Tag: Government transparency
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Best Practices for Government Datasets: Wrap-Up
[This is the fifth and final post in a series on best practices for government datasets by Harlan Yu and me. (previous posts: 1, 2, 3, 4)] For our final post in this series, we’ll discuss several issues not touched on by earlier posts, including data signing and the use of certain non-text file formats.…
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Correcting Errors and Making Changes
[This is the fourth post in a series on best practices for government datasets by Harlan Yu and me. (previous posts: 1, 2, 3)] Even cautiously edited datasets sometimes contain errors, and even meticulously produced schemas require refinement as circumstances change. While errors or changes create inconvenience for developers, most developers appreciate and prepare for…
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Labeling Dataset Contents
[This is the third post in a series on best practices for government datasets by Harlan Yu and me. (previous posts)] When the government releases a dataset, citizens ideally will discuss the contents and supply educated feedback. The ability to reference facts and figures in a dataset supports a constructive dialog. Vague concerns are harder…
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Basic Data Format Lessons
[This is the second post in a series on best practices for government datasets by Harlan Yu and me. (previous post)] When creating a dataset, the preferences of developers may not be obvious to those producing the dataset. Seemingly innocuous choices by data providers can lead to major headaches for developers. In this post, we…
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Government Datasets That Facilitate Innovation
[This is the first post in a series on best practices for government datasets by Harlan Yu and me.] There’s a growing consensus that the government can increase its openness and transparency by publishing its raw data in bulk online. As several Freedom to Tinker contributors argued in Government Data and the Invisible Hand, publishing…
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Information Technology Policy in the Obama Administration, One Year In
[Last year, I wrote an essay for Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School, summarizing the technology policy challenges facing the incoming Obama Administration. This week they published my follow-up essay, looking back on the Administration’s first year. Here it is.] Last year I identified four information technology policy challenges facing the incoming Obama Administration: improving cybersecurity, making…
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Open Government Workshop at CITP
Here at Princeton’s CITP, we have a healthy interest in issues of open government and government transparency. With the release last week of the Open Government Directive by the Obama Administration, our normally gloomy winter may prove to be considerably brighter. In addition to creating tools like Recap and FedThread, we’ve also been thinking deeply…
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Introducing FedThread: Opening the Federal Register
Today we are rolling out FedThread, a new way of interacting with the Federal Register. It’s the latest civic technology project from our team at Princeton’s Center for Information Technology Policy. The Federal Register is “[t]he official daily publication for rules, proposed rules, and notices of Federal agencies and organizations, as well as executive orders…
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Improving the Government's User Interface
The White House’s attempts to gather input from citizens have hit some bumps, wrote Anand Giridharadas recently in the New York Times. This administration has done far more than its predecessors to let citizens provide input directly to government via the Internet, but they haven’t always received the input they expected. Giridharadas writes: During the…
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Introducing RECAP: Turning PACER Around
With today’s technologies, government transparency means much more than the chance to read one document at a time. Citizens today expect to be able to download comprehensive government datasets that are machine-processable, open and free. Unfortunately, government is much slower than industry when it comes to adopting new technologies. In recent years, private efforts have…