Civil Servant 2.0 Day - An Impression

'Ambtenaar 2.0', Civil Servant 2.0, is a thriving Dutch community of over 3.000 people who are interested in bringing Web 2.0 and its principles in to the way our government and administration works. It started early 2008 and has grown into a multi-faceted community inhabiting different spaces (a main site, an interaction platform, a collaborative workspace, two-weekly open coffee meet-ups, to name some), where many different '2.0' aspects are discussed and experimented with.
It was all started as the voluntary effort of several civil servants, but meanwhile a foundation has been created to serve as a vehicle for different activities, and to make sure those activities can take place without raising issues (integrity e.g.) for the civil servants involved.

Hands on support, and audience during the election for most '2.0' organization

Last week the 'Civil Servant 2.0 Day' was organized. In the space of two months this was event was created without any budget. In 7 streams, 35 workshops were given. Next to that there was a demo-space, and a support-space where you could go with your practical questions regarding web2.0 and get some hands-on help. Also there was an election of the most '2.0' government organization (won by a project from the city of Amsterdam)
All in all 250 people met-up for a day of face to face interaction.
Everything was created by the community itself, all as a volunteer effort. A long list with workshops that didn't make the program was held in reserve as well as a long list of people who were on the reserve list to attend.

It was an excellent day, and a testament to what a community effort can bring. It is good to see that there are many change agents active within our government agencies.
In the first round of workshops I held a session on open government data. The slides are available, but are in Dutch. A recent similar slideset in English can be found below.

(Disclosure: I joined the board of the Ambtenaar 2.0 Foundation last month, also to help push the themes of open government and open government data)

An Emblem for Open Government and Open Data

Open Government Emblem

A few days ago the American Sunlight Foundation launched a logo for 'Open Government'. The Sunlight Foundation is working to increase government transparency in the US. In March they will launch a big campaign to get more public government information on-line in real time. The tag-line they are using is 'public = on-line'.

The emblem, a looping arrow, in which you can see both a G for Government as well as a power button, is intended for much wider use however. All the graphics are therefore available for download, and free re-use and adaptation.

With the emblem the Sunlight Foundation wants to strengthen the notion that Open Government is a movement for all who think the relationship between government and their citizens can be improved with respect to transparency, participation and collaboration. For all of us who think government could and should do a better job on our behalf. So, if you work on Open Government, feel free to use this emblem anywhere it is appropiate.

Open Government Emblem

Open Data Emblem
Open Government is not the same as Open Government Data. Open Government is also about transparency of processes and accountability of governance. Open Government Data is more about the free availability and re-usability of any data or information government produces. Open data is an important part of open government, but they are not the same. Open Government is the larger notion, and contains Open Government Data.

Last year James Burke already created an Open Data emblem, as part of our work for the Dutch Ministry for Internal Affairs. It was created so that government departments had an easy way of showing on their website where data can be found and downloaded. This emblem too is available for download and re-use.

Open Data Emblem

It's good to see that both James and the Sunlight Foundation independently came up with emblems that aim for simplicity and ease of recognition, and both use clear symbols in black and white. That way they can be recognized at a glance.

I hope you will be using both emblems widely and often for all your open gov and open gov data projects. I already ordered a sticker booklet at Moo.com so I can go around handing both emblems out.

Can Semantic Web People Be the Dr. Snow of Open Gov Data?

The day before yesterday I had the pleasure of speaking at the Free University of Amsterdam (VU) to about a 100 people of the Dutch Semantic Web commnunity.

In my talk I gave an overview of the current situation in Open Government Data in the Netherlands, as well as in the EU in general. I ended with a few observations on how open government data is of relevance to the Semantic Web community.

The availability of open government data, especially if pooled in a data catalogue, to me seems like the logical place where semantic web can come into its own. This because open government data catalogues provide both the volume and the variety of data where 'linked data' not only becomes nice to have, but a need to have. Linked data (i.e. semantic web) will prove, I think, to be a key ingredient in helping large parts of the population understand the potential and value of open data, as well as helping them make sense of all the data that is out there by weaving the connections between datasets.

Another observation I made was worded more as a challenge. When you have large sets of data or information, that are digitally opened up, you have more than just a very large pile of records. The great additional thing you get is the possibility of adding another layer, a higher level, of information altogether. When you have all EU documents translated in all 20-30 languages, you don't just have a large set of similar documents, you have an invaluable corpus on which to base automatic translation algorithms. Which is what the EU did for Google translate. When you have a large body of stories or narrative fragments, you don't just have a bunch of qualitative data, you have the ingredients for building a cultural map of the storytellers involved. In anthropology this is common, but it now is becoming possible digitally as well, by using tools like SenseMaker Suite. More, especially digitally more, is different. Very different. Especially when you can start linking all that 'more' data together. You open up new dimensions of insight. The SemWeb people know what it takes technologically to do that. So I challenged them to be the Dr. Snow of the 21st century, to be the ones opening our eyes to new insights and connections using open government data.

Dr. Snow, as described recently by my friend Robert Paterson, opened up our eyes to something new in 1854 in London. People were dying of cholera, and nobody knew how you got infected or how it was transmitted. Until Snow started mapping the deaths on a city map of London, not knowing what that would yield. What it yielded however was a major breakthrough: most deaths were concentrated around one particular water well. Turned out the water was contaminated by sewage. Once that link was made the massive effort of building the London sewers got underway.

It was an afternoon well spent in Amsterdam, and I am looking forward to continued discussion with some of the participants.