President Obama’s vision for open, transparent and accessible government is a powerful reflection of the next generation of leadership and the role of technology. Data.gov is an amazing site in that it unleashes the power of publicly useful data in genuine and meaningful ways for real citizens living real lives. Government 2.0 is more than a silly slogan, it’s about applying the core principals of human interaction with information to improve the quality of our lives. Some examples are here and here.

The data.gov site has been influenced, driven and in large part supported by a small, Seattle-based startup called Socrata, www.socrata.com. Lot’s of coverage here. I met with Kevin Merritt, CEO, today and discussed the possibilities for providing easy access to our state’s data for compelling applications. He’s on to something big.

Aneesh Chopra: Unleashing the power of data for public good

Here’s the story according to the White House and CTO Aneesh Chopra:

The Challenge

Data produced by government agencies are often hard to find or are published in proprietary formats of limited utility. As a result, a wealth of information remains untapped by the ingenuity and creativity of the American people.

The Solution

Data.gov is a citizen-friendly platform that provides access to Federal datasets. With a searchable data catalog, Data.gov helps the public find, access, and download non-sensitive Government data and tools in a variety of formats.

The Benefit

Enterprising Americans will be able to create new web applications that help individuals, communities, and businesses access, sort, visualize, and understand public data in new ways. Data transparency can spur economic, scientific, and educational innovation, as well as civic engagement by making it easier to build applications, conduct analysis, and perform research. (End of White House description)

It’s our turn.

It is time for Washington state to stop drinking our own kool aid about our use of technology and recognize that in the public sector we can do so much more. California, Utah and other states along with cities like Seattle and Chicago are charging forward with the use of open architectural platforms like Socrata’s. My personal congratulations to Seattle CTO Bill Schrier for his aggressive efforts in this area, and a note of appreciation to Mayor-elect Mike McGinn both for keeping Schrier on board and for supporting this exciting and important initiative. My hope is that Seattle, King County and Washington can form a next generation partnership to unleash the power of public information.

A large part of my concern and frustration with the state data center project is that we are investing hundreds of millions of dollars in BACKEND systems while the marketplace, and other public agencies nationwide, are doing their best to focus on FRONT END applications and services. We are investing in a commodity while the ‘value add’ category of open, transparent access to data is left silent. Regardless of the Olympia data center itself, on a larger and more strategic level, state CTO Tony Tortornice has an extraordinary opportunity to embrace this idea that is sweeping the public sector nationwide. This is our chance and now is the time to change direction toward public applications.

Why should voter data be protected in proprietary data bases that can only be accessed by political professionals? It’s public record if you register to vote and what your record is each year. Why shouldn’t we allow application developers to create robust maps of city, county, state and federal resources? Why not build a series of applications around storm water runoff problems to reduce pollution through useful information for communities? Why not help keep track of foster youth’s educational and medical records more efficiently? Education, crime, transportation, housing, the list goes on and on and on.

For the first time, access to data that has been trapped in old, proprietary data bases is becoming achievable.

Earlier today I met with the Washington Coalition for Open Government. Their logistical concerns are driven by a need for state agencies to produce public record requests in digital formats. But why shouldn’t nearly all data be available on line and our entire system and structure of thinking around public record requests could radically change? We are thinking too narrowly, too slowly and too restrictively than a 21st Century model warrants. Public record requests should be rare, easy and cheap–because more data should be available free and open anyway. The default for state agencies should be that nearly all data should be open, transparent and accessible through a simple search.

Despite my attention to the data center, my real interest and passion around technology is as a weapon for good, an instrument to enable progressive change, a community organizing tool. My hope is to move away from our back end battles to front end possibilities. We spend more than $1.2 billion a year in our state for technology; let’s shift from government’s internal focus to the public interest to unleash the possibilities.

To the technology advocates within state government, will you join with me?

Together we can do all those things we cannot do alone.

Your partner in service,

Reuven.