A new paper from researchers at Princeton University suggests that government agencies should abandon the dream of developing fancy or usable web sites, and instead focus on providing raw public data such as regulatory decisions, campaign finance data etc. in open, structured formats such as RSS and XML. This raw data would be made freely and publicly available to anyone who wanted it and could be used for any purpose.
Another paper called “Hack, Mash, and Peer” explains the basics of structured data formats and argues that releasing raw data in open, structured formats would make government agencies more transparent and accountable.
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Exactly what I do. I noticed the gap – all levels of government here in Canada focus on touristy-websites, but getting information for residents is difficult to non-existent.
Take a look at http://www.bureaucrat.ca which provides RSS feeds of government jobs in Canada; “Don’t fight the power, be the power”!
Another is http://www.govtender.ca which provides RSS feeds of government tenders, RFPs and contracts.
Other sites of mine that fill this void? http://www.copjobs.ca focuses on police jobs in Canada, http://www.govsurplus.ca focuses on government surplus in Canada, http://www.collegework.ca focuses on community college jobs in Canada…and more to come.
If they don’t, I do!
Nice one. i give presentation to redesign government website almost once every week to different departments. i never thought of this aspect even though i am pretty much familiar with RSS and XML. this will be my focusing point from now on. Thank you very much for this.
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Neat article – hope to definitely come back soon.
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