Fresh off International Open Data Day, Allison Hornery and I join Steve Spiker, IT director for the Urban Strategies Council in Oakland, California, to talk about open data's role in taking on urban poverty. Steve explains that the cost of government data can be a major factor in how effective non-profit groups can be in taking on pernicious urban issues like foreclosures and crime, and that low-cost data can spur new businesses and community benefits in urban regions such as Oakland and Alameda County. Open data is "far more impacting than we actually though," he says.

Steve organized and hosted the Open Data Day Bay Area event, and on Gov 2.0 Radio he shares about a new app developed during the day of hacking that helps find fee-free credit union ATMs in the SF Bay Area, 99atms.com. Steve stresses that there is a need to link existing advocacy communities to the open data and Gov 2.0 movements to increase their impact.

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Steve Spiker - @spjika

David Eaves is a public policy entrepreneur, open government activist and negotiation expert and frequent speaker on these topics. He is retained by several governments to advise on open government and open data, works with two spin-offs of the Harvard Negotiation Project, and advises businesses on open source strategies and community management. Three years ago David advised the Mayor of Vancouver on Open Government and Open Data and helped draft the Open Motion. He has also launched a number of open data projects including Recollect.net and emitter.ca.

Join Gov 2.0 Radio's Allison Hornery and Adriel Hampton for a coversation with David about International Open Data Day, and his best advice on how to organize a hackathon - including the value of statisticians and project managers to success.

David blogs regularly at eaves.ca where you can read more about his projects and upcoming speaking engagements.

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More open data resources from David:

http://okfn.org/
http://openspending.org/
http://ckan.org/
http://buzzdata.com/
https://scraperwiki.com/
http://mapit.mysociety.org/
http://codeforamerica.org/?cfa_project=adopt-a-hydrant

David Eaves - @daeaves

When a small group of open data enthusiasts in Montreal wanted greater openness in government data they took matters into their own hands and created "Montréal Ouvert," a multi-sector citizen-led initiative to increase access to civic information.

Join Gov 2.0 Radio's Steve Lunceford and Adriel Hampton with Michael Lenczner, free wifi pioneer and CEO of Ajah, as he explains the orgins of Montreal's open data group and its successes in bringing together bureaucrats, politicians, journalists and software developers around data hacking events and actionable transparency initiatives.

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Michael Lenczner - @mlenc

Russell Wallace has a plan to bring crowdfunding to your neighborhood parks and other public works projects throughout the country.

On Gov 2.0 Radio, Allison Hornery, Steve Ressler, Steve Lunceford and Adriel Hampton talk with Russ about his new startup, CivicSponsor, and partnerships he's developing with municipalities around the U.S. to bring in tax-deductible donations to meet civic needs.

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Russell Wallace - @CivicSponsor

This Thanksgiving, the conversation quickly shifted to a discussion about the state of our country.  And is not necessarily a pleasant conversation. Ever since the Tea Party emerged as a political force, the anger against public sector employees has become more and more vitriol. For a family that has dedicated itself to serving others, this is disconcerting.

My sister is a New York City public school teacher at a transfer school. It is a last resort for many students who  have had trouble at other schools, and all the gritty issues that go along with the cycle of poverty are played out in her classroom. If she cannot reach her students, and they drop out, they will most likely be on the taxpayers’ dime for the rest of their lives. The stakes are high, but she does not have the time to tell the world about the crucial work she does. 

My mother works for the state of Massachusetts in the Executive Office of Elder Affairs. She and her coworkers spend their time working on ensuring that low-income seniors in Massachusetts will be able to live healthy lives. My mother also facilitates a six-week training titled, “Mi Vida, Mi Salud,” that works with the senior immigrant community on giving them tips to manage their chronic diseases and creating healthy eating habits. This preventive health care work has the potential to save the state millions of dollars  by keeping seniors out of emergency rooms. Unfortunately, her position is funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which will run out at the beginning of the New Year. The work of her and her colleagues need to be publicized in innovative ways so that people can recognize the important of their work.

There are hundreds of thousands of public employees that are toiling away everyday, but when budget cuts come, the first often to go, are the communications people who help tell the world about their work.

At DailyFeats, we have created a platform where people can tell the world about their daily positive actions. The users of the site can get points and rewards, but more importantly, they can get the support of the community. We know that teachers and city/state/and federal are doing good every time they show up to work, but we feel we can add another platform for them to share and get rewarded for their good deeds. We are interested in learning from you and to see how we can add value to your lives. You can start recording your positive actions here, and if you would like to talk more about how our platform can help your community, contact me here Nathan@dailyfeats.com

One of the latest eGoc project that was initated by Alena Popova in Russia is called Code4Russia that includes “Coding for Russia” -  All-Russian contest of developers in eGov context and special project called “Developers expertise.”

Developers expertise is the first project of that kind in Russia that can be seen as an expert’s crowdsource model that is made to encourage best IT-specialists of e-govermeent project and services to leave comments and feedback.The main problem of today’s projects and eGov services is contained in its unclear presentation and negative perception by the target audience as these projects are not user-friendly at all. That is why our project aims to improve interface and usability of eGov services, to get constuctive evaluations from IT-experts and their suggestions that would create a platform for effecient e-government marketing development.

Main objectives of this special project are the following:

- improvement of interface and usability of eGov services;
- providing feedback and assesment of eGov services;
- establishment of efficient collaboration between eGov services consumers and government itself;
- building media and web loyalty towards eGov services;

We’re keen on getting all developers comments on this or that issue/project and thus to improve the state of eGov in Russia and to encourage a new turn of evolution.  We are ready to discuss all opinions and recommendations that will provide us with the insight  how to attract developers into project’s participation. Surely we expect a variety of opinions, including positive and negative, but we are open to any useful interactions.

The main advantage for authorities is contained in the fact that receiving useful comments, officiers are aware of things they have to improve in their services or e-projects in order to make these web-resources more popular among Russian users .

The contest “Coding for Russia” is conducted among developers of mobile apps and web-sites based on open data. Paticipants create socially important and valuable projects that solve certain problems of a particular regions.  First contests would be organized in Krasnodar and Tatarstan republic. Key aim of the contest is to first of all attract attention of IT-communities and authorities to public projects and issues that could be transformed into eGov context. And secondly, to show on practice that these available tools for problem solving are more than real and could be used anywhere in Russia!

The essense of the contest is considered in the fact that a region defines a set of social issues that are typical for it and compulsory for finding a right solution, the terms of reference is being then proposed. During the month participants, using open data resources program different range of interfaces (web or mobile apps) to solve emerging issues.  During the whole period participants are strongly connected and interacted with a group of experts that finally makes the final decision and define three contest’s winners. The winner gets not only the money prize with 100 000 rubles ( approximately 3 000 $), but also a guarantee that this project is going to be futher used and supported by local authorities. That is how these projects could become best solutions for building civil society.

So the general idea is to attract and collaborate with best developers of our country in order to create eGov services that will be helpful for citizens of different regions. So now we are anticipating the results and keen on going further and further.

Should you have any ideas or suggestions, please do not hesitate to contact us!
More information about eGov projects and services in Russia and even more you may find here.

Join Allison Hornery and Adriel Hampton for a discussion with Julian Carver, a founding member of Open NZ - bringing citizens and government together around open data standards.

Julian also talks about the two recent devastating quakes in the Christchurch region of New Zealand, the loss of 60 percent of the central business district, and how open government principles are assisting the recovery process.

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@serenare

Join Gov 2.0 Radio's Allison Hornery and Adriel Hampton for a spirited discussion of open data practices in Philadelphia. Deb Boyer is a project manager with Azavea and Open Data Philly, the public-private partnership opening up government, nonprofit and business data sets and APIs for public use. How do you engage a community around open data? Deb's got some great experiences and ideas to share.

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@debsting

Join Adriel Hampton and Allison Hornery as they chat with Lucy Chambers from the Open Knowledge Foundation about the Warsaw Open Government Data Camp, with more than 400 participants from more than 40 countries.

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@lucyfedia