by Paul Johnston
London-based ex-civil servant now working for Cisco as head of the European public sector team within IBSG, Cisco's global strategic consulting arm. Launched and helped shape this site after wri... More about Paul Johnston
Transparency and Daily Life
I am a strong advocate of transparent government, but sometimes it can seem very remote from daily life - how much do things like Obama's data.gov really mean to people in the street? Well, the excellent Sunlight Foundation did a blog recently that answers that question really well. The basic theme is what data might be relevant to you as you shop for your Thanksgiving turkey. Here's a sample of the blog, focussing on the main ingredient:
Turkey. What are the results of the latest federal safety inspection of the plant where your turkey met its end? The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) knows, but it’s hard for ordinary consumers to get their hands on that information. While the agency posts results of bacterial sampling for different type of meat and poultry, it’s not available in a format that consumers could use to compare brands or products.
Have a look at the blog http://blog.sunlightfoundation.com/2009/11/25/how-transparent-is-your-turkey/ and the related video - it certainly highlights how relevant open machine-readable public sector information could be.
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Comments
Very interesting. I'm guessing you know about this: http://www.mashthestate.org.uk/ already.
My own personal whinge is bus information - not strictly government, I know, but since the bus operators are licensed by the government, why can't provision of schedule information at least, and eventually real-time location, be a licence condition?
posted 9 months ago