It’s best served raw

Un-spun govt data, mixed with Internet technologies, often yields solutions that are instantly rewarding for societies

Forward-thinking governments have been turning to open data as a way of increasing  transparency and for adding economic and social value to the information they hold. This is
leading to development of new kinds of interaction between the state and the society. But what is open data? Does open government data (OGD) really matter? What are the big ideas in the current debate and what are the opportunities that lie ahead? statistics and messages that governments usually publish and the raw, un-spun source data behind, most of which is never seen. Berners- Lee’s message is to release “raw data now” because raw data made open, as we’ll see, is tremendously useful. If you find a Website that’s full of public datasets in open, standard formats all licensed to encourage use and innovation, chances are it’s an OGD portal such as the USA’s data.gov or the UK’s data.gov.uk. Freedom to push and right to pull When discussing government transparency In the developed world, government data includes  nformation on budgets, demographics,  ducation, and public services, typically ith geographic and historical detail. The Open Knowledge Definition states that this data is open if it can be freely used, reused and redistributed by anyone. OGD expert David Eaves builds on this: data needs to be findable (clearly published and indexed by search engines), usable (available in a sensible format) and shareable (licensed appropriately). Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the  orld
Wide Web and vocal open data advocate, notes the distinction between the carefully curated OPEN DATA TECHNOLOGY
ecember 2010 / www.egovonline.net / egov 35 and openness, the freedom of information
(FOI) laws usually come to mind. The Open Data Study published as part of the Open Society
Foundations’ Transparency and Accountability Initiative, is an excellent primer on the subject as a whole. It can be found on www.  oros.org. On FOI laws, the study notes, “There is a gap between initiatives that are based on governments giving out things that they want to give out, and governments creating rights that mean that they give things out all the time that they may be don’t want to give out.”  ith FOI, if I want information, I have a legal right to request for it and to expect a response from someone in the government. With open data, there’s typically no legal right, but the government is proactively disclosing data and putting it online in a form that is findable, usable  d shareable by anyone at any time. This data is published on OGD portals from the international to the hyper-local level; that’s when thepublic’s interaction with it begins. Why does OGD matter?  Opening up government data multiples its economic and social value when it is made freely accessible to the public. This is the heart of Tim O’Reilly’s vision of government as a platform. This idea revolves around the theory that by opening up its data, the state is able to improve the way problems are dealt  with at a city, state, national or international level. In this way, the state should be a  onvener and an enabler of the civic action, that can take place when modern Internet  technologies are combined with government-provided data.  Now, even in Europe and North America  where OGD initiatives have been making progress for much of the past decade, the idea of government as a platform still seems a little abstract. For those starting to think about OGD, there will immediately be concerns around the risks of releasing data in the first place, and inevitably, reasons for not doing so. The risks of releasing data At the CeBIT Australia Gov 2.0 Conference this year, Andrew Scott, the UK’s outgoing  Director of Digital Engagement led a workshop that had participants listing the top reasons for not releasing government data. To some, these reasons read more like excuses with readilyworkable solutions, but any new OGD initiative  will need to address the issues they raise. My favourites from the list include:  “There’s no business case,” “We’re unsure about data quality,” “They can FOI it” and “It’s not  n a useful format.” Let’s consider these for a moment.  The business case is simple for a  overnment  with electronic data: the marginal cost of distributing  it is zero, and its free    vailability leads  to economically and socially beneficial innovation.  Examples include using  road accident   data to produce a map of the most dangerous  cycle routes in the UK; a site  heyworkforyou.  com providing British citizens with detailed   information on their   oliticians, and a study  of how openly available tax records saved  Canada $3.2 billion offer a  lavour of what has   already been achieved.  A proven way of improving the quality of closed   ata is to open it to public scrutiny.   From that point onwards, knowing it will always be   penly available is a powerful  incentive to improve the quality of data as it is  produced, and    deed, to think about the policies and actions that have shaped it. A similar behavioural   hange occurs when it comes to the format used to publish data. Berners-Lee discusses the idea   f a five-star rating system for open data. A first step can be as simple as putting data  online in   y format—spreadsheets, images or PDFs. This act, if successful, involves overcoming  key  social and political barriers and paves the  way for using more sophisticated, standardised, machine-readable interlinked data formats.  Thinking global and acting local The individual actions of governments play a collective role in regional and global issues.  It follows that  governments could mutually benefit from opening their data. For example, The International  id Transparency Initiative  (IATI) involves bilateral and multilateral donors, as  ell as recipient countries publishing  the details of aid funding in an open, standard format.  his has the effect of making aid  more effective by making it easier to administer, reducing the risk of diversion and improving  coordination between donors. While the focus of   GD was initially on national-level data, it is data on local services  and government  institutions that shows the  most promise. This hyperlocal data, when  timely, tangible and  eographical, helps people  to engage with the parts of government that  most affect their daily  ives.  Data is necessary but not  sufficient Tim Davies at the Oxford Internet Institute  authored the report ‘Open data, democracy and public sector reform,’ which tries to rebalance  the OGD debate towards civic, over technological  or economic concerns. The report  notes, “Data is not just for developers—direct access to trusted facts is valuable for   any individuals in society; OGD changes the information  gatekeepers—individuals, companies, the media and different parts of government  can each advance their own interpretations of  data; and OGD supports innovation in public   services with social and commercial  entrepreneurs playing a central role.”  It’s still early days for OGD. There are impressive   xamples of what is already possible  hen governments make finding, using  and sharing their  data easy for the public.  here’s a mature debate around the initial risks  and ongoing rewards  of OGD initiatives, as well as high-profile open data portals, conferences  and community  groups. My worry is the risk of viewing open data  and the technology around it as an end in itself. It can be a big task and a significant cultural  change for a government to start  releasing  ood data across the board, but without  the additional work of supporting citizens to use it, it might amount to little more than a  olitical gesture. Taking a focused approach, by   leasing the most asked for data first and  gaging with the demand from users, may be a better  ption. In this age, if the goal is to make a nation  prosper and to improve the lives of its  citizens, open data is necessary, but it’s the action people take when empowered by the  nformation  they hold that’s important

“Broadband connectivity to all gram Panchayats is a goal”

R Chandrashekhar, a 1975 batch Indian Administrative Services officer, has held a wide variety of keyassignments, both in the Government of India and the State Government of Andhra Pradesh. He has beenthe driving force behind formulation of various national policies, agendas, strategies and action plans for e-Governance in the country, as CMD of AP Industrial Infrastructure Corp., and later as IT Secretary, Department of Information Technology (DIT), Andhra Pradesh and as Secretary, DIT, GoI. Chandrashekhar has recently been appointed as the Secretary, Department of Telecom and Chairman, Telecom Commission, GoI. Having deep understanding of the issues and problems related to IT implementations in the country, expectations are high from him in his current assignment.
In conversation with Ravi Gupta,and Pravin Prashant, he talks about his Department’s focus on broadband-enabling the gram panchayats and on the role of mobile governance  Recently, you have moved from Department of Information Technology to Department of Communications. What would be your focus in your new role?
The top agenda for Department of Communications will be connectivity and e-Governance. We have some connectivity limitations in ruralareas. Clearly, there is a need to expedite role of connectivity. Certainly, we need broadband connectivity for Gram Panchayats.
What is the approach of the Committee of Secretaries (CoS) in chalking out a time-bound action plan for ensuring broadband connectivity to all Gram Panchayats? Broadband connectivity to all Gram Panchayats is on and we will put in place the details by the end of the current year. The broadband connectivity to all Gram Panchayats is not only for e-Governance but also for a lot of other things. The connectivity will support things like telemedicine, teleeducation, financial inclusion, gaming and entertainment. So, the rollout of broadband has an important purpose of integrating rural and urban areas, thereby spreading economic opportunities evenly in both the areas. In general, it has been observed that 10 percent increase in broadband would have 1.4 percent increase in per capita GDP growth. It will also lead to growth in governance and development.
What is the plan being worked out for connecting Gram Panchayats in the country?
The 2G voice services are quite satisfactory in rural areas. In terms of Gram Panchayat connectivity, logistically as well as economically, it will be a combination of OFC and wireless. We have a good pan-India OFC backbone. Wireless will be used for providing last mile connectivity to public institutions and also for providing backhaul. In terms of wireless connectivity, we arelooking at area connectivity and not point to point connectivity so that the bandwidth is shared by all government institutions.
What changes do you foresee with the rollout of 3G and BWA services by private operators in bringing citizen service delivery through mobile and small form factor devices? BSNL, the incumbent operator had received spectrum earlier and has already commenced services. This will get accelerated with private operators rolling out 3G and BWA services in different circles. The services in rural areas will increase and a whole host of mobile applications will come in to create a new ecosystem

Insights (un)Ltd
sanjay mehta
ceo, maia intelligence
Today, public sector o r g a n i s a t i o n s increasingly function in a corporate manner. Their  challenges are no less than a private sector enterprise. They face unprecedented pressure to improve service quality while they are needed to progressively lower costs. At the same time, they are expected to become more accountable, transparent, customer focused and responsive to stakeholder and citizen needs. Government agencies are tasked with more than simply reducing costs and increasing service levels. They also face increased scrutiny from  egislators, executives and even the public in the wake of the Right to Information Act. The scams that keep surfacing from time to time bring additional challenges for the public sector organisations. Since asset misappropriations are at the centre of the scams, there is a need
to increase transparency, accountability and performance as well as solve operational challenges, improve customer service, maximise resources and eliminate fraud, abuse and excessive spends. Business intelligence (BI) technology has valuable applications in all areas and levels of government. If rightly implemented, BI systems provide executives, administrators, managers, outside contractors and citizens the crucial information ecessary to perform their jobs and make decisions more effectively, resulting in better governmental service and more productivity for every rupee of tax collected. BI applications can be used to improve financial management and compliance, program oversight, procurement and logistics processes, and government-to-citizen communication. And, it helps identifying scams
at an early stage as an alert. Getting data that matters There is a wealth of information and
data in public sector repositories, but making sure that information is of high quality,  accessible and accurate is paramount to improving and measuring performance across the organisation. The importance of accessing up-to-date and accurate information in a timely For the business of governance to be less of a hassle and more of an accomplishment, BI is the tool for decision makers manner cannot be underestimated, but how can one accurately shift through the massive volumes of available information to uncover the best decision support? Historic reporting doesn’t give the full picture. Also, understanding information availability risks and protecting high-value information are critical. With BI, it is possible to define which
information is appropriate for which department. With the emphasis on the public sector to improve efficiencies, it is important that information flow is seamless. BI spans a range of technologies, not all of which may be applicable to every agency or situation. Individual
BI components can be assembled into customised applications and solutions to meet specific needs. For the last few years, BI has consistently ranked as a top priority for government CIOs. By collecting and analysing data, BI creates detailed reports that provide invaluable system
analysis. The insights can improve performance and lower the cost of a service delivery,  mong other things. Using the   dashboard, decision makers can have immediate access to data that is most important to them.