What is Open Government and what opportunities does it offer for you as a community foundation? Attend this webinar and learn more about how partnerships between technologists and city, county, state and federal governments can result in greater transparency and accountability, more access to data for citizens, and even cost-savings—and what role local organizations like yours are playing. http://www.knightdigitalmediacenter.org/learning-module/open-gov-and-what-it-means-community-foundations

1. What is Open Government
Susan Mernit
Knight Circuit Rider,
Oakland Local Editor/Publisher
And how can it work with your
community foundation?
November 14, 2013
All
rights
reserved.
susanmernit.com
1

2. WHAT
WE’RE
TALKING
ABOUT
What
is
Open
Government
and
what
opportuni4es
does
it
offer
for
you
as
a
community
founda4on?
This
webinar
will:
• Talk
about
how
partnerships
between
technologists
and
city,
county,
state
and
federal
governments
can
result
in
greater
transparency
and
accountability,
more
access
to
data
for
ci=zens,
and
even
cost-­‐savings
• Share
case
studies
where
community
founda=ons
have
go@en
involved
• Show
you
resources
to
use
to
get
started
All
rights
reserved.
susanmernit.com
2

3. Welcome
to
Northern
California!
This
region
is
a
center
for
open
government
&
open
data
projects-­‐-­‐
• San
Francisco
has
the
first
Chief
InnovaOon
Officer
in
the
country—who
launched
SF
as
an
open
data
city
• Oakland
passed
a
resoluOon
to
support
data
transparency
in
ALL
content
• Code
for
America
was
founded
here,
MapLight
is
here—and
GovFresh
was
also
started
in
the
Bay
And
of
course,
we
like
to
#hack
like
crazy..because
there
are
so
many
programmers
All
rights
reserved.
susanmernit.com
3

4. But open government
projects are happening all
over the country, with some
amazing ones in:
• Chicago, IL
• New Orleans, LA
• New York, New York
• Washington, DC
Questions to check in on before we go farther:
• What is open data and open government exactly?
• What’s the benefit to my organization &
my community to get involved?
All
rights
reserved.
susanmernit.com
4

5. “Transparency
promotes
accountability
and
provides
informa4on
for
ci4zens
about
what
their
Government
is
doing.”
-­‐-­‐
White
House
All
rights
reserved.
susanmernit.com
5

6. “Open
data
is
data
that
can
be
freely
used,
reused
and
redistributed
by
anyone
–
subject
only,
at
most,
to
the
requirement
to
a@ribute
and
sharealike.”-­‐-­‐OpenDefini=on.org
We’re talking a
The
US
Government
has
more
than
40,000
datasets
available
at
data.gov,
and
just
about
every
state
has
a
data
repository
now.
Local
coun=es,
big
ci=es
and
even
smaller
ci=es
are
also
geTng
involved.
All
rights
reserved.
susanmernit.com
6

7. Hashtags
to
watch
for:
#opengov,
#opendata,
#gov2.0
Related:
#citycamp
#github
#tbarcamp
All
rights
reserved.
susanmernit.com
7

8. Open government projects often pair city
officials with highly skilled volunteers and
other community members to solve problems
in ways government could not on their own.
Example 1:
Open Budget Oakland
Read & understand the
$1B Oakland city budget
http://openbudgetoakland.org/
Created
at
a
hackathon,
supported
at
a
co-­‐working
space,
built
with
City
data
by
volunteers
from
a
@codeforamerica
brigade
with
info
shared
on
data.openoakland.org,
data.oaklandnet.com,
and
GitHub
at
github.com/openoakland
Who was involved?
City of Oakland, Code for America,
Open Oakland brigade volunteers,
East Bay Economic Development
Association
All
rights
reserved.
susanmernit.com
8

9. Example 2: How’s Business Chicago from Open City Apps
http://howsbusinesschicago.org/
This is one of several apps built by a very skilled volunteer team using city data.
OpenCityApps.org hosts a weekly Open Gov hack night and creates free,
Open source projects that others can implement elsewhere.
All
rights
reserved.
susanmernit.com
9

10. Other projects from Open City Apps include
http://opencityapps.org/
Chicago Councilmatic: Interactive
App showing what legislation the City
Council has been passing
CAPSure: Alerts for community police
Meetings
2nd City Zoning: Guide to your
neighborhood from a planning
perspective
And many more!
IMPACT:
HUGE.
High
usage
of
some
apps,
big
press
awareness,
lots
of
momentum.
All
rights
reserved.
susanmernit.com
10

11. Discussion
break:
What
kind
of
apps
would
you
like
to
see
your
community
build
if
you
had
access
to
the
data
and
people
with
the
skills?
What
projects
is
your
founda=on
working
on
where
an
open-­‐source
app
could
really
have
impact
if
it
was
widely
used?
rights
reserved.
susanmernit.com
All
11

12. Community Foundations in some cities
have already gotten involved.
Hawaii Community Foundation and Open
Data Hawaii worked together this fall
To encourage ALL candidates running
For Mayor to sign a pledge to vow to make
Honolulu City Government transparent
and to follow the practices of open
government.
The
candidates
all
signed—and
Open
Data
Hawaii
says
they
are
working
with
the
CF
to
“push
these
ini=a=ves
forward,
changing
policy
and
crea=ng
opportuni=es
for
tomorrow’s
ci=zens
and
entrepreneurs.”
All
rights
reserved.
susanmernit.com
12

13. In Oregon, the Meyer Memorial Trust, Oregon’s largest community foundation,
built a new platform to connect engage citizens with policy & non-profits
For
Oregon
Unlimited,
launched
March
2013,
the
MMT
leased
a
placorm
that
allows
complete
connec=vity,
community
and
discussion
of
civic
projects.
h@ps://www.oregonunlimited.org
They
use
it
as
both
an
economic
development
engine
and
a
community
connector.
All
rights
reserved.
susanmernit.com
13

14. Oregon Unlimited is a follow up to Ideas4Oregon, a 2010
contest for a “million dollar” idea that got
more than 200 entries and promised
to spend up to $1MM to bring the
best one to life.
That project was built on top of another
commercial platform called UserVoice; they
open sourced the ideas so everyone could
see them (just like Knight Foundation often
does with their competitions.)
www.ideas4oregon.org/
All
rights
reserved.
susanmernit.com
14

15. http://www.tribunebuilding.org/
Building a transparent process with local government & community
In South Wood County MI, the local community foundation, IncourageCF,
purchased the now-shuttered newspaper building and is conducting a
community-outreach process around what to do with it.
They’re conducting meetings, and documenting the process online, as part of
a bigger program of creating cultural change in their community to spark
innovation and economic development.
All
rights
reserved.
susanmernit.com
15

16. “Managing
a
resident-­‐centered,
resident-­‐led
design
process
entrusts
decision-­‐making
to
the
community
and
invites
everyone
to
par4cipate.
It
requires
more
4me,
effort
and
resources
than
unilateral
decision-­‐making.
We’re
asking
community
members
to
determine
its
end
use.
“—InCourageCF
CEO
So, what’s the takeaway?
All
rights
reserved.
susanmernit.com
16

17. Discussion
How do civic engagement processes,
open data, open government and your
mission in your city fit together?
Where do you see risks & challenges?
How would you/will you address them?
All
rights
reserved.
susanmernit.com
17

18. The latest Knight Community
Information Challenge
funded 10 civic engagement/
open government projects
that eeach involve a CF
(see Foundations strengthen
local journalism, open
government - Knight Foundation
http://kng.ht/1aNPZgS)
Cities include Lexington, KY,
Chattanooga, TN, Gary, IN,
Boston, MA, New Orleans, LA,
and others.
Dreaming
of
local
data……
All
rights
reserved.
susanmernit.com
18

19. How to get involved (go
ahead, jump in!)
Attend a civic engagement
meet-up, a Bar Camp, or a
Brigade meeting in your town
and meet folks.
Talk to your city’s IT
department and lead officials
about making data available
in usable forms
All
rights
reserved.
susanmernit.com
19

20. Tech
resources:
Github:
Open
Source
Code
Repository
Socrata.com:
Commercial
database
for
local
government
Granicus:
Soeware
for
city
government
Data.gov:
40K
federal
data
sets
OpenGov.org:
Resource
for
open
data
at
state
and
local
levels
ParOcipatorypoliOcs.org:
All
rights
reserved.
susanmernit.com
Building
open
source
tools
for
20
open
government

21. Resources
NATIONAL
Sunlight Foundation, http://sunlightfoundation.com/
Broadly focused, national non-profit focused on supporting
every aspect of government transparency.
Code for America, http://codeforamerica.org
The “peace core” for open government tech, having a huge
impact through fellows’ programs, support for city
government projects, and volunteer brigades.
City Camp: http://citycamp.govfresh.com/
How to start a City Camp and how to affiliate.
All
rights
reserved.
susanmernit.com
21

22. Resources
National Network Indicators Project,
http://www.neighborhoodindicators.org/
Long-established network of data-driven non-profits
using local data and analytics for policy planning and
program development.
Open Knowledge Foundation, http://okfn.org/
EU-based global resource for supporting in-country open
data, open source & transparency.
Open Government stories on GitHub,
http://government.github.com/
Space to share and read stories about #opengov and
#open data projects
All
rights
reserved.
susanmernit.com
22

23. Followup
– Reach
Susan:
mernit@gmail.com
– See
MORE
resources
on
my
Pinterest
board:
h@p://www.pinterest.com/susanmernit/open-­‐
government-­‐and-­‐community-­‐founda=ons-­‐board-­‐
fo/
– Other
Mernit
presos:
h@p://slideshare.com/susanmernit
– See
this
presenta=on
and
download
at
the
KDMC
site:
h@p://www.knightdigitalmediacenter.org
All
rights
reserved.
susanmernit.com
23