SMW Introduction: Difference between revisions

The simple reasons are it will make our society more authentically inclusive, representative and efficient. Data collected by the government (and other public institutions) is invaluable when creating realistic like features (built and natural resources and infrastructure), spending and partnerships. Governments have critical short and long term funding problems, leading to service provision problems. It's impossible and undesirable for the government to address every requirement. Non profit and social economy organizations exist (which can sometimes obtain public data). Opening data up with intentional policies of access to data leads to more participation and 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].

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, are 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.

Another factor holding things back is how we use computers today - for the most part, like a typewriter. Not many people embed data from spreadsheets into their email, use automatic facilities for events and contacts, share to-do tasks, and so on. Documents and communications are one-offs, out of date the moment they're sent, and nothing is explicit in them. A semantic approach to computer data will help change this. Data will be more consistent, and when it comes to important statements we should be able to expect more. Increasing [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_literacy digital literacy] is an issue here. Services like Facebook and Twitter introduce participation and embedded data that leads the way, along with the popular idea of 'infotainment.' Mapquest pushed ahead with interactive maps - information about the public environment - and today these services are better designed and more available than facilities produced by the government.