SMW Introduction: Difference between revisions

The simple reasons are it will make our society more authentically inclusive, representative and efficient while creating new levels of participation. Data collected for public institutions is invaluable when creating information on features (built and natural resources and infrastructure), spending and partnerships. These institutions have critical short and long term funding problems, and it's impossible and undesirable for them to address every need. Non profit and social economy organizations exist, which can sometimes obtain public data, but the number of addressable niches aren't practically served by silo institutions. Opening data up with intentional access techniques and policies leads to more participation — more ability for individual citizens to understand, organize and analyze, including exchanging with professionals. Much like [http://techastronomy.com/article.asp?articleid=58065&7-Great-Discoveries-by-Amateur-Astronomers hobbyist astronomers can be key to important breakthroughs], there is tremendous potential in public data if it is shared. Public data should be considered as important in re-use as public infrastructure.

Based on the ease and minimal cost of gathering and organizing data functionality and interested parties on the Internet, an as yet unnamed new sector of public participation, including loosely affiliated individuals and groups such as http://www.visiblegovernment.ca, http://opengovdata.ru, http://www.mysociety.org and http://open.org.nz, is developing. This sector includes individuals, physical communities, and communities of interest, it includes real experts, dedicated hobbyists and the casually interested. They try to solve problems and better understand their world, but they need real data. These groups can work reciprocally with our existing institutions to efficiently fill gaps and build our systems. They can [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crowdsourcing crowd source] [http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page large] [http://www.wikipedia.org tasks], develop and maintain specialized tools, and build infrastructure services.