25 Ordinary Citizens Write Iceland’s New Constitution With Help From Social Media The newest government in the world was designed with help from comments on the internet. God help us all. After Iceland’s economic collapse in 2008, the island nation decided it was time to write a new constitution, this one not based on its parent country of Denmark but rather made from the original ideas of its citizens. Iceland’s small population of 320,000 elected 25 assembly members from 522 ordinary candidates (including lawyers, political science professors, journalists, and many other professions), who in turn opened their process up to the public in an unprecedented fashion. The Constitutional Council was highly active on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Flickr, where they solicited comments and suggestions for the new government. On Friday July 29th, 2011, the Iceland parliament officially received the new constitution, comprised of 114 articles divided into 9 chapters. In many ways then, the new Iceland constitution was the first to ever be born completely in the public eye.
Welcome to PublicData.eu - Europe's Public Data - publicdata.eu Le baromètre du cumul des mandats en Belgique Switzerland is no longer a white spot on the OGD map. The following guest post is by Cécile Aschwanden and André Golliez, from itopia. They are members of the OKF’s Working Group on Open Government Data. Most people in Switzerland (including politicians) still do not know what Open Government Data is all about – but now the OGD virus has reached Switzerland and the discussion has been launched. The major conclusion: there is a lot of goodwill from all parties vis-à-vis Open Government Data. Andreas Kellerhals, the head of the Swiss Federal archives presented the Swiss federal administration’s approach to a single point of orientation (SPO), a key prerequisite to enable access and find a needle in the haystack of treasured information. Prof. Switzerland can learn from the other countries. Our graphic artist’s view (Rolf Willi) on the Federal Palace with Open Government Data.
Δημοσια, Ανοικτά Δεδομένα Introduction to Linked Open Data for Visualization Creators on Datavisualization Introduction to Linked Open Data for Visualization Creators Last week ReadWriteWeb asked: “Is Linked Data Gaining Acceptance?” Our answer: definitely yes. Projects like DBPedia, a community effort to structure the information from Wikipedia and provide it as Linked Open Data, have come a long way and work really well. But you don’t have to stop there! Back in 2001 Tim Berners-Lee and his collaborators published a seminal article called “The Semantic Web” in which they presented their idea of “a new form of Web content that is meaningful to computers [and] will unleash a revolution of new possibilities”. First up is the term Semantic Web. One technological concept that is part of the Semantic Web vision is Linked Data, which describes “a method of publishing structured data, so that it can be interlinked and become more useful” (Wikipedia). Linked Data by itself doesn’t have to be publicly available data, it can just as well be used in private, so we need one more definition: Open Data.
Öppna data | Open Stockholm Bland stadens kultur- och arkivdata finns band annat stadens Byggnadsregister, Rotemansarkivet och Byggnadsritningar. Du hittar även 35 000 bilder och dokument ur Stockholms historia med tillhörande meta-data. Stockholms stad samlar in befolkningsstatistik som underlag för planering av den service som ligger under kommunens ansvar; som barnomsorg, skola, planering av socialtjänstens verksamhet och prognoser för skatteintäkter. Trafikdatat innehåller väg- och trafikrelaterad geodata som Stockholms stad samlar in för trafikplanering, underhåll och projektering. Miljödatat innehåller kartor och mätdata som Stockholms stad tagit fram i syfte att beskriva miljösituationen inom kommunen. Enhetsdatabasen innehåller information om Stockholms stads alla verksamhetsställen, och ligger även till grund för Jämför Service på stockholm.se. Stockholms stad ansvarar för att upprätthålla grundläggande geografiska data över staden.
Open Data Challenge on Datavisualization European public bodies produce thousands upon thousands of datasets every year – about everything from how our tax money is spent to the quality of the air we breathe. With the Open Data Challenge, the Open Knowledge Foundation and the Open Forum Academy are challenging designers, developers, journalists and researchers to come up with something useful, valuable or interesting using open public data. Everybody from the EU can submit an idea, app, visualization or dataset to the competition between 5th April and 5th June. Entries must use or depend on open, freely reusable data from local, regional or national public bodies from European member states or from European institutions. Let us know in the comments if you plan to participate — we’re eager to see what you come up with.
Open government data gathers momentum in Switzerland The opendata.ch 2011 conference was inaugurated by Edith Graf-Litscher, National Councillor and Co-Chair of the Parliamentarian Group for Digital Sustainability, and Andreas Kellerhals, Director of the Swiss Federal Archives. The opening address was given by Nigel Shadbolt, Professor at the University of Southampton and member of the UK’s Public Sector Transparency Board. In an inspiring speech he highlighted the far-reaching transformative potential of open government data for people and governments alike, both now and in the future. Other speakers, including Jean-Philippe Amstein, Director of the Federal Office of Topography swisstopo, Hans-Peter Thür, Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner, and Peter Fischer, the Delegate for Federal IT Strategy, echoed Shadbolt’s sentiments but also pointed to the challenges for Switzerland in dealing with freely accessible government data. Address for enquiries: opendata.ch 2011 conference Dr. Swiss Federal Archives Publisher:
En Suisse aussi, l´Open Government Data a le vent en poupe La conférence opendata.ch 2011 a été ouverte par Edith Graf-Litscher, conseillère nationale et co-présidente du Groupe parlementaire pour une informatique durable et par Andreas Kellerhals, directeur des Archives fédérales suisses, l’office qui accueillait les invités dans ses murs. C’est ensuite Nigel Shadbolt, professeur à l’Université de Southampton et membre du Public Sector Transparency Board UK qui a pris la parole. Son exposé a montré l’important potentiel de changements que présente et présentera encore l’Open Government Data à la fois pour la population et pour le gouvernement. L’après-midi, six ateliers se sont penchés sur les divers aspects de ce vaste sujet. La conférence opendata.ch 2011 a été organisée par le Groupe parlementaire pour une informatique durable et les Archives fédérales suisses. Adresse pour l'envoi de questions: Conférence opendata.ch 2011 Dr. Archives fédérales suisses Auteur: Internet:
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