<agency name> Presentation

Leveraging the Government Platform

How Open Data and the “Gov 2.0” Movement are Changing

Communications With Government

Mark J. HeaddSenior Application Developer, Tele-Works, Inc.

www.tele-works.com@mheadd / voiceingov.org

April 19, 2010

Show me the Data!

• Governments across the country and around the world are publishing open data sets.

• National governments in the US, UK, Australia and New Zealand.

• Local governments from Seattle and San Francisco, to New York City and Washington DC.

• Is this new? Yes (and No).

What’s Different?

• The Open Data movement that is part of “Gov 2.0” is different from past actions to release government data in at least 3 ways:

– Publishing open data is becoming a measure of government transparency and performance.

– Published data is in formats specifically designed to be consumed by downstream apps and developers.

– Governments are actively engaging citizens and developers to consume open data. Developer Contests = Cha Ching!

April 19, 2010

Government as a Platform

• Trailblazing governments are moving beyond static data sets.

• City of Seattle uses a standard API that sits in front of it’s data, allowing developers to programmatically query multiple data sets.

• MassDOT and BART publish real time transit information feeds.

• NY State Senate has deployed an API for searching their Legislative Information System.

• San Francisco and Washington DC have deployed APIs for their 311 systems.

• Moving from individual efforts to standard implementations.

• From static data to real-time feeds and transaction-based APIs.

April 19, 2010

OMG, #OpenGov is BFD!

• OpenGov changes happening against a background of fundamental change in how we communicate with each other.

• More channels in use.

• Uptake of “non-traditional” channels.

• And, in how we build communication applications.

• Traditional standards-based telephony markup languages have had an “interesting” few years.

• What has changed?April 19, 2010

More Choices

April 19, 2010

• Developers looking to build new applications using open government data and APIs are opting for new tools and platforms.

• Not your father’s (or even your older brother’s) application platforms.

• Support user interactions across multiple channels and modalities (DTMF, Voice, SMS, IM, Twitter, etc.).

• Gentle learning curve, easy integration into multiple dev environments.

• API-based – SOAP, REST - language agnostic.

Choice isn’t Good: It’s Awesome!

April 19, 2010

• More choices for developers mean more applications will be built using Open Gov data and APIs.

• More applications will mean more choices for citizens in how they communicate with their governments.

• Greater take up of Open Gov applications will lead to demand for more data, richer data sets and more APIs.

if(isAwesome(this)) { emotion.type = Pumped; emotion.express();}

Apps!

• New York State Senate – Multi-channel bill status application.

• Phone channel – (646) 736-2439 – available in English and Spanish.

• Makes use of the NY Senate Open Legislation API.April 19, 2010

• City of Toronto – Multi-channel childcare service locator.

• Accessible from any SMS-capable mobile phone.

• Also available via IM & Twitter.

• Makes use of licensed child care service provider data set maintained by the City of Toronto.

April 19, 2010

More Apps!

• Train Text – traintext.com (@traintext)

• SMS My Bus - smsmybus.com• Multimodal political contribution

lookup.– Jabber: tdata@tropo.im– AOL IM: transparencydata– SMS: (240) 242-7944– Twitter: @tropotdata

• App Directories:– CityGoRound – citygoround.org

– Appify – appify.com

April 19, 2010

Still More Apps!

What’s Next?

• More data! And more apps!

• Geekery as citizenship. Code for America (USA), Rewired State (UK).

• Less app building by governments – dramatic changes to existing procurement processes.

• Citizen communication with government will first require a trip to the app store. San Francisco App Showcase, DC App Store.

• More multitenant applications, and apps shared between different governments. SeeClickFix.

• More services and tools to make multi-channel app development quicker and easier. Hello, Teleku!

• Mobile devices and cell phones become the primary instruments for communicating with government.

April 19, 2010

La Fin

Questions?

April 19, 2010