eGovernment at W3C
improving access to government through better use of the Web

In line with its anticipated focus on Open Government Data, the eGovernment Interest Group announces today a first draft of Publishing Open Government Data, which provides step-by-step guidelines for putting government data on the Web. Sharing data according to these guidelines enables greater transparency; delivers more efficient public services; and encourages greater public and commercial use and re-use of government information.

Thanks to the wonderful job of the W3C Brazil and W3C Spain Offices, the Improving Access to Government through Better Use of the Web Note is now also available in Portuguese and Spanish. Both Offices have already started to distribute hundreds of printed copies among the local eGovernment communities.

Today W3C Advisory Committee Representatives received a Proposal to revise the eGovernment Activity (see the W3C Process Document description of Activity Proposals). This proposal includes a draft charter for the eGovernment Interest Group.

As part of ensuring that the community is aware of proposed work at W3C, this draft charter is public during the Advisory Committee review period.

W3C invites public comments through 2009-09-28 on the proposed charter. Please send comments to public-new-work@w3.org, which has a public archive.

Other than comments sent in formal responses by W3C Advisory Committee Representatives, W3C cannot guarantee a response to comments. If you work for a W3C Member, please coordinate your comments with your Advisory Committee Representative. For example, you may wish to make public comments via this list and have your Advisory Committee Representative refer to it from his or her formal review comments.

If you should have any questions or need further information, please contact José M. Alonso, eGovernment Lead.

Ian Jacobs (W3C Head of Communications) had the chance last week of testifying at a New York City Council hearing on opening up data and open source software use. The handouts at the hearing had a reference to the eGov IG's Improving Access to Government through Better Use of the Web Note. Ian has blogged about his participation. Thanks, Ian!

The eGovernment Interest Group has just formed an Editorial Task Force. The mission of the Task Force is to ensure the documents published by group can be easily understood by non-technical readers, to bridge the gap between technology and policy.

Tim Berners-Lee has just released a new Design Issues paper titled Putting Government Data Online. The document, still not mature (per its status) acknowledges input from eGov IG Chairs and Members. This paper has several similarities with the sort of deliverable the IG expects to publish on Year 2. Stay tuned.

The eGov IG is discussing its new charter. There is a rough draft already available. Some of the areas of most interest so far are those around Open Government Data and how to put government data on the Web, and also how that data could be best consumed and accessed by citizens and other interested parties. The group expects to work on the draft in the coming days and deliver a final version before the end of July.

As part of its ongoing online process for public engagement in policymaking, the White House launched on May 21^st the Open Government Dialogue to collect ideas to inform the development of open government recommendations and the writing of subsequent policy and the development of open government projects.

Kevin Novak, co-Chair of the eGovernment Interest Group, submitted on behalf of the group an "idea" to the Dialogue entitled Ensuring Availability and Accessibility of Government Data and Information, where the importance and benefits of adopting Web standards is highlighted.

The group intends to monitor this and similar initiatives and provide input where necessary.