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The BC’s government’s Apps for Climate Action contest highlights why open data initiatives are the best kind of government program: empowering people to take action.

In March, the Government of British Columbia launched the Apps for Climate Action contest challenging developers to use government data to create applications (or apps) that “raise awareness of climate change and inspire action to reduce carbon pollution”. It’s the “Inspire action” part I love because governments spend way too much time and money trying to “raise people’s awareness” of what they’re doing and/or trying to get people to take some action the government wants them to take. Through open data initiatives governments give people the information they need to take action they choose.

The BC contest is the first government open data initiative I’ve heard of focused on a particular topic instead of focusing on simply releasing as much data as possible. I like this because it will lead to the creation of lots of apps focused on the very important climate change issue and still make more data freely available to be used however people want to. You don’t have to be in the contest to use the data and you don’t have to make a climate change app – unless you want a shot at the prizes.

The BC contest is modeled on Washington, DC’s Apps for Democracy contest that “yielded 47 web, iPhone and Facebook apps in 30 days – a $2,300,000 value to the city at a cost of $50,000” according to the website. See all the apps created here.

I’ll be watching to see what creative climate action apps folks dream up.

Tags: goverment, Open Data
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Why I am now an unofficial open data evangelist

In March 2010, the Canadian federal government informally launched an open data initiative similar to the US Data.gov (the announcement was so informal it was only on Twitter as far as I can tell). The goal of open data initiatives is to release government data to the public in ways people can use it to do useful things online. And that’s exactly what they do.

I learned of a great example of the kind of thing that makes me an open data advocate at a recent government open data presentation. It came in a video the presenter played of a talk by internet founder, Tim Berners-Lee at the 2010 TED Conference. TED is an annual week-long meeting of people with big brains sharing amazing ideas that, until recently, was private but is now made available online. Berners-Lee’s talk was a follow up this his 2009 talk where he encouraged the crowd to go do great things with open data. Clearly he inspired more than just the people in the room.

He gave an example of a lawyer in Zanesville, Ohio who made a map combining data about which houses had city-supplied water with data about which house residents were black or white. Here’s what he got:

A judge saw this and awarded the black residents $10.9 million in damages. Open data: 1; Zanesville town council: minus 10.9 million.

Now, you can see why examples like this might make governments reluctant to fully embrace open data. But there are other examples that should do otherwise such as these out of Vancouver:

• Vantrash which sends emails or tweets to Vancouverites reminding them of their upcoming garbage day
• Amazon Vancouver Public Library Linky that tells Amazon users if the book they searched for on Amazon is available at the Vancouver public library.

(The City of Ottawa is also embracing open data.)

The federal government has lots and lots of data and the possibilities of what people can do with it are endless. So this post is a call to action for one and all to go boldly where more and more people have gone before and tell your governments: Let my data go!

If you have a good open data story or a suggestion for an open data app please leave a comment!

Tags: Open Data
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