public sector developer dinner event, we will first review Microsoft’s open government data initiative (OGDI), and examine the data and applications in the Microsoft Windows Azure Marketplace.
We will then provide an update on the Windows Azure cloud computing platform and discuss how to build cloud computing solutions using data available from the marketplace. Finally, we will show you how to bring the marketplace data from the cloud to the phone using RESTful protocol services.
Speakers
Frank La Vigne is a Microsoft developer evangelist based in Washington DC. He has been hooked on software development since he was 12 when he got his own Commodore 64 computer. Since then, he's worked as developer for financial firms on Wall Street and in Europe. He has worked on various Tablet PC solutions and building advanced user experiences in Silverlight and WPF. His Silverlight 4 book came out last April and was the first Silverlight 4 book on the market. He founded the CapArea.NET User Group Silverlight Special Interest Group and has spoken at TechEd, MEDC, DevConnections, and Code Camps along the East Coast. He blogs regularly at www.FranksWorld.com.Joel Reyes is a senior developer evangelist at Microsoft. Back in the days as a GW-Basic-Kid (GBK), it never crossed my mind the possibility of working for the very company that inspired me to pursue a career in systems engineering and computer science… And here I am!
RIT, Xerox and now Microsoft have had the most profound impact in my professional life which has always been Software. From developer, project manager, people manager, then consulting and now evangelism, I have enjoyed seeing the impact of software in the life of corporations as well as individuals. Today I have the privilege of working in helping make our Local Governments more efficient and more connected with the people. Privately, I enjoy family life, computers and direct involvement in my community to make a difference of those less fortunate. So the journey goes on…Dr. Zhiming Xue “Z" is a senior Microsoft Architect Evangelist, based in the Washington DC area. He currently focuses on the Windows Azure platform while continuing to deliver technical presentations on Windows Phone, SharePoint, Silverlight, ASP.NET and the web platform at Microsoft events, workshops and conferences. Prior to his current role, he played lead developer and architect roles at Microsoft Services to support enterprise customers in both private sector and public sector. Please follow his blog at http://blogs.msdn.com/zxue.
[found via Dr Z’s blog]
TransportationCamp Coming to DC
Parts.Common.Body.Summary.cshtml – The template for summary of a content item's body.As someone who lives in the DC metro area, I’m very familiar with traffic congestion. In fact, before I leave to go anywhere I check Bing and local news sites for traffic incident reports. I even have a GPS that gets live traffic data and can route around major backups.
It’s just part of living in a major metro area and technology helps ease the pain.
It would be nice, however, if more people had access to these tools and made use of them.
That’s one of the aims of TransportaionCamp [ Add to Calendar | Register ]
TransportationCamp is a free "unconference" bringing together transportation professionals, technologists, and others interested in the intersection of urban transportation and technology.
After two successful TransportationCamp events in 2011 (East and West) we're coming to DC on January 21st, 2012. This is the day before the annual Transportation Research Board conference. Additional event details will be announced soon, but we encourage participants to sign up now. This will help us estimate space needs.
TransportationCamp DC is brought to you by OpenPlans, the Mobility Lab, part of Arlington County Commuter Services, and Greater Greater Washington.
Two Great Upcoming Windows Phone Webcasts
Parts.Common.Body.Summary.cshtml – The template for summary of a content item's body.My team at Microsoft is teaming up with ComponentOne to deliver a series of webcasts to demo how easy it is to build Public Sector mobile solutions on Windows Phone.
- Session I: Fast Track Your First App
- Session II: Give Your Apps Some POP
Be sure to register today.
[found via Joel Reyes]
Open Data Open House
Parts.Common.Body.Summary.cshtml – The template for summary of a content item's body.This Thursday, the Ides of March, there will be an Open Data Open House in DC. Registration is free.
Help launch the Data.gov developers’ community space of the people, by the people, and for the people. Let your voice and ideas be heard!
- Get engaged in the developer community space on Data.gov
- Improve the developer’s experience on Data.gov
- What tools do developers need?
- What data is missing from Data.gov?
- What information would be most helpful in using open data?
-
GSA
1800 F Street Northwest
Auditorium (First Floor)
Washington, DC -
Thursday, March 15, 2012 from 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM (ET)
Add to my calendar
Check out the EventBrite page to learn more.
Introducing JobsRadar
Parts.Common.Body.Summary.cshtml – The template for summary of a content item's body.What happens when you take open government data, Twitter, Bing maps and Windows 8?
A whole lot of mash up awesome sauce.
I’d like to introduce you to JobsRadar, an app my team has been working on to showcase the use of Windows 8 in the public sector.
As the name implies, the focus of JobsRadar is the current state of the job market in the United States. If you’ve been watching the news, you know that the state of things are not great.
Thanks to this app, you can have a visualization of the unemployment rate right at your fingertips.
Country wide view. Note the unemployment rate graph at the bottom. Very Metro.
With Windows 8, we can leverage the location aware APIs to focus in on the unemployment rate in your location:
If you’d like to look at other aspects of labor related data, we’ve provided those data sets as well.
No mashup app would be complete without a connection to Twitter. Here, we track trends in certain keywords. You can edit and create your own.
The main focus of JobsRadar is jobs, but these data sets could just as easily be any other data set that you’d want overlaid on a map. (aka geo-spatial data sets).
Think about the possibilities.
I hope to make JobsRadar available on CodePlex to provide a starting point for your Windows 8 Metro apps.
In the meantime, get the tools and start building up your Win8 Mojo today.
Seven Great Open Government Data Sources
Parts.Common.Body.Summary.cshtml – The template for summary of a content item's body.If you’re thinking about Open Government data (or writing a Windows 8 app that uses open data), then here are seven more sites to add to your list of data sources.
- POPVOX
POPVOX tracks all of the bills in Congress, and how members vote. If you sign up and give your information, the site will track how your representative and senators vote on bills. - OpenCongress
Here’s a fantastic tool for paying attention to Congress, despite its editorializing, OpenCongress also lets you follow the money trails by industry sector - Poligraft
Give Poligraft the text to an article, press release or blog post, and it will provide an "enhanced view" of the people, organizations and their relationships. For example, enter the URL to a political story, and it will filter the story for points of influence, campaign donations and individuals referenced in the story. - OpenSecrets.org
The OpenSecrets.org site is a treasure trove of information for tracking the influence of money on U.S. politics. - MuckRock
Ever thought about filing a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request? The folks over at MuckRock have. In fact, they've filed more than 1,000 requests and received more than 30,000 pages of government documents. - Federal Register
Want to see what executive orders are coming from the White House, or rules being proposed by federal agencies? Then you'll want to take a look at the Federal Register. The U.S. government posts notices, proposed rules, rules taking effect and "significant documents" for public inspection. - Follow the Money
Finding out who's spending what, and how.
[found via ReadWriteWeb]
- POPVOX
