Open Data is Hot Topic at the W3C Brazil Conference

The city of São Paulo hosted on October 18-20 the 4^th Web.br Conferece – an event promoted by the W3C Brazil office to debate the future of the Web – and Open Data was one of the hot topics debated.

According to the manager of W3C Brazil, Vagner Diniz, debating Data opening is paramount for the Web’s progress. Hence, the topic was part of several programming activities, such as panels, lectures, coffee break chats, as well as during the hackathon:

“There is an ever increasing number of devices capable of connecting to the Internet. The connection of several different types of devices to the Internet only makes sense if such devices can communicate with each other – i.e. if they can exchange information between them -, so that this data sharing enables better use of each of the devices connected. When we talk about an open Web, which was the theme of this Conference, we are talking about a Web that comprises these devices connected. And by talking about a Web that comprises these devices connected, we are referring to Open Data. For it is paramount to have data capable of trafficking from one place to the other seamlessly or data that enables me from my device to access data in a different device, thus enriching my Web experience”.

With a full room at 9 a.m., Jeanne Holm’s (Data.Gov evangelizer and Chief Systems Architect at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory) talk presented the U.S. experience opening its data and its impact on citizens’ lives. In an exclusive interview, Jeanne Holm said that the U.S. Government’s focus in regards to this topic is on how to provide more data, information and services to citizens, so as to enable them to make better decisions daily.

According to her, the government’s Open Data initiative involves 180 agencies, which have already provided access to 400 thousand databases.

“What is interesting about this is that when developers come together, such as in an event like this Conference today, they get their hands on these data and create applications or websites, or data journalists analyze them and help understanding what those data mean.”

Here you can watch the whole interview:

Another highlight of the Conference was an announcement by the Ministry of Justice confirming its first publication of data on the website dados.gov.br. According to Francisco Carvalheira, Coordinator of the Ministry of Justice’s Transparency and Access to Information Program, the institution decided to open its database of customer complaints received through Procons (Customer Protection Agencies) across the country. A “substantiated complaint” is an administrative procedure foreseen by the Customer Protection Code that represents 15% of the complaints registered by Procons.

“We believe that society will be able to come up with potential uses for this database. We believe that by publishing this database in open format we’ll be contributing to the actual Customer Protection public policy.”

The announcement was made by the Ministry of Justice during the Panel: “How to make the most of the Access to Information Act“. During this presentation, Francisco Carvalheira told that the institution has so far received 2,047 requests to access the information.

Also, in order to ensure the practical aspect of the debates, the Web.br created a space for journalists, programmers and webdesigners to work together in existing databases to produce information. During the Decoders hackathon, Open Data cases were presented and application templates were created using public data bases.

Zeno Rocha is a developer and he tells that him and a friend created a game specially to be presented at Decoders and motivate participating developers. According to him,  is an application aimed at providing young Facebook users information on politicians in a fun way.

The developers Kako and Rafael, on the other hand, saw their “Transpolitica” project win the Hackthon. This was the first time they both worked with Open Data.

Like Hurricane Maps? Thank Open Government Data Nerds | Techcrunch

Article originally published in Techcrunch.com

As Hurricane-battered East Coasters turn to online crisis maps for weather updates and evacuation notices, we should all take a moment to give kudos to the spreadsheet nerds who advocated opening up the very government data reserves that now fuel these online tools.

From Google’s hurricane hub to the The New York Times evacuation map, life-saving online tools draw from a recent and relatively underfunded set of government programs that release information in ways conducive to third-party developers. “Open data is critical in crisis situations because it allows government to inform and serve more people than it ever could on its own through conventional channels. By making data freely available in a usable format for civic-minded developers and technology platforms, government can exponentially scale its communications and service delivery,” New York City’s Chief Digital Officer, Rachel Haot, writes to TechCrunch in an email (hopefully from a safe place).

The small but tenacious open data movement is based on a faith that citizens can build amazing, yet unknown tools with the vast reams of data warehoused on government servers. “We are enabling entrepreneurs and innovators across all walks of life to tap into fields of data sitting in the vaults of government in machine-readable form,” said Todd Park, President Obama’s Senior technology advisor. They’ll “create all kinds of services and products that we can only even barely imagine.”

It was President Reagan that originally released Global Positioning System (GPS) data in response to a downed airliner that accidentally wandered into Soviet territory; yet he never could have foreseen that GPS would eventually power an entire industry and smartphone and automobile navigation products.

In between national crises, open data advocates are relegated to the lowest totem poll of government priority. Afterall, in the midst of a crippling recession and ongoing trillion-dollar foreign wars, paying the salaries of programmers to transfer private data onto public spreadsheets is a tempting program to put on the chopping block (and is therefore constantly under defunding threats). When open data is attached to partisan lightning rodes like healthcare, it can evoke the wrath of small government pundits.

But thanks to their faith in the power of liberated data, East Coasters are a bit safer (and the rest of the world has cool products like Google Maps). So the next time you read a story about a programmer ferociously demanding open data for some seemingly obscure government service, like about parking meters, comment at the bottom of the article with a simple “thanks.” You never know how the fruit of his labor will affect you or your loved ones.

Web.br Conference debate on Open Data

The 4th Web.br Conference began this Thursday, in São Paulo. The aim of the event is to uncover new paths and steer the debate on the future of the Web; highlighting its most relevant topics and discussing how to universalize it according to W3C’s principles: Web for all, from any device, anywhere and in any language or culture.

Brazilian and foreign experts will talk about HTML and CSS3, Web Accessibility for disable people, Semantic Web and Data Viewing. During the three-day Conference, the Open Data movement will also be discussed, as well as its impacts on the Access to Information Act.

On Saturday, the Conference will give way to the Decoders W3C Brasil, a collaborative event with hackers (hackathon). “It doesn’t matter whether you are a journalist, designer, sysadmin or gardener; All that matters is that you are willing and have a laptop to spend the afternoon hacking on “Open Data”.

Hence, the OD4D will monitor the Web.br and bring you all the relevant discussions on Open Data, as well as cases presented and, of course, whatever is created during the Decoders.
Do not miss it!

Follow the event live and our coverage on: , SoundCloud and .

Brazilian Open Data Portal

A data repository, the dados.gov.br portal aggregates 82 pubic datasets formerly scattered across the Internet. Launched by the Ministry of Planning, the project design also had extensive contributions from society. Moreover, the website also enables people to suggest new data for opening, to participate in Open Data events and to keep up-to-date with the portal’s development initiatives.

Users can also check out a few applications developed by communities using data available through the portal. One of the applications is the so-called “Basômetro“, a tool that enables measuring parliamentary support to the government and monitoring members of parliament’s stances on legislation votes.
Another application available on the website pinpoints the work accidents between 2002 and 2009 in the map of Brazil. Users are able to view accidents by municipality and by type.

The dados.gov is part of the National Infrastructure of Open Data (INDA), which is a project aimed at setting forth technical standards for Open Data, promoting qualification and sharing public information using open formats and free software.

Cases: Apps for Democracy

The idea was born in 2008, due to DC’s government willing to ensure that both society, governments and businesses could make good use of DC.gov’s Data Catalog (that provides, for example, public information on poverty and crime indicators, in an open format).

Therefore, a competition was created to award the best applications developed based on data from the Catalog. The first contest cost Washington DC U$50,000 and produced 47 iPhone, Facebook and web applications with an estimated value in excess of U$2,600,000 to the city.

The application iLive.at won a gold medal for providing crime, safety and demographic information for those looking for a place in DC.

Another award-winning project was Park It DC, which allows users to check a specific area in the district for parking information.

Learn more about the project and check out the video at:

The 5 stars of Open Data

When we talk about Open Datastrategies that are farther reaching than publishing information, we may introduce the concept of Linked Data into the debate or go even further: Linked Open Data (LOD).

In the words of Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, “Linked Open Data is Linked Data which is released under an open license”. Linked Data does not always have to be open. However, Linked Open Data does. Linked Open Data may only be referred to as such if it is open. And, aiming to promote this type of data, Tim Berners-Lee suggests a 5-star rating system.

This rating system awards a star to initiatives that make information publicly available in open format. More stars are awarded progressively based on how open and accessible the data analyzed is:

★ Available on the Internet (in any format – e.g. PDF), provided that under an open license, to be Open Data

★★ Available on the Internet as machine-readable structured data (in an Excel file with an XLS extension)

★★★ Available on the Internet as machine-readable structured data and in a non-proprietary format (CSV instead of Excel)

★★★★ All of the above and it must use W3C open standards (RDF and SPARQL): use URL to identify things, so that people can point at their publications.

★★★★★ All of the above plus: link your data to other people’s data to provide context.

We have reproduced below a list of the benefits of publishing data according to the 5-star rating system, both for publishers and consumers:

Linked Data and Open Data

Linked Data and Open Data. These terms sound similar, but refer to different concepts. In fact, Linked Data complement the Open Data movement. Ideally, the two would go hand in hand.

Linked Data is the next development from the concept of Open Data, and it requires the latter to exist. While the concept of Open Data refers to publishing information and ensuring universal access to it, the concept of Linked Data refers to connecting these data to other sets of data. Together, these two movements not only make documents available, but also provide related information that explains and describes the content, its meanings and the relationship between the data shown.

An example of Linked Data is DBPedia, which extracts information from Wikipedia and makes it available through free licenses (Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License and GNU Free Documentation License), in addition to attaching other datasets found on the Web to Wikipedia data.

Along the same lines there is also GeoNames, a free geographic database, accessible under a Creative Commons license, which makes in excess of 10 million names available.

Hence, it may be said that Open Data and Linked Data walk hand in hand towards the development of the Semantic Web, which represents “large scale integration of data available on the Web. According to Tim Berners-Lee, the creator of the World Wide Web:

“The Semantic Web isn’t just about putting data on the web. It is about making links, so that a person or machine can explore the web of data. With linked data, when you have some of it, you can find other, related, data”.

Watch Tim Berners-Lee’s TED Talk on the next web:

How to Open?

In order to be regarded as open, public data must be comprehensive, accessible, primary (no statistical treatment), current, machine readable, non-discriminatory (e.g. not requiring registration), non-proprietary and its licenses must ensure such principles without limiting its freedom of use.

Several publicly available data are not really open. They may have been published in proprietary formats – i.e. not readable by software – and with restrictive licenses; they may be available in HTML tables, plain text files or PDF. Developers must, therefore, translate these data, cross-reference them and publish them according to the rules and principles set forth.

Institutions that wish to open their data must prepare an activities plan. This task includes from determining which data will be published to how it’ll be published and viewed, to strategies to promote the use of such data by communities and activists.

The international movement for government data opening is based on 3 laws proposed by David Eaves:

• If data can’t be spidered or indexed, it doesn’t exist.
• If it isn’t available in open and machine readable format, it can’t engage.
• If a legal framework doesn’t allow it to be repurposed, it doesn’t empower.

In order words, the first step towards opening data is identifying the information controlled by governments, companies, etc. Then it must be converted into a machine readable format and, finally, made accessible to all.

We have listed a series of documents below which may be used as guidelines by governments, developers and others interested in data opening processes. Check out:

• Manual dos Dados Abertos: Governo (Open Data Manual: Governments)
• Manual dos Dados Abertos: Desenvolvedores (Open Data Manual: Developers)
• Cartilha para desenvolvedores (Workbook for developers)
• Melhorando o acesso ao governo com o melhor uso da web (Improving access to the government through better use of the Web)
• As três leis e os oito princípios dos Dados Abertos Governamentais (The three laws and eight principles of Open Government Data)
• Folheto sobre Dados Abertos (Open Data Brochure)
• Curso: Publicação e uso de Dados Abertos na Web (Course: Publishing and using Open Data on the Web)
• Cartilha Técnica para Publicação de Dados Abertos no Brasil (Technical Book on Open Data Publication in Brazil)
• Guia de Abertura de Dados (Data Opening Manual)
• Arquitetura Técnica Referencial para Abertura de Dados (Technical Architecture Reference Book for Data Opening)
• Guia de Dados Abertos (Open Data Handbook) (Open Knowledge Foundation)

What is it?

What is Open Data?
According to the Open Knowledge Foundation, a non-profit organization, “open data is data that can be freely used, reused and redistributed by anyone.” It involves the publication and sharing of information online in open formats, readable by machines, which may be freely and automatically reused by society.

When is data regarded as open?
Data is regarded as open when there is:

• Availability and access: data must be fully available for a reasonable reproduction cost, preferably through downloading; it must also be available in a convenient and changeable format.
• Reuse and redistribution: data must be provided so as to enable reuse and redistribution, including cross referencing with other datasets.
• Universal participation: anyone can use, reuse and redistribute it, without discrimination against industry, people or groups (restrictions such as “non-commercial” that prevent commercial use are forbidden, as well as limited use for certain purposes, such as “education only”).

What types of data can be open?
All data can be open!
There is usually interest from the following in opening data: governments, companies, activists and teaching and research institutions, for example.

Why open data?

Opening data enables:

• Transparency and democratic control;
• Population engagement;
• Citizen empowerment;
• Better or new private services;
• Innovation;
• Improved efficacy and effectiveness of governmental services;
• Assessment of the impact of policies;
• Uncovering new things by combining data sources and standards.

What about open government data?
These are information produced by governments that must be made available to all citizens for any purpose. Government data are regarded as open when they comply with the following laws and principles.

What are they for?
For reuse by citizens and organizations in a society to verify, clarify, inspect and monitor them, according to their interests. Opening public data strengthens institutions, enables citizenship and social control, fights corruption, promotes transparency, enables inspections and fosters new ideas for public policies from within society itself.
Citizen engagement enables the government to improve its processes and increase the transparency of public administration. This happens because the Open Government Data Available clarifies how the sectors that are still not aligned with social control and service goals work.

How does it work in practice?
Opening data enables, for example, creating a mobile phone application showing where the public schools in an area are located, as well as how vacancies are distributed and where the highest demand for places is; or, how public money is being spent or even public safety levels in a given municipality or neighborhood.