Please see corresponding blog http://blog.eComm.ec

2. <agency name> Presentation
Leveraging the Government Platform
How Open Data and the “Gov 2.0” Movement
are Changing Communications With
Government
Mark J. Headd
Senior Application Developer, Tele-Works, Inc.
www.tele-works.com
@mheadd / voiceingov.org

3. 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).

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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.

8. 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();
}

9. 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

10. • 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!

11. • 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!

12. 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

13. La Fin
Questions?
April 19, 2010