Re: eGov at W3C: Next Steps.

Thomas, Sandro,

Great stuff, thanks a lot.

> 3. The nuts and bolts.  There's Government Data Done Well, there are the Five
> Stars -- but how does one actually climb that star ladder?  What does it mean
> to put a particular government data set into a non-proprietary, perhaps
> RDF-based, format?  What *is* that format in the first place?  Which of
> several does one choose?  When is a standard format the best thing to choose
> (and perhaps even worth waiting for), and when is it not worth the effort?
> How do we reconcile the need for standards with the rallying call of Raw Data
> Now?

Very valid questions. Some early input via:

 http://lab.linkeddata.deri.ie/2010/star-scheme-by-example/

and

 http://lab.linkeddata.deri.ie/2010/lod-badges/


Looking forward to both the WG and IG!

Cheers,
      Michael

-- 
Dr. Michael Hausenblas, Research Fellow
LiDRC - Linked Data Research Centre
DERI - Digital Enterprise Research Institute
NUIG - National University of Ireland, Galway
Ireland, Europe
Tel. +353 91 495730
http://linkeddata.deri.ie/
http://sw-app.org/about.html



> From: Thomas Roessler <tlr@w3.org>
> Date: Thu, 9 Dec 2010 08:20:44 -0500
> To: W3C eGov IG <public-egov-ig@w3.org>
> Cc: Thomas Roessler <tlr@w3.org>
> Subject: eGov at W3C: Next Steps.
> Resent-From: W3C eGov IG <public-egov-ig@w3.org>
> Resent-Date: Thu, 09 Dec 2010 13:21:48 +0000
> 
> Hello,
> 
> I wanted to share some of the thoughts that we have within the W3C staff about
> where we think the eGov activity at W3C is heading, and what the next steps
> are.  Before I go into that, I should probably also introduce myself: I lead
> the Technology & Society Domain at the W3C, which includes the eGov, Semantic
> Web, Security, Privacy, and Web Services activities.
> 
> Back to the topic -- first of all, and most importantly:  We're excited by the
> momentum and activity that we see with governments around the globe, and we're
> excited by the enormous amount of data that has been coming online over the
> last year.  We think that W3C has a role to play in this environment.  That
> role is to help you lead the charge on the public sector's use of the Web, and
> it is to help you bring more data online, better.
> 
> We're also excited to see a lot of interest on senior levels of governments.
> In November, Tim Berners-Lee kicked off the data.gov conference together with
> Vivek Kundra, who called out the economic importance of open government data.
> In the EU, Commissioner Kroes is spearheading a review of the public sector
> information directive; the Commissioner's Digital Agenda calls for the
> availability of public sector information online as a key policy goal; and
> "Government Data, Done Well", is one of the themes that keep emerging from
> conversations within the broader community throughout the EU. At the same
> time, the Commission is holding meetings to figure out how to build a cross-EU
> public data catalogue.
> 
> 
> In this note, I want to do two things: First, outline a few of the high-level
> ideas of what we think the eGov activity can do.  Second, talk about the
> concrete steps that will get us there over the next two or three months.
> 
> 
> So, what can the eGov activity do?
> 
> 1. The policy level.  For those of us who live and breathe the Web on a macro
> level, its value and transformative role for society, business, and
> administrations is so obvious that we at times forget that there are many
> decisions that need to be made to make government use of the Web happen.
> Those decisions need reasons, and those of us who work to support those
> decisions need to exchange their ideas.
> 
> What are the economic success stories and models that motivate decisions about
> cost and licensing models for government data?  What are the tradeoffs between
> data and services for free or at marginal cost?  What are the results abroad
> that might motivate an agency to fund a government data program at a time of
> budget cuts and austerity policies? How can we turn unfunded mandates into
> funded, sustainable initiatives?  A lot is to be learned from your experiences
> in answering those very questions.
> 
> 
> 2. Leading the charge toward a technical vision.  For government data, Tim
> Berners-Lee has coined the "five star" model; one version of that model goes
> as follows:
> 
> * on the web, open license
> ** machine-readable data
> *** non-proprietary formats
> **** RDF standards
> ***** Linked RDF
> 
> That model aims to enable innovation based on integration across silos within
> and across governments, based on interoperability between the services and
> data put online.
> 
> We're glad to see more governments get on board with this vision -- Norway and
> Italy are among the more recent additions of countries that start putting data
> online and getting to government data done well.  But implementing this vision
> is a lot of work (as all of you know), and there is a lot to be shared and
> learned.
> 
> Of course, government data is not the be all and end all of governments' use
> of the Web:  Services to citizens are offered online.  There are exciting
> ideas about decomposing government services into their fundamental components,
> bringing those components online, and looking for innovations to emerge on top
> of those.  What's the technical vision for that?  What do those ideas mean for
> the Web? How will citizens interact with their governments in ten, twenty
> years?  We need to have those discussions now.  We think the eGov activity is
> the place to have them.  And we think you are the ones who will lead
> governments' innovations in this space.
> 
> 
> 3. The nuts and bolts.  There's Government Data Done Well, there are the Five
> Stars -- but how does one actually climb that star ladder?  What does it mean
> to put a particular government data set into a non-proprietary, perhaps
> RDF-based, format?  What *is* that format in the first place?  Which of
> several does one choose?  When is a standard format the best thing to choose
> (and perhaps even worth waiting for), and when is it not worth the effort?
> How do we reconcile the need for standards with the rallying call of Raw Data
> Now?
> 
> Answering those questions is, in many ways, closest to what we do every day at
> W3C: developing standards.  We realize that there's a precarious balance in
> government data space, between doing it right and doing it at all.  We also
> see that the same questions are asked in many countries. That's why we think
> that W3C is the right place to work out the answers to these questions.
> 
> 
> 
> What does all of this mean for the future of the Activity, and how can you
> shape it?
> 
> 
> The nuts and bolts questions, we think, call for a Working Group.  We'll call
> it the Government Linked Data Working group, and we'll focus on the detailed
> technical work that makes the five stars for government data possible.  Sandro
> has drafted a charter for this group that's now available:
> http://www.w3.org/2011/govdata/charter
> 
> We'd love to hear your thoughts on that draft till the year-end holiday break.
> We'll incorporate them, and we'll propose a Working Group around these work
> items to the W3C Advisory Committee (the representatives of the membership)
> first thing in 2011.  We're excited about this plan, and we think it will make
> a real difference.
> 
> This group will also be the place to take up a lot of the work that's
> currently going on in the GLD task force, including the dcat vocabulary and
> several other work items.
> 
> 
> We also think that the more general technical vision, the policy level, and
> the deployment questions call for a separate group.  That will be the future
> role of this Interest Group:  Serving as the place for the broader discussion
> about governments' use of Web technologies, and (for those who are interested
> in that sort of work) being a basis for education and outreach work around
> technical visions, policy concepts, best practices, and case studies.
> 
> An initial draft for the IG charter is here:
> http://www.w3.org/egov/IG/charter-2011
> 
> Your comments are more than welcome.
> 
> 
> We look forward to a great conversation about the future of eGov at W3C, and
> to your comments on where you want to take this activity.  Remember, W3C is
> its members and participants!
> 
> Regards,
> --
> Thomas Roessler, W3C  <tlr@w3.org>  (@roessler)
> Technology & Society Domain Leader
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
>

Received on Thursday, 9 December 2010 13:29:21 UTC