Recently by Dale Waldt

Updated March 3, 2010

Government agencies produce a lot of information. Making it accessible to the public, which essentially paid for it, can be quite challenging. The volume is high. The formats are varied. Much of it remains locked in information silos.

Support is growing to take steps to make as much government information available to the public as possible. President Obama issued a directive describing the official policy for Transparency and Open Government that mandates an unprecedented level of accessibility to government information. At the same time, technical advances have improved the feasibility of increasing access to the data.

I recently completed a Gilbane paper on this topic and how some agencies are improving access to public data. It is now available for free on our Web site at http://gilbane.com/beacons.html. The paper’s sponsor, Mark Logic, has provided interesting case studies that illustrate the challenges and approaches to overcoming them. I also explore some of the major hurdles that need to be crossed to achieve this goal, including:

1. Extremely high volumes of content and data
2. Highly diverse, heterogeneous data formats and data models
3. Complex content integration and delivery requirements
4. Time-sensitivity of content
5. Changing information environments

The approaches described have enabled that users of this technology to implement high-volume, disparate-data applications that not only overcome old technical barriers but also deliver new value to their organizations. This is, after all, the essence of open data – be it for open government, open publishing, or open enterprise.

I encourage you to read this paper to get a better understanding of what works to make government data more open.

Update: the Beacon is also available from Mark Logic.

I came across an interesting scene the other day on Larry King. Ashton Kutcher was basking in his success to be the first person to have 1,000,000 followers on Twitter, beating CNN by just minutes. My first thought was "Why Ashton Kutcher?" My second was "Why not?" As an aside, should we now call Ashton King Twit? 
 
Anyway, it got me thinking about Twitter and how I communicate electronically. I have been a rabid user of text messaging for several years. It has become the primary mode of communication with my college age sons (except when we are in the room together), who have all but abandoned email, even IM. Phone based text messaging even allows my wife and I to constantly keep in touch while I travel without requiring both of us to be talking synchronously (another way of saying being tied up at the same time). Asynchronous communication in the form of emails, text messages, tweets, IM, etc. have freed people up from maintaining a real-time state with their conversation partners. Maybe asynchronous messaging has helped me stay married for so long. Also, messaging has become invaluable for work, allowing me to multitask and keep things moving with coworkers asynchronously.
 
Now I am using Twitter, ramping up, getting to know it better. One thing I really like about Twitter is that it is device and software independent unlike cell phone messaging which I must do from my phone. I can twitter from my computer, phone, or IPod Touch. If you haven't added your phone to your Twitter account, do it now (more info at http://help.twitter.com/forums/10711/entries/14014).
 
By the way, I looked up Twitter and Twit on a couple online dictionaries. The noun Twit means "an insignificant person" or "an excited state". The verb means to "taunt". The verb Twitter means "to talk lightly and rapidly" just like a small bird twitters. I don't think Mr. Kutcher is an insignificant person, or his accomplishment unworthy of attention, but he does tend to talk excitedly and to taunt ("You've been Punked!"). Why not Ashton Kutcher indeed! </>

There sure is a lot of news about Web 2.0 these days. It can be hard to take it all in, and there seems to be new tools every day! So how to make sense of it all.

One way to learn more about these tools is to attend the session I will be hosting at the Gilbane San Francisco Conference (http://gilbanesf.com) in June called "My Favorite Web 2.0 Tool". It will be organized in the fast paced "Lightning Round" style, with 10 speakers covering 10 topics in 60 minutes (yes, that is about 5 minutes each). This unique presentation format allows for presentation of many ideas at once, encourages audience participation, and tends to be fairly hilarious.
 
Got something to say about Web 2.0 tools? I would love to hear from people interested in participating in this lightning round. Send me a one paragraph description of why your favorite Web 2.0 tool should be included in this session (send to dale@gilbane.com). We're open to a broad definition of Web 2.0 tools too. We are looking for innovative ideas, game changers, or even just entertaining or fun apps!
 
We would love to hear from you!. The slots will fill up fast so don't wait if you hope to participate.
 
See you in San Francisco!