12:58:53 RRSAgent has joined #egov 12:58:53 logging to http://www.w3.org/2009/03/12-egov-irc 13:08:16 Owen has joined #egov 13:10:58 zakim, code? 13:10:58 sorry, josema, I don't know what conference this is 13:11:04 zakim, this will be egov 13:11:04 ok, josema, I see T&S_EGOV(F2F2)9:00AM already started 13:11:19 trackbot, start telcon 13:11:21 RRSAgent, make logs public 13:11:23 Zakim, this will be EGOV 13:11:23 ok, trackbot, I see T&S_EGOV(F2F2)9:00AM already started 13:11:23 zakim, code? 13:11:24 Meeting: eGovernment Interest Group Teleconference 13:11:24 Date: 12 March 2009 13:11:24 the conference code is 3468 (tel:+1.617.761.6200 tel:+33.4.89.06.34.99 tel:+44.117.370.6152), josema 13:11:50 + +1.202.626.aabb 13:12:06 zakim, aabb is AIA Board Room 13:12:06 I don't understand 'aabb is AIA Board Room', josema 13:12:13 zakim, aabb is AIA 13:12:13 +AIA; got it 13:12:18 zakim, who's here? 13:12:18 On the phone I see +1.509.464.aaaa, AIA 13:12:19 On IRC I see Owen, RRSAgent, Zakim, josema, kjetil, trackbot 13:12:27 zakim, aaaa is rachel 13:12:27 +rachel; got it 13:13:01 oh well 13:18:40 I was planning to Skype into the telecon but don't see how to enter the conference code in Skype. If I can't figure out how to do it, I will only be dialing in for limited parts of the meeting on my cell phone. 13:21:13 ok, owen 13:21:25 we'll start shortly 13:21:32 people still coming in 13:23:58 + +1.301.455.aacc 13:25:30 ari has joined #egov 13:26:53 - +1.301.455.aacc 13:29:04 I don't understand what "aacc" means in the phone number. I thought it might mean the access code but I tried it and got the wrong number. 13:33:05 scribe: josema 13:33:29 [jose goes through slides, will be posted online and linked from agenda] 13:33:46 kjetil has left #egov 13:34:22 John has joined #egov 13:34:38 [kevin goes through slides, will be posted, too] 13:34:48 Karen has joined #egov 13:35:13 eGov F2F meeting at AIA, Washington, DC 13:35:42 Jose Alonso welcomes everyone and provides brief overview of W3C 13:36:01 scribe:Karen 13:36:10 Kevin Novak reviews agenda for the next two days 13:36:56 slide: Why are we here? 13:37:10 Topics include: participation and citizen engagement 13:37:20 data integration 13:37:31 Approach: day one is "provocation"; discussion 13:37:48 ...speaker panel to get discussion started 13:38:00 ...use of social media 13:38:13 ...John Sheridan, UK and eGov co-chair 13:38:18 ...to lead that session 13:38:29 ...data integration in afternoon 13:38:47 ...day two to begin to address solutions, approaches, and next steps 13:38:52 ...other topics tomorrow 13:38:57 ...data management 13:40:11 ...Today's speakers: Beth Novek, The White House 13:40:22 Ellen Miller, Sunlight Foundation 13:40:32 and Steve Ressler, Govloop 13:40:58 Beth begins by thanking everyone's participation 13:41:13 and acknowledges the W3C eGov published document 13:41:45 excited that this work is starting because of Obama Administration's commitment to create open and transparent government 13:41:51 ...to create a "connected democracy" 13:41:52 Rachel has joined #egov 13:41:58 + +1.301.455.aadd 13:41:59 ...work I do and work I focus on 13:42:10 ...with others throughout government 13:42:20 ...is to develop policy innovations 13:42:28 ...end goal to create effective and accountable government 13:42:37 ...review some of our initiatives 13:42:44 ...First, Transparency 13:42:52 ...creating open gov't in terms of operations and data 13:43:04 ...so the "putting Chris Dorobek out of business" agenda 13:43:16 ...so there will be no more leeks, everything will be published online 13:43:20 [laughs] 13:43:42 ...enable performance effectivenesss, greater accountability, engagement 13:43:53 ...we are committed to publish information online 13:44:00 ...working with CIO's office and CIO counsel 13:44:05 ...to set up policies 13:44:09 ...data.gov project 13:44:19 ...Vivek is probably speaking about that at FOSE right now 13:44:24 ...make that raw data available 13:44:28 ...get it online 13:44:33 ...we need you to do that work 13:44:40 ...to get that information out there 13:45:00 ...about tracking accountability, and also economic development in terms of creating new jobs 13:45:10 ...Recovery.gov is another flagship project 13:45:20 ...I hope George Thomas will speak about this; he is here 13:45:28 ...look at how we move the institution of government 13:45:35 ...toward publishing information 13:45:39 ...Second, Participation 13:45:45 ...not just lip service and hand waving 13:45:51 ...not weight in after the fact 13:45:59 ...but to bring expertise into the decision-making process 13:46:04 ...we have to drive toward this goal 13:46:12 ...meaninful forms to drive contributions into policy making 13:46:18 ...notice and common rule making 13:46:22 ...some of traditional structure 13:46:32 ...and look at new models that technology enables 13:46:40 ...but also not to exclusion of other models 13:46:48 ...we are experimenting with ways to create those opportunities 13:46:57 ...it will take experimentation and innovation 13:47:04 ....parallel work with CIO council 13:47:12 ...GSA and its citizenwide services office 13:47:21 ...that kind of reinvention and better delivery of services 13:47:23 ...Rulemaking 13:47:29 ...fundamental democratic right 13:47:33 ...to decision-making 13:47:43 ...strongly committed to an effective rul-making strategy 13:47:46 Daniel_Bennett has joined #egov 13:47:49 ...I commend you to invest expertise here 13:48:01 ...create attention; look at new structures 13:48:10 ...deliberate intention for collaboration 13:48:19 ...idea to engender better cooperation 13:48:24 ...across all levels 13:48:32 ...and across public and private sector 13:48:41 ...innovative path to have more collaboration 13:48:45 ...develop solutions to work together 13:48:55 ...why we are bringing groups into The White House 13:49:01 ...how we do the work across the gov't 13:49:07 ...be far more collaborative to bring people together 13:49:14 ...so data.gov needs to work with W3C 13:49:21 ...work with datasets, help develop standards 13:49:25 ...take that data and mash it up 13:49:31 ...make it useful once it's posted 13:49:39 ...and need a feedback loop once data is posted 13:49:49 ...so we use the data to make better decision 13:49:53 s/decisions 13:50:01 ...on participation side, not just about better APIs 13:50:11 ...need your input, craft usecases 13:50:19 ...another feedback loop to implement changes 13:50:25 ...again to drive to better decision making 13:50:33 ...Focus is not only citizen to gov't approach 13:50:39 ...to put data out there and do stuff with it 13:50:49 ...but also citizen to citizen mechanism to solve problems 13:50:57 ...invite public to develop solutions 13:51:03 heatherwest has joined #egov 13:51:06 ...use technology to solve collective problems 13:51:14 q? 13:51:16 ...Coming here at a preliminary point in this process 13:51:35 ...we will be anxious to hear more; watch the wiki 13:51:50 Kevin: questions? 13:51:55 Rick Murphy, GSA 13:52:05 RM: I wonder what Office of Science Technology's view is 13:52:12 ...of the emergence of a market around gov't data 13:52:33 ...and what percent for supporting small and medium businesses 13:52:37 [missed first two] 13:52:42 Beth: I don't have answers yet 13:52:47 ...if you do, please share 13:53:00 ...putting gov't data online does help to create businesses 13:53:07 ...so it's not only a notion of transparency 13:53:11 ...the goal is to have people use it 13:53:19 ...to have people who want to create businesses do so 13:53:25 ...and create social, market opps 13:53:30 ...wonderful provocation 13:53:39 ...GSA partnered in this effort, invite you to take it on 13:53:50 Rick: I certainly have some thoughts, although not well considered 13:53:57 ...I think social production would take up large percentage 13:54:00 ...of emerging marketin 13:54:06 ...small businesses would be impacted 13:54:18 ...my concern is that it's great to have a contest to provide $20K 13:54:24 ...and you get a lot of small applications 13:54:33 ...but that is a narrowly defined response to a large supply of data 13:54:42 Beth: Are we goint to hear about Ask for America? 13:54:53 Rick: I think there is a demographic to that, which needs to be well understood 13:54:56 s/Ask/Apps 13:54:59 ...as the market for gov't data emerges 13:55:02 Brand Niemann, EPA 13:55:18 ...yesterday Chris Rassmussen issued an interesting challenge 13:55:28 ...he challenged the new federal CIO to do this 13:55:35 ...to challenge how the big IT dollars are spent 13:55:38 ...for three reasons 13:55:42 ...to show authority 13:55:46 ...to show we are changing course 13:55:53 ...and to pre-empt some money 13:56:15 Beth: I'm laughing because that's a true throw-down to the challenge of large IT systems 13:56:24 ...so we work on policy in tandem with CIO Office 13:56:30 ...we have been doing this for one month 13:56:43 ...we don't get to the transparent, participatory and collaborative gov't 13:56:49 ...without attacking from several angles 13:56:59 ...Vivek is talking about Cloud Computing at FOSE I'm sure 13:57:07 ...attack from technical, cultural perspectives 13:57:19 ...willingness to share data, to take critique 13:57:26 ...attack from procedural and process angl 13:57:29 s/angle 13:57:37 ...great tech systems are nice, but need processes 13:57:40 ...what goes first, second 13:57:44 ...and also from a policy angle 13:57:57 ...remove policy and regulatory impediments and barriers 13:58:05 ...So yes, we need these things to work in tandem 13:58:10 ...and bridge across the institutions 13:58:16 ...and bridge across large IT systems 13:58:21 ...and the cultural issues, too 13:58:42 Suzanne Acar, Federal Data Architecture Subcommittee 13:58:57 Suzanne: thank you for sharing and reviewing The President's memo 13:59:09 ...any insights from what other countries have done? 13:59:20 ...I just met with a number of countries yesterday 13:59:32 Beth: There is an active CIO group that meets 13:59:42 ...conference call yesterday to talk about what the transformational efforts are 13:59:51 ...we are learning and informed by efforts around the work 13:59:55 ...UK Information Task Force 14:00:02 ...and Ministry of Transformational Gov't 14:00:08 ...Canada has interesting efforts 14:00:17 ...Australia has citizen participation initiatives 14:00:25 ...the echo was that we are furthest along 14:00:32 ...in terms of statements of data transparency 14:00:36 ...has to do with copyright concept 14:00:45 ...for variety of cultural reasons, we are different places 14:00:52 ...so there are things we can all learn 14:01:00 ...we committed to continue these conversatoin 14:01:11 ...efforts of W3C can be very helpful to keep this going 14:01:14 +??P32 14:01:19 - +1.301.455.aadd 14:01:30 Daniel Bennett, advocatehope.org 14:01:43 Daniel: I believe Italy has a mandate to publish valid HTML 14:01:51 ...W3C has a validator tool to do this 14:01:58 ...government publishes vast amounts of data 14:02:11 ...but seems to be challenged to publish valid HTML 14:02:23 ...it would be a great help to have both human readable 14:02:27 ...and machine processable data 14:02:34 ...so that would be a good gov't rule 14:02:50 Kevin Novak: so to give a plug to former life at Library of Congress 14:02:56 ...it is well integrated 14:02:58 I contacted Skype and got instructions on how to enter the conference ID and am now listening via Skype. 14:03:02 ...challenging to see what are right positions 14:03:14 ...not everyone understands what to do technically 14:03:30 ...to educate technical resources about quality standards for the Web 14:03:36 Diane Mueller, XBRL International 14:03:46 Diane: we have worked across gov't agencies and jurisdictions 14:03:56 ...Canada, Spain, Netherlands, Australia 14:04:03 ...we have worked on developing common data sets 14:04:15 ...XBRL to describe financial data 14:04:25 ...needs to have common set of valid tags so that we can consume it 14:04:39 ...the mapping of the disparate federal data makes it difficult 14:04:54 ...some countries have a standard language to map against 14:05:02 ...to avoid mapping against disparate data sources 14:05:13 Speaker: Crown Copyright issue 14:05:20 NIST has an XML schema and content validation service: http://www.mel.nist.gov/msid/XML_testbed/validation.html 14:05:22 ...information being quoted in articles 14:05:30 ...will anyone be doing an informational campaign 14:05:35 ...to get these messages out? 14:05:42 Beth: I am writing down every and all suggestions 14:05:49 ...WhiteHouse.gov has posted a policy 14:05:55 ...like a copyright information policy 14:06:09 ...clearly states that the govt does not hold the copyright 14:06:13 ...and allow work to be reused 14:06:23 ...so would be good to have a campaign to educated 14:06:31 ...and I was an IP professor until recently 14:06:44 ...so a good suggestion; I can give good lectures about copyright law 14:06:46 [laughs] 14:06:54 ...yes, we should make these messages clear 14:07:12 John Sheridan, W3C eGov Co-Chair, Sytems Strategy for UK Public Sector Information 14:07:22 ...I have been involved with one third of the task force 14:07:30 ...that produced the recent recommendations 14:07:38 ...I have been pretty busy 14:07:43 ...the copyright issue is complex 14:07:46 ...one of learnings we have had 14:07:54 ...we are responsible for Crown Copyright 14:08:01 ...even when data is allowed to be use 14:08:06 ...the data is not always clean 14:08:12 ...have to also handle third-party rights 14:08:23 ...gov't operates in an information eco-system 14:08:33 ...so how to think even when gov't does not claim IP 14:08:41 ...how we think about expression; interoperability 14:08:48 ...how this plays with other information made available 14:08:56 ...and assertions being made by one agency or another 14:09:03 ...I don't think we would advocate our historic model 14:09:08 ...position in terms of IP in US 14:09:14 ...means you can move potentially much faster 14:09:22 ...you don't have the hamstring to unhook agencies 14:09:28 ...that have historically charged for information 14:09:33 ...that has been a source of revenue 14:09:40 ...so this connects back to creating new markets 14:09:47 btw I helped get US. legislation include lack of copyright by adding Dublin Core rights piece into the XML version 14:09:52 ...We do better at doing admin tasks 14:09:58 ...should allow others to do that innovation 14:10:02 ...the big issue technically 14:10:07 ...we have to addres rights expression 14:10:15 ...and recognize that the data won't be pure gov't data 14:10:19 ...it will have other stuff in it 14:10:26 ...Anytime central gov't collects info 14:10:38 ...each agency has its own ways to collect data 14:10:46 ...so have tactics to deal with some of those issues 14:10:54 ...I can give examples of where we have done it well and badly 14:11:15 Kevin: So these are very important issues, but need to stay on track with our speakers 14:11:21 ...Beth, hope you can stay 14:11:39 Ellen Miller, Exec. Director and Co-Founder of The Sunlight Foundation 14:11:45 ...in its third year now 14:11:53 ...Sunlight is a coming together of the ripening of tech 14:11:58 ...for citizens and gov't 14:12:07 ...and redefining what disclosure means 14:12:17 ...To begin, I feel like Alice falling down the rabbit hole 14:12:28 ...we think of information being about money, power, and influence 14:12:46 ...and now to have a colleague like Beth who is brining a new perspective 14:12:51 ...on these issues 14:12:55 ...we should thank Beth 14:13:03 ...not only the issues but also the philosophy 14:13:13 ...I would like to quote my friend and colleague John Steinberg 14:13:23 ..."The most scarey thing about the Internet for government... 14:13:38 ...it's about the lightening pace of how Internet changes expectations" 14:13:45 ...Media shift 14:14:11 Beth reads quote about collaboration, empowering people with mobile technology 14:14:18 ...everything is changing 14:14:23 ...how we communicate with the public 14:14:30 ...how public communicates with us 14:14:38 ...information age has hit Washington 14:15:06 ...but [jokes] "most in Washington don't know the difference between a server and a waiter" 14:15:12 Jose - audio is great, thx 14:15:15 ...so we are in the age of the revenge of the nerds 14:15:21 ...these people really do get it 14:15:32 ...I was asked after a feature article to speak at HHS 14:15:37 ...I talked about use of social networks 14:15:44 ...I asked how many people were on Twitter 14:15:51 ...only 3 raised their hands 14:16:00 ...then I asked about FaceBook 14:16:09 ...no one raised their hands; they aren't allowed to use it 14:16:25 Ellen describes mission of Sunlight Foundation 14:16:32 ...to make work of gov't and data more transparent 14:16:42 ...and help citizenry engage; trust and participation 14:16:54 ...We think openness will breed more trust in officials and gov't institutions 14:17:07 ...work serves as a catalyst to help hold gov't accoutnable 14:17:21 ...to help citizens to be better informed and to engage 14:17:29 ...to push for more transparent and accountable gov't 14:17:41 ...Collective power of citizens to demand greater accountability 14:17:52 ...so sunlight; online transparency is way to do this 14:18:04 ...we create new tools, Web sites, digitize new data bases 14:18:11 ...and sometimes creating new databases 14:18:21 ...given opportunities and possibilities of this new Administration 14:18:25 ...we cited three principles 14:18:31 ...One, public means online 14:18:42 ...there are many documents in this town declared public 14:18:46 ...but they are buried in the basement 14:18:52 ...that is not acceptalbe 14:19:04 Two, government transparency of gov't grants and contracts 14:19:26 ...OMB purchased a license to purchase USAspending.gov 14:19:47 ...it is not a non-profit's responsibility to create databases from gov't data 14:19:56 Third, is data quality and presentation matter 14:20:04 ...the garbage in/garbage out problem 14:20:09 ...for example, lobbying data 14:20:18 ...Lobbyists have to report interesting stuff 14:20:24 ...bills, money, etc. 14:20:33 ...but they don't have to report whom they are lobbying 14:20:38 ...who they met 14:20:46 ...If I want to lobby someone at a regulatory agency 14:20:50 ...I don't have to report that 14:21:01 ...given concerns with lobbying, we think transparency is the antidote 14:21:08 ...we don't have full information 14:21:12 ...we don't have a full picture 14:21:22 ...let's make sure we know what we need 14:21:51 Those three principles come from our belief that transparency builds trust 14:22:02 ...Cites challenges 14:22:15 With respect to what we need to know, it would be good if lobbyists were required to post their goals and objectives on the Web in StratML format. 14:22:24 ...that leads to gap between public and private sector 14:22:35 ...help drive advocacy program of Sunlight Foundation 14:22:49 ...we are engaged in collaboration for advocacy and research 14:22:52 ...TweatLobby 14:23:10 ...we use Twitter to lobby members of Senate to post campaign finance reports online 14:23:20 ...we shall see if this is a good strategy 14:23:29 zakim, who's here? 14:23:29 On the phone I see rachel, AIA, ??P32 14:23:30 ...we digitize information in three-ring binders and post it online 14:23:30 On IRC I see heatherwest, Daniel_Bennett, Rachel, Karen, ari, Owen, RRSAgent, Zakim, josema, trackbot 14:23:33 ...information for access 14:23:40 ...we took earmarks a couple of years ago 14:23:49 ...and created bubble charts of who was getting the most earmarks 14:24:01 ...Alaska and West Virginia were getting big earmarks 14:24:13 ...we are in busy of developing new policy recommendations 14:24:18 ...and we do traditional lobbying 14:24:25 ...to make use of social networking and technology 14:24:27 -??P32 14:24:32 ...to bring gov't into 21st Century 14:24:38 markthomas has joined #egov 14:24:45 ...When President Obama issued his memo on transparency 14:24:52 ...We issued Our Open Gov't List 14:24:58 ...we had some ideas that we put up 14:25:07 ...and invited the community we have been developing and nurturing 14:25:09 ...to participate 14:25:20 ...so we wanted to be transparent and collaborative 14:25:21 Owen has joined #egov 14:25:24 ...so this project is maturing 14:25:30 ...hundreds of people are participating 14:25:39 ...we are developing multiple suggestions 14:25:42 ...we invite people 14:25:51 ...We funded an open government project 14:25:58 ...Called "Show us the data" 14:26:09 ...invite public to tell us what are their top data leads 14:26:22 ...I am happy to talk about other Sunlight projects 14:26:37 ...for example contest we 'stole' with permission from Vivek 14:26:40 ...Apps for America 14:26:46 ...that is now underway with exciting potential 14:27:00 ...We believe the time is right to push open the door The White House has given us 14:27:08 ...timely and accurate disclosure of information 14:27:22 ...a cross-partizan effort to engage citizens 14:27:32 ...use technology to help build trust 14:27:36 ...happy to take questions 14:27:51 Brand Niemann: will you be participating in the new data.gov site? 14:27:59 Ellen: in any way we can, yes, we will 14:28:06 ...don't know what that site looks like yet 14:28:21 ...When Sunlight makes a grant to an organization, we require that the data be in open source format 14:28:38 ...any of our work is open source and available for the taking 14:28:45 Ken Fischer, Potomac Forum 14:28:52 ...relating to creating a market with gov't data 14:28:57 ...and prolific use of it 14:29:05 ...Do we need some type of authentication system 14:29:16 ...some mark to authenticate the data 14:29:21 ...and track who is usin it 14:29:30 ...what if people are not all using it for good 14:29:37 ...what if data put up is incorrect 14:29:44 ...then we have a debate about what is right 14:29:54 ...should we track who uses it an authenticate the data 14:30:01 ...it could become a free-for-all 14:30:08 ...should we adopt Google and MapQuest methods? 14:30:27 Ellen: Yes, open to these ideas 14:30:35 ...there will be some abuse of the data 14:30:40 ...either intentional or not 14:30:54 Having checked out Beth's pedigree, I looked for a strategic plan on IILP's site. Didn't see one but inferred one from the information on the site. It is now available in StratML format at http://xml.gov/stratml/index.htm#EdInstitutions 14:30:57 ...or ways data is presented can be less accurate 14:31:06 ...how we authenticate data is a big question 14:31:10 ...welcome your thoughts on that 14:31:20 ...Sunlight encourages people in this direction 14:31:21 OAmbur has joined #egov 14:31:36 ...we fund a Sunlight team, or groups with long-standing reputation for developing data sets 14:31:50 Kevin Novak: Ellen made my life interesting for two years at Library of Congress 14:32:04 ...to maintain information 14:32:11 ...there are technical solutions 14:32:16 +??P6 14:32:19 ...but we need to address non-technical approaches 14:32:35 DanielB: I would like to vehemently disagree 14:32:44 ...I know there is digital signature 14:32:50 ...in US we have the first amendment 14:33:02 ...we have people who lie about data all the time 14:33:15 ...but it's a separate question of trustin whether you are on a gov't Web site 14:33:21 ...and authenticate the raw data 14:33:40 ...Verify what THe Constitution actually says, versus what someone else says 14:33:47 Suzanne: Back to data sets via data.gov 14:33:58 ...Federal CIOs under Vivek's oversight 14:34:03 ...produced a memo yesterday 14:34:12 ...for three to five consumable data sets 14:34:18 ...to provide these by next Tuesday 14:34:22 ...how those data sets are validated 14:34:30 ...how they get posted on data.gov is unknown 14:34:36 ...will Sunlight play a role? 14:34:46 Ellen: we have not yet, but would be open 14:34:50 ...have to be patient 14:34:59 ...a lot of experimentation will go on 14:35:05 ...some things we will get right, others not 14:35:20 ...I don't think we should wait for data.gov to get fully architected 14:35:29 ...Recovery.gov is a good case 14:35:34 ...we have made a number of recommendations 14:35:43 ...our number one, is give us the raw stuff [data] 14:35:49 ...and we can take it to the next level 14:35:58 ...raw stuff plus machine-readable formats 14:36:02 ...for the data 14:36:14 ...and then create some tools for easy user interface, that would be enough 14:36:20 ...I have seen a critique of Recovery.gov 14:36:35 ...I think it's too soon; we need to appreciate the work that's being done 14:36:45 ...not judge "too soon", but not sure what that timeline is 14:37:00 ...for example disclosure forms of appointees not yet available 14:37:06 ...I have alerted some people to taht 14:37:08 s/that 14:37:14 Suzanne: That totally resonates 14:37:29 ...It is the subcommittee's recommendation to start small 14:37:32 ...put something out there 14:37:35 ...go incrementally 14:37:55 John, Sunlight Foundation: good to praise the CIO Council for putting out that memo 14:38:00 ...next, based on spending bill 14:38:09 ...language directing agencies for bulk data access 14:38:18 ...GPO and others are looking at data authentication 14:38:30 ...echo that when members of Congress started to use email 14:38:40 ...they were concerned about others editing their messages 14:38:45 ...so that's similar situation 14:38:53 ...as long as original source information is available 14:38:57 ...that helps to reduce risk 14:39:10 Daniel: hard to explain to people that lying about stuff is not a problem 14:39:21 Chris Doborek: Regarding Recovery.gov 14:39:30 ...people feel like Niagara Falls is coming at them 14:39:37 ...they have 15-20 year old systems 14:39:48 ...my concern is with career folks to disappear into their shells 14:39:58 ...I am happy to see CIO Council looking at quick wins 14:40:04 ...but it is a monumental mind set change 14:40:07 ...for most gov't agencies 14:40:12 ...to publish raw data 14:40:19 ...and not go through many processes 14:40:32 Mark: three quick points 14:40:40 ...some W3C work about use of data 14:40:58 ...Ellen, thanks for great work at Sunlight 14:41:04 ...when there is more data made available 14:41:13 ...not always case that everyone can take advantage of that data 14:41:19 ...may be some well coordinated interestes 14:41:27 ...so it would be valuable to encode policy 14:41:33 ...so it's released into public domain 14:41:40 ...ability to allow less coordinated interests 14:41:50 ...to have access to gov't policy in executable form 14:41:55 ...I call that smart policy 14:41:57 ...Third point 14:42:04 ...to talk about presumption that raw data is what we need 14:42:09 ...useful in the W3C context 14:42:15 ...one of the principals of Semantic Web 14:42:24 ...is that URIs can be specified in a persistent form 14:42:30 ...John Sheridan has a use case 14:42:39 ...so if Tim Berners-Lee were here 14:42:53 ...he would probably say gov't has a role in specifying URIs 14:43:02 ...some work has been done in gov't data in RDF 14:43:08 Kevin: I would like to hold questions now 14:43:18 ...we need to discuss these topics in sessions 14:43:25 Beth: I need to host another meeting 14:43:30 ...please excuse me 14:43:51 ...I will follow Chris' Tweat 14:43:54 s/Tweet 14:44:12 Kevin: thank you very much, Beth 14:44:21 Steve Ressler 14:44:31 ...cool thing Ellen mentioned is "revenge of the nerds" 14:44:39 ...or "the rise of the Rasmussen" 14:45:50 Steve: we have always had Town Halls 14:46:15 ...now we are going to do that onlin 14:46:22 ...with a turbo-charged rocket 14:46:30 ...a few years ago I came to gov't 14:46:32 s/onlin/online 14:46:38 ...and tried to figure out things 14:46:51 ...with a few friends 14:47:04 ...discovered that essentially people want to talk to each other 14:47:09 ...and hear about the work they are doing 14:47:14 rrsagent, pointer? 14:47:14 See http://www.w3.org/2009/03/12-egov-irc#T14-47-14 14:47:16 ...As part of young gov't leaders 14:47:24 rrsagent, draft minutes 14:47:24 I have made the request to generate http://www.w3.org/2009/03/12-egov-minutes.html josema 14:47:25 ...like W3C, you have smart people coming together 14:47:31 ...great people, great conversations 14:47:39 ...ICA-IT in Seoul, Korea 14:47:44 ...great ideas and great conversation 14:47:51 ...but key is that you have to be invited 14:47:57 ...get permission to go 14:48:08 ...but then sometimes conversations die down 14:48:15 ...so Govloop idea is for information sharing 14:48:28 ...whether city manager, or state, nat'l person 14:48:33 ...launched eight months ago 14:48:40 ...we have 7200 members right now 14:48:44 ...the value is the stories you hear 14:48:50 ...no place to do that already 14:48:59 ...one lady in HR in NIH 14:49:13 ...had a boss who asked for pay grade analysis across other agencies 14:49:21 ...if you don't have a rolodex, it's difficult 14:49:36 ...so she posted responses and got answers in about an hour 14:49:53 ...in the UK, you post a report, and suddenly people are dialoguing 14:50:00 ...you bring more voices to the talbe 14:50:03 s/table 14:50:08 ...and connect communities 14:50:12 ...meet new people 14:50:26 ...a former journalist who has really smart thoughts 14:50:32 ...emerging as a gov2.0 leader 14:50:49 ...people jumping into these communities 14:51:00 ...and get access to public service people at high levels 14:51:08 ...we are going to see interesting developments over years 14:51:11 ...new cool ideas 14:51:20 ...and I'm happy to be a part of it and part of the conversation 14:51:30 ...so pass the word, join in, ping me on Twitter 14:51:36 Jose: Any questions? 14:51:44 Daniel: Comment 14:51:50 ...I am a rookie with 25 points 14:51:53 ...I appreciate it 14:52:01 ...it's an interesting, out of band communications tool 14:52:06 ...I have been starting to take a look at 14:52:19 Chris: you can bribe him for points [laughs] 14:52:30 Steve: it's an informal network 14:52:51 ...so some people can only comment inside the fireware 14:53:02 ...so I sent an email to encourage inside folks to engage 14:53:14 ...great opportunity to have two communities tap in 14:53:27 Daniel: does it allow you to syndicate to them inside? 14:53:41 Steve: Govloop is based on platform with limited functionality 14:53:43 ...so not yet 14:53:49 ...integrate with open social and open id 14:53:52 ...maybe down the line 14:54:01 Brand: Can you support data posting functions? 14:54:11 ...maybe you and others could encourage posting of data 14:54:16 ...then could be federated 14:54:31 Steve: I have so many hours in the day, but would welcome some other folks to hack with me 14:54:59 Break for ten minutes 14:55:03 -rachel 15:03:16 + +1.714.348.aaee 15:06:33 - +1.714.348.aaee 15:12:24 scribe:josema 15:12:26 markthomas has joined #egov 15:12:35 [only summarized topics from now on] 15:13:06 topic: Participation and Citizen Engagement, Use of Social Media 15:15:21 ari has joined #egov 15:22:51 see http://www.w3.org/TR/2009/WD-egov-improving-20090310/#pe 15:23:04 [john is reviewing the issues raised there] 15:23:44 joec has joined #egov 15:30:00 you might also want to follow http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23w3cegov 15:30:52 [discussion on context of communications and roles of public employees] 15:31:15 Daniel Bennet: elected officials have an opportunity to better educate citizens about multiple roles and hats 15:31:47 ...for example, officials have to comply with laws and policies when wearing official hats using gov't resources 15:32:17 Laura Lee Dooley, World Resources Institute 15:32:26 ...I am seeing a real need for training 15:32:34 ...what are these tools, how do we use them 15:32:44 ...how do we listen, what is an RSS feed? 15:33:03 [need of training the public servants comes up again] 15:33:07 ...and they are thinking about how to use social media to communicate ith their communities 15:33:24 Kevin: Are you hearing that those certain tools? 15:33:31 ...are there certain things we should focus on? 15:33:41 ...or is it a more global questions 15:34:55 ->http://www.w3.org/2008/09/msnws/ W3C Workshop on the Future of Social Networking 15:36:03 George Thomas: what is W3C's role in social media, linking gov't data 15:36:13 ...looking forward to discussion later today on data integration 15:36:32 Report at: http://www.w3.org/2008/09/msnws/report 15:36:37 see section on Next Steps 15:36:49 Need for clarify of terms; what all this means 15:38:02 Josema: W3C has a Future of Social Networking Group 15:39:06 We will be working on a number of issues 15:40:01 eGov will have coordination with the social networking group 15:41:09 George: interoperability standards to overcome walled gardens with social media is good 15:41:17 ...wanted to give message about urgency of now 15:41:31 Jose: Discussing my two hats last evening 15:41:45 ...W3C work for eGov, and consulting work for my CTIC institute 15:41:59 ...what I am seeing is a lot of gov't people coming to our institute 15:42:07 ...because of high interest in social media 15:42:15 ...there is a need to address strategy 15:42:16 + +1.714.348.aaff 15:42:23 ...what they need to use social media for 15:42:35 ...then understand how to best use the right tools 15:43:12 Rick: So here is a suggestion for a social media use case 15:43:17 ...we talked about cook URIs 15:43:22 ...we should talk about cool memes 15:43:33 ...meme is a unit of cultural information that is copied from place to place 15:43:35 scribe:Karen 15:43:49 George: so connect tags more directly 15:44:55 Brand: I hear the news headlines about challenging economy 15:44:55 If a strategy is drafted for addressing the use of social media by .gov folks, I will be glad to render it in StratML format. 15:45:08 ...and the W3C eGov charter 15:45:13 ...and then the real world 15:45:37 ...for example, get enterprise architects out there talking to people 15:45:40 Btw, Tim's talk at TED, on Social Networks' Walled Gardens and Linked Data; http://www.w3.org/2009/Talks/0204-ted-tbl/ 15:45:42 ...we are in a global depression 15:45:52 ...maybe we need to focus on these bigger issues 15:46:03 ...what else could we do to help people? 15:46:08 Yes, Karen, I am listening via Skype. 15:46:13 ...and of course use social networking tools 15:46:18 ...I would like to suggest a higher vision 15:46:34 ...So for some, WWW is furthest from their mind 15:46:43 ...So maybe we need to think more about them 15:46:51 ...we can work out technical details to serve the higher good 15:47:37 Kevin: So many things to think about, also disability 15:47:42 ...and access in general 15:47:49 ...what is the tangible focus? 15:47:59 Brand: get out of your office and look at real world problems 15:48:14 ...what do homeless people need for example 15:48:22 Kevin: not to be on a social soapbox 15:48:33 ...we are priviledged here 15:48:43 ...worked on World Digital Library project 15:48:58 ...challenges in other parts of the world to get access 15:49:39 Diane: coming out of social networking community 15:49:43 ...is the tagging of metadata 15:49:47 ...and how this brings up issues 15:49:53 ...that is a big thing going on in Canada 15:50:05 ...especially issue of homelessness in Vancouver with Olympics 15:50:08 Here's another relevant bit from the developing world: http://www.ushahidi.com/ 15:50:11 ...So W3C's role is to create the technologies 15:50:22 ...and help surface issues before they become a critical mass 15:50:33 ...get information out, help people 15:50:41 ...hearing great stories from crises 15:50:48 ...get to data faster 15:50:51 ...surface issues up 15:51:05 ...raise the visibility and get a critical mass 15:51:17 ...not sure we will do device independence in the sub-Sahara 15:51:29 ...not sure if it's tech, hardware, what issue 15:51:44 Ken: social media tools and techniques 15:51:50 ...also about creating trust 15:52:01 ...so in the financial community, there is a huge lack of trust all the way around 15:52:05 ...need to build trust 15:52:17 - +1.714.348.aaff 15:54:57 Chris Jerdonek, Granicus, Inc. 15:55:04 [missed comment] 15:56:05 John: tools we need inter-related to these issues 15:56:56 Ben Barnett, Media Bureau 15:57:07 ...I can't help wonder if we are reaching for the stars 15:57:15 ...following blogging for some time 15:57:20 ...are we asking the right questions 15:57:28 ...what do we need to get standardized 15:57:38 ...will that ever happen; that we get things standardized? 15:57:48 ...the debate on blogging and micro blogging 15:57:52 ...is good use case 15:58:00 ...of directions social networking can take 15:58:06 ...as a futurist and technologist, 15:58:11 ...this could take place at any time 15:58:19 ...and of course things get out of date 15:58:48 [Speaker] Wonder what other int'l orgs W3C is laising with 15:58:59 Jose: we have liaisons with a number of groups 15:59:14 ...Daniel Dardailler attends these high-level policy meetings 15:59:34 ...what we are looking to do is bridge conversations between policy and technical peop;le 15:59:36 s/people 15:59:44 Diane: "where's the beef? 15:59:55 ...I love the commentary, the tweets, etc. 16:00:00 ...but I want the data 16:00:08 ...we are not seeing the ability to drill down on AIG 16:00:14 ...what happened, then share the information 16:00:18 ...blogs are infomrative 16:00:32 ...but I don't have the grounding in the source data for the comments 16:00:35 ...that's the missing link 16:00:39 ...that's where W3C could help 16:00:47 ...connect the discussion to the source data 16:00:56 ...and connect to data.gov 16:01:03 ...with my blog 16:01:16 ...how do I get their source data, the goals and how to measure 16:01:28 ...how to facilitate connection to source data 16:01:45 [] Playing off Rick's idea of "cool meme" 16:01:51 ...so a hash tag 16:01:58 ...what people Google 16:02:06 ...bridge common parlance and common sources 16:02:10 Owen has joined #egov 16:02:14 ...memes for these terms is a useful idea 16:02:14 -??P6 16:02:15 s/[]/John Wonderlich 16:02:27 DanielB: another provocation 16:02:36 ...what should a person know before they open their mouth 16:02:49 ...people may offer opinions but don't know source material 16:02:55 ...or they don't know how gov't works 16:02:56 s/[Speaker]/John Wonderlich 16:03:09 ...one of things Congress reps send out is how a bill becomes law 16:04:10 OAmbur has joined #egov 16:04:14 Laura Lee: on issue of social media 16:04:21 ...being able to ask others where information is 16:04:38 ...you still need someone who is listening and pointing people to where the data is 16:04:46 ...you cannot know where all the data is 16:05:30 John: so there is a view that gov't's role is just to push the data out 16:05:35 ...what do people think? 16:05:56 ...or should W3C focus on other things? 16:06:12 Since Jose referenced Ushahidi.com, I inferred their mission and goal from their Web site and posted it in StratML format at http://xml.gov/stratml/index.htm#Other 16:06:14 JohnW: Refering to Princeton paper 16:06:31 ...significant concerns about what is primary responsibility 16:06:46 ...primary agency's responsibility is to fulfill their mission 16:06:52 ...and providing data is part of it 16:07:00 Ken: the lines need to be more clearly drawn 16:07:03 ...transparency for trust 16:07:09 ...what are the measures for success 16:07:11 ...that's my view 16:07:24 ...it should be goal versus philosophy driven 16:07:36 DanielB: I htink there is some confusion about the word transparency 16:07:43 ...ther is this idea that you have to be open 16:07:54 ...role of gov't is part of a social contract 16:08:01 ...gov't data in US 16:08:06 Princeton paper: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1138083 16:08:18 ...for a couple hundred years, various agencies put out census info 16:08:22 +??P13 16:08:24 ...weather data, nothing about how gov't works 16:08:39 ...a mirror isn't transparent 16:08:53 ...a big role of gov't is to provide a mirror and part of its social contract 16:09:03 ...not always to deal with how things get done 16:09:11 ...other more fundamental role, being that mirror 16:09:17 ...collect and redistribute that data 16:09:26 ...to help promote commerce, health 16:09:32 ...the word transparency doesn't get at that 16:09:44 Brand: At EPA some interesting developments 16:10:02 ...we have been asked to link what we as employees do to further our strategic goals 16:10:23 ...I asked whether gov't employees should have a wiki or blog to publish what I do for my agency 16:10:30 ...and how those goals relate to gov't goals 16:10:40 ...that becomes a resource; explain what I do 16:10:50 ...I made same suggestion to the USGF 16:10:57 ...retirees want to continue to help 16:11:05 ...social networking would be good way to do this 16:11:36 ...capture what they do, inform public, show value to public and taxpayer 16:11:42 John: That's a provocation! 16:11:51 Ken: So at what point is that a burden on the employee 16:12:00 ...where is the balance between productivity and use of social media 16:12:24 Brand: we are strongly encouraged to keep a record of our goals and accomplishments in electronic form 16:13:02 Owen Ambur: Employees are expected to have an annual performance plan 16:13:09 ...tied to agency's goals and strategic plan 16:13:19 ...so do more of what we are required to do anyway 16:13:47 JohnW: So a good question, but being silly, it sounds like question of "how much should people talk at work" 16:13:58 ...have to choose what is proper and productive 16:14:10 ...sometimes it feels like we address new things over again 16:14:29 Martha Chaconas, Department of State 16:14:33 ...what does "citizen" mean? 16:14:46 ...country citizen of govt; citizen of world 16:15:05 ...if social aspect is open to the world, how do you ensure that the change is good for gov't putting it out 16:15:18 ...how do you know the comments are from the citizen of that gov't 16:15:25 DanielB: members of Congress can ignore comments 16:15:39 ...but rule tends to be they listen entirely to people in their jurisdiction 16:15:48 ...unless those people represent a larger group 16:16:01 ...Federal agencies have to put things out for public comment 16:16:09 ...I have not heard about restrictions 16:16:16 ...one, what are the rules; two, what about noise 16:16:40 ...for open gov't keep the doors wider 16:16:50 ...and worry less about jurisdictional issues 16:17:04 ...so the quote was what....you can have openness or you can have gov't 16:17:31 John: Is there stuff that gov't should not be doing at all? 16:17:46 Ben: yes, not release bad data, evaluate what should go out 16:17:58 ...think about what Congress person will point to 16:18:10 ...as with any IT project, you are as good as your data 16:18:25 Josema: We are in provocation phase 16:18:34 ...but are we in agreement that we think use of social media is good? 16:18:57 ...I personally would not like to see gov't employees putting things into walled gardens 16:19:19 ...in several countries, there are discussions about how these networks should be used by gov't employees 16:19:29 ...should gov't create its own social network 16:19:45 ...there is an EU use case about creating something that only a few people use 16:19:55 Diane: the failure of EU social network 16:20:02 ...plenty of people who can create apps 16:20:10 ...but we need an open platform to access it 16:20:18 ...easy to follow instructions about how to get the data 16:20:24 ...appetite to build them is out there 16:20:32 ...but need to build cost efficient applications 16:20:43 ...hard to create clean applications 16:21:03 ...so it's the gov'ts' job to create those platforms 16:21:21 Josema: so the gov't has power to help push the social media companies to do the right things 16:21:23 need overall common XML structures so data can interoperate? 16:21:30 ...gov't has the content 16:21:50 ...social networks need to clarify how they treat data 16:22:01 ...otherwise if we replicate everywhere, we will waste money 16:22:25 John: show of hands for gov't pushing private sector providers to push 16:22:34 Alex Koudry, GSA 16:22:42 ...we have section 508 to apply to gov't technology 16:22:48 ...for people with diabilities 16:23:06 ...we have procurement laws that say we cannot buy platforms that are not accessible 16:23:11 ...although it has not panned out 16:23:17 Brand: I was in a Web 2.0 meeting 16:23:25 ...a new social networking work group 16:23:39 ...said they have entered into some agreements with Google and YouTube 16:23:53 JohnW: I don't think gov't should regulate how people make Web sites 16:24:02 ...but there is a different pressure 16:24:12 ...if you want us to use it, then you need to follow these guidelines 16:24:17 ...pressure on use of service 16:24:25 ...other pressure is what is happening on FaceBook 16:24:29 ...about privacy 16:24:48 not one us federal department website conforms to validator.w3.org 16:24:48 DanielB: you have brought up an extraordinary thing that makes a good point 16:24:54 ...terms of service is a contract 16:25:03 ...gov't enters into contrats with care 16:25:14 ...you are agreeing to terms of service 16:25:25 ...one of problems with Web 2.0 is speed 16:25:29 ...moving so fast 16:25:33 ...how do we hit this target 16:25:40 ...what we can think about is to publish locally 16:25:45 ...and syndicate broadly 16:25:56 ...if you publish on your own site in a public way and you archive it 16:26:00 ...then that is what you should do 16:26:11 ...so then it's not tied up under terms of service 16:26:22 ...but by publishing it locally, you declare there is no copyright 16:26:27 ...it adds extra work for gov't 16:26:34 ...but it covers itself in terms of section 508 16:27:20 Ben: not sure how it works for a Congress person 16:27:29 ...advocate 3.0 session 16:27:38 ...the virtual room of people going to places like Congressional office 16:27:43 ...where content is distributed 16:27:58 ...so whether video, or document, you go to that person's space 16:28:15 ...I cannot see how gov't can post on all these for profit networks 16:28:29 Joab Jackson: the flip side 16:28:34 Government Computer News 16:28:39 ...is economic stimulus 16:28:53 ...leave to private sector on how to present data 16:29:02 ...considerations in terms of using gov't data 16:29:10 ...let private sector figure best way to customize it 16:29:18 Diane: I would like to add onto that 16:29:33 ...two issues are data quality and presentation layer 16:29:42 ...YouTube is visual layer on top of data 16:29:49 ...remains to be seen how people want to consume data 16:30:01 ...I think there is more power in the network to build those visualizations 16:30:08 ...so get high quality data that is accessible 16:30:14 ...and that will engage people 16:30:25 ...gov't should not dictate how to visualize that data 16:30:29 John: SO wrap up a bit 16:30:34 ...we moved into open gov't data 16:30:43 Jason Baron, Nat'l Archives 16:30:56 ...in the past 3.5 hours, there are more than 3 million emails 16:31:07 ...within gov't agencies, none of which will be transparent 16:31:15 ...As eGov SIG, part of W3C 16:31:18 ...I am interested 16:31:25 ...that we take into account the scaffolding of laws 16:31:31 ...an obstacle is the perception 16:31:37 ...that agencies cannot control the information flow 16:31:51 ...if there are technical means to capture the record information, that will help 16:31:55 ...it will help foster a range 16:31:59 ...my larger point 16:32:08 ...is that foundationally is that there is tremendous disconnect 16:32:13 ...between the good thoughts in this room 16:32:20 ...and the reality on the ground 16:32:33 ...some public servants have no idea what a wiki is 16:32:43 ...we need education and training 16:32:51 ...think about electronic preservation 16:33:03 ...the official record keeping practice in Federal Gov't is hard copy 16:33:12 ...until this changes, it will be difficult to move to the Web 16:33:21 ...a lot of the important data that the gov't possess 16:33:24 John: good point 16:33:33 ...we talked about participation and engagement challenges 16:33:41 ...how they are relevant for toosl 16:33:43 s/tools 16:33:54 ...whether gov't should influence tools from private sector 16:34:01 ...implications of gov't using tools 16:34:11 ...and wandered into open gov't data which is focus after lunch 16:34:14 See you at 2:00pm 16:37:03 -??P13 17:30:42 ari has joined #egov 17:36:46 heatherwest has joined #egov 18:09:48 markthomas has joined #egov 18:10:10 Karen has joined #egov 18:10:33 Jose gives summary of morning session and issues that came forward 18:11:01 encourages everyone to continue to bring issues and challenges forward 18:11:43 Jose: John Sheridan to give a short presentation 18:12:55 John: starting with a quote I love 18:13:25 ...POI task force 18:13:33 ...has identified six issues: 18:13:38 ...Discovery: can I find data 18:13:44 ...Legal...am I allowed to use data 18:13:53 ...Technical: is data in right format 18:14:01 ...Commercial: can I afford to buy data I need 18:14:10 Intelligibility can I interpret 18:14:19 Dependancies: what else does it depend upon 18:14:36 ...Traditional approach to Websites; data layer 18:14:42 ...that you cannot get at 18:14:49 ...analysis layer that you can't get at 18:14:54 ...and a presentation layer 18:15:00 ...maybe valide HTML if you are lucky 18:15:08 ...problem is that the data is all at the bottom 18:15:14 ...you only get the presentation 18:15:26 ...the Power of Information Architecture group 18:15:34 ...looks at new layers 18:17:57 ...why scrape when you can parse 18:18:24 ...we have been active participants in contributing to linked data databases 18:18:41 ...Semantic Web is about an intuitive Web that is a Web of documents 18:18:54 ...and the Web of data 18:19:11 ...RDFa 18:19:26 ...is about links with flavour 18:19:42 ...connects information and points to description of that information 18:19:55 ...similar initiative is microformats 18:20:08 ...some challenges using microformats with government 18:20:33 ...motive to introduce people to both microformats and RDFa 18:20:52 ...Currently working on an initiative called DirectGov 18:21:01 ...think about RDFa as microformats for government 18:21:04 ...a standard for data 18:21:25 josema has joined #egov 18:21:33 ...provides way to surface info and adapt Web site to be an API and serve the data 18:21:41 ...RDFa is a W3C standard 18:21:42 rrsagent, pointer? 18:21:42 See http://www.w3.org/2009/03/12-egov-irc#T18-21-42 18:21:48 rrsagent, draf minutes 18:21:48 I'm logging. I don't understand 'draf minutes', josema. Try /msg RRSAgent help 18:21:53 rrsagent, draft minutes 18:21:53 I have made the request to generate http://www.w3.org/2009/03/12-egov-minutes.html josema 18:21:53 ...so it doesn't have issue around accessibility 18:21:59 ...it's a technology we can evolve 18:22:03 ...and tweak existing sites 18:22:13 ...so we don't have to build lots of separate APIs 18:22:22 ...Some examples how UK gov't is using RDFa 18:22:27 ...first is public sector jobs 18:22:43 ...gov't posts its job vacacancies on its own sites 18:23:02 ...so if you are an electrician, how do you know whose site to review 18:23:11 ...need to search by skill set 18:23:22 ...so we want every dept. to publish job information 18:23:46 ...and make the data able to be consumed 18:24:21 ...the real benefit of this approach 18:24:43 ...is we can aggregate data on the Web without building new systems underneath 18:24:50 ...another example is consultations 18:25:08 ...no place to find all the department consultations 18:25:17 ...we are using RDFa as a way of marketing up 18:25:29 s/marking 18:25:54 ...we want data in one place, yet we have a distributed data model 18:26:12 ...want to have benefits of data aggregation but low costs 18:26:25 ...this is a much lighter weight approach 18:26:36 ...use existing Web sites and not re-engineer 18:26:45 ...use services like Yahoo's Search Monkey 18:26:49 ...it looks up RDFa 18:27:03 ...lets you pick up results, for example, a job 18:27:17 ...Another example 18:27:27 ...how to add to the available data sources 18:27:49 ...very easy to do in an open source content management system 18:28:09 ...What got us down this road was a project with The London Gazette 18:28:14 ...has been published since 1665 18:28:22 +??P1 18:28:27 ...King Charles II took his Court to Oxford and started this newspaper 18:28:32 ...we have kept it going 18:28:39 ...it is published every day 18:28:44 ...here is the print version 18:28:58 ...it has things like traffic notices, planning notices, move parking places on a street 18:29:13 ...notices around water, like factories 18:29:20 ...licensing of medicines 18:29:31 ...insolvencies for businesses or individuals 18:29:35 ...awards, honors 18:29:49 ...premium bonds that have not been claimed 18:30:03 ...this is published every day, and incredibly rich as a source of data 18:30:14 ...hard to read; 500 printed copies go into libraries mostly 18:30:58 John reads long notice; it's about someone taking away a parking place 18:31:07 ...So what can we do to unlock this information? 18:31:10 ...using RDFa 18:31:29 ...notice of a company going into insolvency 18:31:44 ...now we publish the same info in RDFa, semantically enabled 18:31:57 ...so we put data in same context as the notice 18:32:02 ...embed extra metadata 18:32:09 ...so any RDFa parser can pull out the results 18:32:17 ...or you can get data in RDF XML 18:32:34 ...We are adding attributes inside the XHTML 18:32:41 ...to make statements about what is in the notice 18:33:18 ...add these attributes in the HTML mark-up 18:33:31 ...What it means that you can move from a notice to a map 18:33:45 ...so you can see where the parking place is being moved on a map 18:34:07 ...Benefits of RDFa: Flexibility in how info is prsented 18:34:15 ...while ensuring consistency of content 18:34:25 ...improves finding the location of relevant data 18:35:05 ...Back to some of challenges: helps us with discovery, legal, technical, intelligibility, and dependencies 18:35:46 Questions: 18:35:51 Diane Mueller, XBRL 18:35:59 London Gazette is great example 18:36:07 ...where is the ontology being built? 18:36:15 JohnS: We built about 20 ontologies 18:36:19 ...mostly light weight 18:36:23 ...to get to this point 18:36:31 ...We had to build some general ontology about notices 18:36:58 ...our approach was to build only where we had to 18:37:41 ...also built an ontology where we didn't have the best domain expertise 18:37:52 ...would encourage domain groups to do this 18:37:59 ...but we are careful to use a proxy term 18:38:12 ...because we cannot wait for everyone to do this work 18:38:22 ...ontology, content management, to implementation 18:38:37 ...was about 100,000 pounds sterling 18:38:56 ...It was hard to get the funding 18:39:14 Brand: for The London Gazette application? 18:39:28 ...is there a way to determine cost benefits? 18:39:31 ...the business case 18:39:39 ...did you have to make one? 18:39:42 ...is there an ROI? 18:40:03 JohnS: it helps that part of gov't does this, also has the policy responsibility 18:40:15 ...wanted to find low-cost tactics to make data re-usable 18:40:19 ...so a pilot test case 18:40:36 ...another aspect, is people have to place a small fee to place a notice 18:40:56 ...inelastic demand; you have to place a notice 18:41:08 ...but use of data should be reused and is free 18:41:19 ...paper based product serves no purpose 18:41:32 ...but as a Semantic Web enabled product, it has data that could be useful 18:41:41 ...so that basically is the business case 18:42:15 zakim, who's here? 18:42:15 On the phone I see AIA, ??P1 18:42:17 Brand: is there a broader strategy to move from print to electronic delivery? 18:42:17 On IRC I see josema, Karen, markthomas, heatherwest, OAmbur, joec, Daniel_Bennett, Rachel, RRSAgent, Zakim, trackbot 18:42:44 John: yes, our public policy agenda is to encourage re-use of data 18:42:56 ...needed to find ways to demonstrate 18:43:04 ...show how to unlock data 18:43:19 ...rather than go to a big supplier for an expensive solution 18:43:29 ...How do you provide access to the data and do analysis 18:43:33 ...that was the thinking 18:43:44 Brand: it would be useful to have this written up somewhere 18:44:02 ...it is part of a number of improvements you want to make 18:44:09 ...to move towards more agile electronic delivery 18:44:18 ...have you laid out that broader business case 18:44:24 q? 18:45:02 ...I'm wondering how you present this to managers 18:45:23 ...can you write that up? 18:45:42 JohnS: the real business driver is not nec. return on investment 18:45:52 ...it will be transformation of public service delivery outcomes 18:46:18 ...this is about spending some of money in a different way to release data as part of an ecosystem 18:46:25 ...that starts the public poicy drivers 18:46:33 ...so let's look at school inspection information 18:46:36 ...they have PDF files 18:46:53 ...if they published in RDFa, there could be analysis of performance 18:47:04 ...compelling business case is the public policy outcome 18:47:17 ..then it is part of a broader solution for information sharing 18:47:30 DanielB: another way to approach that 18:47:40 ...before the Web, people published things in paper 18:47:52 ...understanding of what it means to publish has been transformed by the Web 18:48:14 ...groups now say it's fundamentally different thing to publish on the Web 18:48:28 ...likewise, with Semantic Web, what it means to publish has also changes 18:48:32 s/changed 18:48:34 ...once you do that 18:48:45 ...in order to publish, it has to be both human and machine readable 18:48:55 ...it's a definitional issue of what it means to publish 18:49:19 ...new revolution is that when you publish on the Web, the data has to have Semantic information 18:49:28 ...HTML is a presenation layer 18:49:33 ...you just changed the definintion 18:49:46 ...and RDFa is best way to do it from cost perspective 18:49:51 ...my other point is that 18:49:58 ...you are showing The London Gazette 18:50:05 ...something that was human readable to start 18:50:12 ...and are adding machine processable to start 18:50:22 ...what gov't folks do is create data that is not human readable 18:50:31 ...now the question is should they make it human readable 18:50:43 ...Gazette was to make data machine processable 18:50:54 ...some folks put data out that's not human readable 18:51:11 ...for example, overlay XSL on data so it's readable by humans 18:51:18 ...so should we also embed RDFa 18:51:42 JohnS: if you do the RFF, you are a long way toward achieving what you want to do 18:51:47 ...here is another interesting example 18:51:56 ...Directgov is similar to USAgov 18:52:05 ...cost of tax for different types of vehicle 18:52:13 ...I see an API 18:52:22 ...just eed to add some attributes 18:52:35 s/eed/add 18:53:21 Daniel: So this enables data to be human readable 18:54:32 John: challenge to get people who only know the human-readable Web to understand the data Web 18:54:39 ...you could make a widget with this data 18:54:48 ...and componentize services 18:54:57 Daniel: so this is better because people can see it 18:55:26 ...this becomes your API, well-specified things 18:55:29 Ken: to restate 18:55:33 ...you reduce barrier to use 18:55:39 ...by making the core data readable 18:55:48 we definitely need a solution that allows human and machine readability in one package otherwise the data is duplicative and possibly not identical. 18:55:51 ...in the past, data standards were barriers to see data 18:55:56 ...a way to lower that barrier 18:56:06 JohnS: that seems tru 18:56:08 s/tru 18:56:14 Ken: yes a barrier 18:56:21 ...the data in its core form is a barrier to use 18:56:30 ...if I debate whether to send a URL somewhere 18:56:41 ...to glance at URL vs. an XML format is a big difference 18:56:49 ...removes an important barrier 18:57:00 ...so let'shook it up now; don't have to do this now 18:57:07 DanielB: you mentioned Bill Gates 18:57:11 ...he supported smart tags 18:57:19 ...which did a lot of what microformats did 18:57:27 ...they had built a smart tag system 18:57:44 ...and they tried to do all themselves instead of from places that create the data 18:58:04 Kevin: Ed, Chris, do you want to add to this? 18:58:26 Chris: great to see John's presentation 18:58:34 ...the ROI question is important because it comes up all the time 18:58:35 s/Chris/Ed 18:58:42 ...you are boot-strapping the process 18:59:29 Ed: like early Web, how do you make the case 18:59:42 ...governments are in a unique place because they can start to boot strap things 19:00:20 s/Ed/Ed Summers, Library of Congress 19:00:40 JohnS: there was a level of risk for starting to operationalize RDFa 19:00:45 ...before it was a W3C recommendation 19:00:51 ...we saw the importance of its potential 19:00:58 ...and our need to solve the core problem was so great 19:01:02 ...we had to get going 19:01:09 ...now, using RDFa, it's more comfortable 19:01:21 ...there are other imlementations and it's now a W3C standard 19:01:35 ...this is a compelling message to help people introduce this thinking and technology 19:01:35 + +1.410.992.aagg 19:01:43 Brand: I don't want to belabor ROI point 19:02:02 ...in real world, I'll take your word for it this time for a certain level of investment 19:02:19 ...or you get "no", this is one of many ideas.. 19:02:26 ...next, is there a way to do for free 19:02:36 ...or, I'll trust you now 19:02:44 ...in future, where will money come from? 19:02:55 ...in US, print publications are going out of business 19:03:13 ...but some are going online and recreating as community building information 19:03:23 ...we will actively seek to engage community 19:03:35 ...but I think you need to have the business case ROI 19:03:40 ...otherwise it's just a technology 19:03:48 ...need some guidance and experience for stuff 19:04:09 JohnS: I want to help spend x amount and you will get better schools 19:04:18 ...make the public policy argument for open data 19:04:25 ...that's the case being made in the UK... 19:04:34 ...make your school inspection data open 19:04:45 ..and see how they are performing 19:04:48 -??P1 19:04:59 ...that's the connection to take these things back to the outcome the gov't is trying to achieve 19:05:08 DianeM: add a variation on business case 19:05:15 ...I come from a different perspective 19:05:21 ...public entities filing with gov't regulators 19:05:26 ...one to lessen burden on filers 19:05:33 ...not so onerous to make those filings 19:05:36 ...only file once 19:05:39 ...other one we hear 19:05:46 ...is if you look at 401K prospectus 19:05:53 ...very difficult for consumers to get through 19:06:02 ...have the semantic information to pop up what is an asset 19:06:08 ...how to understand this document 19:06:17 ...make the documents more understandable 19:06:22 ...where sematic knowledge comes into play 19:06:32 ...in The Netherlands they claim to be saving millions 19:06:41 ...no longer cross-process in silos 19:06:44 ...So file once 19:06:52 ...instead of multiple times across organizations 19:06:53 Owen has joined #egov 19:07:06 Kevin: relating back to issues paper 19:07:14 ...do we need more specific business cases? 19:07:15 +[IPcaller] 19:07:23 Diane: you have to give gov't organizations the business cases 19:07:25 ...they need help 19:07:28 -AIA 19:07:29 ...we found that in the XBRL world 19:07:34 - +1.410.992.aagg 19:07:36 ...need to explain the use cases as well 19:07:47 ...and the gov't organizations here can help us with the use cases 19:07:51 + +1.410.992.aahh 19:07:54 ...but you have to build the argument 19:08:03 Ken: Seems you have to show a number of quick wins 19:08:10 ...small wins as an end use 19:08:18 room will re-dial in a minute (some sound issues) 19:08:19 ...and have developers create those early on 19:08:24 ...small ROI early on 19:08:29 - +1.410.992.aahh 19:08:40 DMurphy, BLS 19:08:54 + +1.410.992.aaii 19:08:57 ...now we have 4 million people hitting site per month 19:09:02 +AIA 19:09:04 -[IPcaller] 19:09:07 ...more people can access the data 19:09:11 there we go 19:09:17 ...if you made a small incremental cost to add this functionality 19:09:27 ...now you enable banks, other gov't agencies to more cheaply digest the data 19:09:35 ...so for us, it may not lower the BLS costs 19:09:42 ...these are software developmet costs 19:09:48 +??P1 19:09:51 ...but it brings more value to citizens and other gov't agencies 19:10:33 Rick Murphy, GSA: economic metrics and studies 19:10:48 ...sounds like part of an ROI and business case in a large scale 19:10:55 ...may be possible to measure the benefit to society 19:11:05 ...without presuming that it's with a narrowly defined financial measure 19:11:18 Daniel: yes, the public good is a good measure 19:11:26 ...rather than narrow ROI case 19:11:32 ...it costs less to not publish 19:11:40 ...but to publish in a standard way is less expensive 19:11:45 ...save society money 19:11:50 ...this is a good government issue 19:11:52 ...a case to be made 19:12:00 ...just like a paperwork reduction act 19:12:15 ...we should have laws that say, put stuff on Web, and make human and machine readable 19:12:47 ...I don't think you want to do an ROI argument to make things machine and human readable 19:13:22 George Thomas: JohnS seems comfortable with public good argument 19:13:40 Owen Amber: ROI applied to rapidly changing technology 19:13:54 ...investment is on behalf of the people of the USA, not just a single agency 19:14:02 zakim, who's here? 19:14:02 On the phone I see +1.410.992.aaii, AIA, ??P1 19:14:03 On IRC I see Owen, josema, Karen, markthomas, heatherwest, joec, Daniel_Bennett, Rachel, RRSAgent, Zakim, trackbot 19:14:12 JoeC: In WWII there were methods of operating 19:14:16 zakim, ??P1 is probably Owen 19:14:16 +Owen?; got it 19:14:20 ...data create a return on investment 19:14:29 zakim, aaii is probably Joe 19:14:29 +Joe?; got it 19:14:32 ...interoperability among agencies will create an ROI 19:14:38 ...but we don't know exactly what it will be yet 19:14:49 Chris Testa: yes, picking up on George's comment 19:14:51 q? 19:14:52 ...return on impact 19:14:59 ...how do you measure the impact on issues you care about 19:15:06 Ken: Something called Buzz 19:15:17 ...what I'm thinking of is creating interest and enthusiasm 19:15:28 For rapidly changing technology, ROI is not the most appropriate metric. Pay-back period is. How long does it take to get back the cost -- bearing in mind the investment is being made by We the People, not just the agency in question. 19:15:34 ...if you have this, in the early stages you may not need the ROI... 19:15:46 ...depends upon other communities to engage in these areas 19:15:55 Kevin: I think at some levels, it becomes a policy issue 19:16:06 ...sometimes it depends upon who you are talking to 19:16:14 ...there was some buzz 19:16:20 ...after they spent a few million dollars 19:16:32 ...the performance people starting asking questions 19:16:44 ...agree we need to show use cases with some potential metrics 19:16:50 ...that also equates to the public good 19:17:04 Ken: the amount of public good created also linked to their enthusiasm 19:17:14 ...create that buzz and excitement so that you will get adoption 19:17:38 Kevin: so also watch the buzz factor 19:18:01 Brand: so taxpayer says we'll give you money to create public good for IT 19:18:06 ...most goes into IT systems 19:18:14 ...but those systems are not designed to use RDF 19:18:20 ...much less money goes into mark-up of content 19:18:26 ...so what we have to do is change that process 19:18:35 ...from now on, IT systems will be marked up in this way 19:18:50 ...and start to apply it to all the organizations and to other countries 19:19:01 ...today, we have redoing and retrofitting challenges 19:19:07 ...we need to change process and get ahead of this 19:19:18 ...so new information automatically gets this capability 19:19:27 ...Interesting side of this I have dealt with 19:19:31 ...at Library of Congress 19:19:43 ...metadata standards of 20 years ago no longer case now 19:20:00 ...there is some challenge 19:20:22 Ed: importance of small wins is key 19:20:32 ...any attempt to change the entire IT industry is doomed to fail 19:20:39 ...you cannot effect change at that scale 19:20:43 ...what John talked about 19:21:02 ...is that he didn't have to re-engineer a database 19:21:09 ...he just layered it 19:21:21 ...I think it's wrong to cast what saw presented in that light 19:21:30 Diane: in terms of publishing RDF tags 19:21:36 ...or XBRL tags 19:21:51 ...people like SAP are adding in the ability to publish XBRL 19:21:58 ...not that you have to individually wrap content 19:22:03 ...it is becoming part of it 19:22:14 ...there are methodologies that make it part of the publishing process 19:22:21 ...so build the ontology for the domain 19:22:28 ...it's part of the process and workflow 19:22:36 Ed: yes, thanks for clarification 19:22:41 Daniel: changing subject 19:22:47 ...XHTML, if valid 19:22:53 ...you can XSLT it into something else 19:23:00 ...and you can put in metadata that overlaps 19:23:08 ...so you can use more than one set of ontologies 19:23:30 ...doing more than one standard is great 19:23:36 ...I looked at name spaces for the ontologies 19:23:42 ...are there schemas for the ontologies? 19:23:46 ...So I know what is valid? 19:24:02 ...within each one of those things, can I find out what is legitimate 19:24:27 JohnS: The RDFa was added to a publishing process with XML 19:24:34 ...we have not added anything additional 19:24:41 ...some of info is submitted through Webforms 19:24:51 ...quality of data still where it was at 19:25:00 ...no schemas for ontology, but schemas for the data 19:25:24 George: could you reiterate those 20 ontologies you spoke about 19:25:30 ...I wonder if XML folks understand 19:25:40 ...you may want to reiterate that 19:25:50 JohnS: we had a number of problems to solve 19:26:02 ...the XML captured info about the notice 19:26:07 ...mostly typographical 19:26:10 ...when we moved to RDF 19:26:19 ...we wanted to say thigns about what the notice was about 19:26:28 ...that was a big difference in terms of what was being modeled 19:26:32 ...you can see this yourself 19:26:37 ...there are some generic ontologies 19:26:46 ...some are specific to things, processes 19:26:50 .. 19:28:14 scribe:josema 19:28:37 [more summarized now, due to scribe skills and participation in the session] 19:29:48 [there's underlying data in some cases, but releasing that data is till being moved to the publication workflow] 19:30:06 s/till/still 19:32:54 [some stuff, e.g. microformats don't have an XML Schema behind] 19:33:54 [XML vs. RDF and open world assumption] 19:36:15 Daniel: all government Web sites should be accessible, but more importantly don't lie about it 19:36:55 [conformance vs. declaration of conformance] 19:40:44 [short break] 20:00:01 http://www.xmldatasets.net/XRS/joinb.xml 20:00:09 [back from break] 20:05:55 [joe goes through the example] 20:06:02 topic: Interoperability 20:13:23 +rachel 20:19:00 +1 20:21:51 [Diane on the need of having a common taxonomy across government to do this sort of transformation more automatically] 20:28:16 Diane: how do you get domain knowledge from the spread sheets? 20:28:29 Brand: We put spread sheets into natural groupings into domain 20:28:35 ...set aside into data dictionary 20:28:51 ...so for exmaple, transportation and then sub-topics 20:28:55 Design Pattern for publishing gov. data whihc is held as spreadsheets. Use the spreadsheet natively and expose the data as RDF 20:28:57 ...I put those in together 20:29:31 ...Tool we have uses whatever data dictionary information you put in, or it will crank out ontology as best it can 20:29:37 ...then you can work interactively 20:29:39 tool uses a data dictionary, to build ontology, or will build ontology as best it can. 20:29:47 ...but there is no substitute for domain expertise 20:30:00 scribe: Karen 20:30:15 s/whihc/which 20:30:39 JohnS: I really like what you just described as a process for government data in spreadsheets 20:30:49 ...we can hold data natively, expose it as RDF 20:31:22 Brand: Brian Donnelley with Semantic Discovery has done this in the UK 20:31:34 ...we are going to present this at the Semantic Technology conference in June in San Jose 20:31:44 ...the other group is Lee Feigenbaum from Cambridge Semantics 20:32:06 ...this came out of a W3C Workshop Tim Berners-Lee invited us to on RDB to RDF data 20:32:21 ...and I emphasized challenges around spreadsheets 20:32:37 [?] Where is the Web Site? 20:32:52 Brand: SemanticAmunity.net and follow demos 20:33:00 ...to Cambridge Semantics and Semantic Discovery 20:33:05 ...or send me email to dialogue 20:33:12 Daniel: I will take a look at this 20:33:22 ...I would like to think of Excel spreadsheets as a tool of the past 20:33:33 ...they don't deal with complex objects the way XML does 20:33:39 ...would be interesting to see the mapping 20:33:50 ...RDF seems to love columnar data; but I need to look at this more 20:33:55 s/[]/Joe 20:33:55 examples Brand referred to: http://www.cambridgesemantics.com/semanticexchange/ 20:34:04 ...the part of standardization is important 20:34:11 ...look at US code title section 20:34:15 ...those are two different things 20:34:20 ...one is a number, one is numbers and letters 20:34:30 ...so you can build and XML schema for those two pieces 20:34:35 ...and build a schema for public law 20:34:41 ...and have name space for US code 20:34:47 ...and same things for legislations 20:34:55 ...separate Congress bill type, legislation 20:35:02 ...that would allow you to build tables 20:35:06 ...so then you can build the links 20:35:11 ...once you build table to the join 20:35:24 ...have each column have links to various repositories to sources of information 20:35:31 ...so looks like a data dump 20:35:42 ...but it gets you to place to find a way to ifnd info in various repositories 20:35:54 ...link US code, stored by Law Revision Council at Cornell 20:35:58 ...and create link to each one of those 20:36:05 ...to bill where it's housed at GPO and Thomas 20:36:18 ..so by putting these numbers in these columns, you enable interoperability 20:36:28 ...another aspect that is not clear from this example 20:36:33 ...because it's stored in this way 20:36:39 ,,,someone else could create a widget 20:36:46 ...and link to any place on the Web 20:36:50 ...so this is a way to pivot 20:36:57 ...about info about bill before it was law 20:37:05 ...and another person talking about it as it appears in the US code 20:37:11 ...so this could allow for interoperability 20:37:25 Chris: so you are really talking about facilitating data discovering and integration 20:37:37 ....when data gets transferred, there is a reasonability piece 20:37:46 ...various operations at the end point before it gets to Thomas 20:37:54 ...but also want to see that ladder type of interoperability 20:38:01 ...so business process is also a key challenge 20:38:12 ...how do we support executives in the agencies to move in that direction? 20:38:20 Daniel: interoperability supports this 20:38:26 ...when you hop to value-add folks 20:38:33 ...to newspaper articles, for example 20:38:37 ...this provides interoperabilty 20:38:43 ...to take the designations 20:38:47 ...and atomize 20:38:59 ...you are talking about an important but separate process of interoperability 20:39:03 ...you need them both, yes 20:39:20 Joe: Chris, I think that these tables and what gov't has done 20:39:33 ...these paper tables have been used to interoperate data in books 20:39:41 ...and we go back and forth between these two tables 20:39:54 ...so the question for gov't is to understand the new medium 20:40:00 ...called the Internet 20:40:07 ...we know this data is other guy's data 20:40:15 ...we have only put it up for human readability 20:40:22 ...that's the bottom line on the interoperability issue 20:40:24 ...Another issue 20:40:31 ...look at XML version of spread sheets 20:40:45 ...wonder why you chose that; store pure XSL formats on Internet 20:40:52 ...your idea of using Excel is an excellent one 20:40:57 Kevin: He left for day 20:41:13 Diane: I have been living in Excel spreadsheet "hell" for many years 20:41:27 ...the new formats available and new Web 2.0 formats will help break that grip 20:41:35 ...there are tools to do this 20:41:45 ...embed and transform data in and out of Excel 20:41:55 ...the Excel spreadsheet use throughout the gov't is a barrier 20:42:04 ...trying to move them into new formats is a difficult task 20:42:14 ...what John has done, to extract metadata and reuse that 20:42:29 ...this is where we will see that shift from rows and columns to hyper cubes and rich visualizations 20:42:43 ...as we see these apps develop, we may break the Excel stranglehold 20:42:53 Joe: we have not done enough of that 20:42:59 ...they are so busy 20:43:15 ...if they could just convert the data to something that is interoperable across agencies, they would do it 20:43:22 ...we are loading them down with many ways to do this 20:43:30 ...I would hope W3C IG would say, do it this way 20:43:41 ...a lot of Excel data out there; we should try to make it interoperable 20:43:55 Daniel: Microsoft's new version is XML 20:44:06 Joe: these Excel files can be saved as XML 20:44:13 ...nothing is perfect 20:44:19 Diane: it's all about how you publish it 20:44:24 ...we can work with software vendors 20:44:33 ...to publish to XML or enhanced 20:44:48 ...get the data out and make it accessable; round trip it and make it useful 20:44:53 ...right now it's in lock down mode 20:44:57 Daniel: smart tags 20:45:12 ...MS made a huge mistake trying to do it themselves, but the idea was ahead of its time 20:45:17 ...they didn't look at other standards 20:45:27 ...but idea of embedding microformats in the data was smart 20:45:37 ...and they had put it into XHTML smart tags as a name space 20:45:46 ...and IE could act on it, much like the widgets you talked about 20:45:53 ...there was such an uproar that they took it out 20:46:00 ...we sometimes fight the same battles over and over 20:46:05 ...some people are ahead of the game 20:46:21 Ed: Technorati started microformats, a guy who worked on IE 20:46:39 Diane: So we're at end of day, where do go from here? 20:46:50 ...we are in violent agreement about some of the issues around interoperability 20:47:01 ...get the data out there to do comparisons across entities 20:47:06 ...do the joins that Joe has shown us 20:47:13 ...use existing ontologies in the gov't to do that 20:47:20 ...how do we percolate this information 20:47:27 ...and make this something that the W3C pushes forward 20:47:45 JohnS: conversation I was having offline 20:47:55 ...thinking about we can do as a group to promote some of these things 20:47:59 ...there are design camps 20:48:06 ...if you are in these similar situations 20:48:10 ...from a gov't perspective 20:48:20 ...so if you have a beefy Excel spread sheet to serve up 20:48:28 ...or you have XHTML tables to serve up as data 20:48:33 ...that we can start to work with 20:48:48 ...if you are this place, then we will find someone who has attacked this problem 20:48:56 ...we probably have three or four of those identified 20:49:06 ...if they are resonating from UK and US perspective 20:49:15 ...I'll take it as indemic 20:49:19 ...design patterns 20:49:33 ...possible use cases; a useful activity to explore as a W3C group 20:49:42 Diane: one more comment on those Excel spreadsheets 20:49:46 ...from audit perspective 20:49:50 ...I come from that domain 20:49:54 joe: agree with john 20:50:04 ...what we want to do is to get to the granular detail in those spread sheets 20:50:10 ...imagine in Recovery.gov 20:50:15 ...data that goes out to recipient 20:50:19 ...and how they spent the money 20:50:28 ...having aggregated spread sheets is great first step 20:50:38 ...but also to build use cases for the depth of the data 20:50:42 ...so we have auditability 20:50:48 ...we need the granular data as well 20:50:53 ...that's where the sunlight doesn't shine 20:51:08 Daniel: someone whispered that there were some amazing schemas for UK legislation 20:51:22 ...they actually have a lot more than what shows up in the ontologies 20:51:27 ...I am looking at the actual words used 20:51:42 ...it would not be that difficult to use these schemas to validate what shows up in the Gazette 20:51:47 ...I'm just pointing it out 20:51:54 JohnS: I am responsible for these as well 20:52:25 Daniel: you were hiding them! 20:52:33 ...you have an amazing tool in these schemas 20:52:42 ...I have a feeling that people are moving from tabular to triples 20:52:48 ...that misses out on a rich world 20:52:54 ...not sure it's a bypass that provides more tools 20:53:02 ...perhaps world is a hybrid 20:53:06 ...and what gets left behind 20:53:21 ...use objects and schemas and RDF ontologies to do triple stuff 20:53:34 ...what Joe is showing gets to a type of interoperability that does not happen through ontologies 20:53:42 ...things like title, section, does not have meaning 20:53:49 ...two pieces come together as a way to find something 20:54:01 ...a missing piece is the URLs which provide a lot of interoperability 20:54:09 ...those two pieces of data for US code and public laaw 20:54:19 ...allow you to create URLs, which are important for interoperability 20:54:27 ...some people automatically do smart things 20:54:35 ...in UK Gazette, the URLs are well designed 20:54:44 ...but no one is talking about why that's important 20:55:03 ...everyone understands you are supposed to have good URLs, but don't understand why it's important to interoperability 20:55:09 ...I can show you something 20:55:21 Ed: Have you seen TBL's cool URI's doc? 20:55:26 Diane: can you post it? 20:55:45 Daniel: it's a short, sweet explanation of why URIs should be human readable 20:55:50 http://www.w3.org/Provider/Style/URI 20:55:53 ...but he is missing out on the interoperability aspect 20:56:07 that was the pointer to the Cool URIs document 20:56:14 Ed: there is a companion doc called cool URIs for the Semantic Web 20:56:21 ...using URIs to address large data spaces 20:56:29 ...It's important not to argue about data formats 20:56:43 ...but not be too dismissive of what it can and cannot do 20:56:51 * Karen has done a great job as scribe 20:56:54 ...a good outcome would be a bnch of patterns 20:57:00 ...and provide people with patterns to follow 20:57:04 ...there are so many choices 20:57:10 ->http://www.w3.org/TR/2007/WD-cooluris-20071217/ Cool URIs for the Semantic Web 20:57:19 ...I think for a group at W3C to say these are reasonble things to do and provide guidance 20:57:31 ...to get through the big landscape, that would be a major accomplishment 20:57:34 outstanding I would say :) 20:57:50 JohnS: The semantics is useful topic 20:57:57 ...in UK, break down components 20:58:07 amendable, non-amendable, and legislation ? 20:58:12 ...title number or chapter number 20:58:21 ...is a non-amendable descriptive component 20:58:27 ...most of parts you cannot change from another act 20:58:32 ...cannot change one act from another 20:58:34 s/amendable/...amendable 20:58:38 ...that's an important thing to know 20:58:46 ...most things can be changed apart from its number 20:58:50 rrsagent, draft minutes 20:58:50 I have made the request to generate http://www.w3.org/2009/03/12-egov-minutes.html josema 20:58:53 ...even if there is no meaning associated with them 20:59:01 ...a natural pull to express using semantics 20:59:07 ...I also take on board 20:59:11 ...work we have done in UK 20:59:20 ...we need to use all of the strategies we talk about in one situation or another 20:59:23 chair: kevin, john 20:59:27 ...to say one right way to do this is not going to work 20:59:36 ...in terms of making progress in context of eGov 20:59:41 ...a bunch of good stuff to do 20:59:50 ...advanced, basic; depends upon where you are at 21:00:00 ...better to start doing some good stuff now, and not do everything prefectly 21:00:04 ...some design patterns 21:00:11 ...some ideas this month you can do on your existing budget 21:00:24 ...as opposed to perfection in three years on a budget you will never have 21:00:28 ...that's what we can be doing 21:00:32 Daniel: yes, sort of true 21:00:46 ... I would add that what has not happened is thinking about future perfect 21:00:53 ...you can think of a few things 21:01:02 ...structured data is better than unstructured 21:01:09 ...more places you can invest information 21:01:14 ...way to do that is not end of road 21:01:20 ...but not force tumult of past 21:01:27 ...in converting one form of data to another 21:01:31 ...what's built into some data 21:01:34 ...not the end of the raod 21:01:36 s/road 21:01:43 ...but anticipate that things may change 21:01:53 ...good annotation, good specificity, truthful about information 21:01:58 ...will make things easier to do 21:02:03 [John shakes his head] 21:02:17 Kevin: have we beaten this to death? 21:02:22 Jose: point of ordre 21:02:36 s/order 21:02:42 Jose: let me review 21:03:04 we have not touched on all the specific issues, but on the generic issues 21:03:12 ...or we can post-pone for tomorrow 21:03:29 Joe: I am wondering if you have in mind what those categories are 21:03:38 s/we/...we 21:03:44 ...from where you are starting, like Excel or Access, or mainframe or SQL, or different scenarios 21:03:51 ...have you thought about the categories? 21:03:59 JohnS: not really 21:04:07 ...just discussing through course of today 21:04:14 ...a few things to find structure and design patterns 21:04:23 ...If you find yourself here, this is a good thing to do 21:04:30 ...and spreadsheet to RDF is a good case in point 21:04:37 ...bar codes with RDFa example 21:04:45 ...there have been at least five examples today 21:04:52 Joe: I think that's great 21:05:01 Kevin: I think we should wrap for today 21:05:08 ...and continue discussions over dinner 21:05:14 ...and come back tomorrow refreshed and refocused 21:05:23 ...talk about some solutions and approaches 21:05:29 ...and we have some other agenda items tomorrow 21:05:39 ...I'd like to sleep on that and revisit first thing in the morning 21:05:40 +1 21:05:51 rrsagent, make minutes 21:05:51 I have made the request to generate http://www.w3.org/2009/03/12-egov-minutes.html Karen 21:06:02 [ADJOURNED] 21:06:20 -rachel 21:06:30 rrsagent, make minutes 21:06:30 I have made the request to generate http://www.w3.org/2009/03/12-egov-minutes.html josema 21:07:28 -AIA 21:07:30 -Joe? 21:07:39 is there parking? 21:08:37 joe, Kevin says that's $15 right here at AIA 21:08:38 Rachel has joined #egov 21:08:49 perfect... see you tomorrow 21:30:54 rrsagent, bye 21:30:54 I see no action items