Ministry of Planning launches preview of Open Data portal
December 27, 2011 - 8 commentsIn order to promote the implementation of the National Infrastructure for Open Data (INDA), the Ministry of Planning, Budget and Management has launched, this tuesday (20) the beta version of the Brazilian Portal for Open Data. Its intention is to share public data in raw and open formats. By releasing the beta version, the ministry expects that people participate in the building of the portal. The official version is scheduled for 2012.
INDA is a set of standards, technologies, procedures and control instruments in order to meet the necessary conditions for the sharing of data between different branches and levels of government and also for the society at large. Data is open when it can be used freely and reused in building applictations by any citizen. The release of open data will soon be required as enacted in the General Information Acccess Law (law n. 12527, from November 18th, 2011).
According to Secretary of Logistics and Information Technology, Delfino Natal de Souza, the release of the Brazilian Open Data Portal is a milestone on the INDA project. The secretary expects the new virtual environment to engage society in strengthening the methodology of this infrastructure for the disclosure of public information. “The release of open data shall bring more transparency and participation in social control by the Brazilian people”, added Souza.
The beta version of the site has 20 datasets available for access. Also available are applications showcasing how public sector information can be released in an open manner. One of them, for instance, shows historical series regarding government actions, based upon the publication of the general Government Report of 2003-2010.
Other examples of how users can reuse data released in raw and open formats are the following applications: "Onde acontece" (where does it happen); "Painel de Recadastramento do Sistema de Cadastramento Unificado de Fornecedores - Sicaf" (Re-registering Dashboard for the Unified Supplier Registry System); Work Related Accidents Dashboard; and "Para onde foi o meu dinheiro" (where did my money go).
OGP – The Open Government Partnership – OGP is an international initiative for ensuring wider access to public information. As a result of this action, made official in last Semptember, one can expect to increase society participation, to fight corruption and to use new technologies for making governments more transparent, efficient and accountable. The Brazilian work plan for the implementation of the OGP is available on its website.
So far, eight countries have joined this open government initiative. Brazil, alongside the USA, lead this move. Other current members are: Indonesia, Mexico, Norway, Phillipines, South Africa and United Kingdom.
On April 2012, there will be a meeting in Brasília to make official the joining of other countries on the partnership. More than 40 nations did show an interest in participation on the OGP. The Ministry of Planning will take this opportunity to officially launch the definitive version of the Brazilian Open Data Portal.
History - INDA makes it possible that data and information created and stored on public bodies' portals be used freely by society. The open data movement on the Brazilian federal level of public administration started on 2010, with the enactment of Resolution n. 7 (General IT Strategy) and Ordinance n. 39 (Strategic Planning for the SLTI/MP).
Since its inception, its purpose has been increasing transparency collaboration and participation by society in the process of developing government policies and actions.
INDA's debut was on May 2011, with Sicaf. By disclosing the list of suppliers registered in the system, the government allows any municipalities administrations to know which companies in its local area have been doing business with the federal government. Using that database, municipalities can, for instance, speed up their procurement processes.
* source: Ministry of Planning
* official site: Brazilian Open Data Portal
Marco Fioretti and the trends and challenges of Open Data in Europe
October 25, 2011 - No comments yetThis thursday (27th), at the Brazilian Open Data Meeting, there will be a panel on the international perspective on Open Data. There, keynote speaker Marco Fioretti, will talk about the current state of Open Data in European Union countries.
He will cover some of the most recent trends and challenges related to Open Data faced by public administrations, businesses, schools and citizens, not only in Europe, but elsewhere around the world.
Fioretti is an italian open source activist and open data enthusiast. He teaches an online digital citizenship course, wrote a chapter on the O'Reilly Open Government book, and also wrote the Open Data, Open Society Report, where he discusses the importance of open data for the European Union local administrations. This is the second time this year he comes to Brazil, the first one being for the IV Consegi in May.
Also at the same panel will be Daniela Silva, from the Transparência Hacker group, and Juan Jose Soto, from Ciudadano Inteligente in Chile, will present a south american perspective on open data.
Ministress Miriam Belchior talks about Open Data, Brazilian Meeting begins tomorrow
October 25, 2011 - No comments yetAs the 2nd Brazilian Information Technology Meeting started today, Ministress Míriam Belchior talked about the Brazilian Government's participation on the Open Government Partnership, about the Open Data Initiatives in the Ministry of Planning, Budget and Management and also about the National Infrastructure for Open Data (INDA) project and its regulatory milestone, which has just gone out under public consultation yesterday. Secretary of Logistics and Information Technology Delfino Natal de Souza also reaffirmed the importance of Open Data and reinforced the commitment to it by the Brazilian Government.
Tomorrow, the 1st Brazilian Open Data Meeting will begin at the same place, and here are some activities scheduled for the first day:
- what open data projects are currently under way in Brazil, in the federal and state (São Paulo and Rio Grande do Sul) levels of government
- journalists Fabiano Angélico, Partícia Cornils and Pedro Markun discuss the subject of Data-driven journalism on a panel
- a public hearing on the regulatory milestone for the National Infrastrucute for Open Data, which is currently under open public consultation
- an academic panel on research related to open data, featuring professors Maria Luiza Campos, João Paulo Almeida and Renato Rocha Souza, respectively from the Federal Universities of Rio de Janeiro, Espírito Santo and the Getúlio Vargas Foundation
For Thursday (27th), the highlights are:
- a debate on open data applications made by civic hackers
- another one on the open data ecossystem
- the international take on open data, featuring Marco Fioretti, who built the Open Data Open Society Report, Daniela Silva, from Transparência Hacker, both of them freshly back from the Open Government Data Camp 2011, and Juan Jose Soto, from Ciudadano Ingeligente, in Chile
- a talk on Open Tools for Open Data, CKAN and the Open Spending project, by Friedrich Lindenberg from the Open Knowledge Foundation
For details and last minute changes, please see the full programme.
Sattelite-events of the OGD Camp 2011 begin today
October 17, 2011 - No comments yetThe Open Government Data Camp (OGD Camp) 2011 is the largest Open Government Data conference in the world. The event is being organized by the Open Knowledge Foundation and takes place in Warsaw, na Poland, in the next 20th and 21st (thursday and friday), e gathers well known personalities and open data activists from more than 40 countries.
Even though the main event beings thursday, the activities have already started. The so-called "satellite events" are related activities that happen this week in parallel to the Camp. Most of them will take place in Warsaw, at the Warsaw School of Social Sciences and Humanities, but there will also be one in Canberra, Austrália, on the 21st, that is being promoted by the Australian government.
The sattelite events have a practical slant. Some of them are hands-on workshops and some deal directly with software - for instance, one of them is about CKAN, an open source software for collaborative open data cataloguing used on thedatahub.org. The CKAN workshop will cover topics such as installation, configuration, customization, and even the use of its API.
The tickets cost €30 per day, and there are discounts for students.
For more information, see the schedule of the sattelite events, or see more general info about the Camp.
Friedrich Lindenberg confirmed talk on the 1st Brazilian Open Data Meeting
October 15, 2011 - No comments yet
Friedrich Lindenberg is a media scientist turned coder working on open government and transparency initiatives.
As a developer at the Open Knowledge Foundation, he is contributing to OpenSpending, an international effort to make financial data accessible. After presenting the German state budget on OffenerHaushalt.de in 2010, he is now working on technologies that allow the budgets and spending records of any state and region to be visualized and explored. In CKAN, a community-driven data catalogue project, Friedrich has helped to create data portals for a number of European administrations and is working on an effort to create a pan-European data catalogue at publicdata.eu. He is the author of Adhocracy, a collaborative drafting software used by the Internet commission of the German Bundestag and several political parties and organizations to enable citizens to contribute to policy documents and to vote on them.
On the 1st Brazilian Open Data Meeting, Friedrich will cover CKAN and the Open Spending project on his talk "Open Tools for Open Data: CKAN and Open Spending".