leveraging the government platform

<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