October 18, 2011
from O'Reilly Radar:
There's a growing international movement afoot worldwide to open up government data and make something useful with it. Civic apps based upon open data are emerging that genuinely serve citizens in a beneficial ways that officials may have not been able to deliver, particularly without significant time or increased expense
For every civic app, however, there's a backstory that often involves a broad number of stakeholders. Governments have to commit to open up themselves but will in many cases need external expertise or even funding to do so. Citizens, industry and developers have to use the data, demonstrating that there's not only demand but skill outside of government to put open data to work in the service of accountability, citizen utility and economic opportunity. Galvanizing the co-creation of civic services, policies or apps isn't easy but the potential of the civic surplus attracted the attention of governments around the world