Data Liberation

I recently stumbled across Statistic Canada's Data Liberation Initiative. It's exciting to see this effort and terminology, which is shared with Google's humorously themed effort.

Another, corporate Data Liberation group provides some good reasons this is important — Do you want fair pricing, transparent testing, faster performance, deeper analytics and straight answers? We can add, do you want to be able to take away information you contributed or paid for? Simply, in my mind, public data and even rights to code you access (like AGPL) should be a competitive factor, and in the public service or for anything of massive utility (like Facebook), something we expect.

The only problem is the Government's DLI is way too narrow. Right now it's aimed at post secondary institutions. There shouldn't be access categories, the same information should be available to 14 year olds and retired persons that's available to academics or public workers. As well, it's hardly a liberation effort when individuals have to pay to access the information ($2350 to learn about Canadian internet use in 2007). I don't think we can really say public participation and corruption, for example, are being seriously addressed until these kinds of issues are resolved, nor can any statements about what "our children" are inheriting be taken seriously.

Once this kind of data is released, we can expect greater participation and new forms of employment through crowdsourcing and other volunteer efforts (for example, making specialized information easier to understand). There are plenty of civic minded hobbyists, experts, and others who would love to understand and work on big problems, and with computers and the Internet any one person or group can achieve so much in their spare time. The trust issues don't really exist, people can learn to not trust a first glance at info just like they have with spam and wikipedia, and networked trust will become a concrete part of our reality. (Of course personal information will be protected, but access to massive correlation alone would make this a breakthrough.)

I know plenty of individuals and groups who can benefit from this data, so many problems that can be solved so we can move onto bigger ones. After taking a run at it with a friend (and ultimately failing), Michael Mulley has finally got a parliament Hansard scraper working, but the amount of effort and reliability will be in jeopardy until this information is intentionally shared.

The government's own (private) GCPedia has already been deemed important in capturing tacit knowledge and helping groups connect, following Wikipedia's model of open organizing. Past that, some things need to be "offloaded" from the government, which is already straining, to willing participants, the gigantic latent capacity that can solve problems without cost, openly and fairly creating a greater social existence that acknowledges our modern reality. This is a push back to the corporatization and governmentalization of services that people should enjoy spending their time participating in.

Type: Policy

Status: Adopted on 2/15/08

Source File: http://www.usmd.edu/newsroom/news/439

Description:

University System of Maryland (USM) Chancellor William E. Kirwan has launched a new initiative to promote environmental stewardship and sustainable practices across the system's universities, research institutions, and regional higher education centers. The chancellor's Environmental Sustainability and Climate Change Initiative will focus on developing policies, practices, and programs that will make the university system a national leader in institutional responses to the challenges of global climate change.

"Our universities have long been on the forefront of environmental education, research, and policymaking," said Chancellor Kirwan. "The initiative will utilize USM's strengths in these areas to establish sustainable and energy efficient practices across all of our campuses. We will also work to strengthen curricular offerings and opportunities for research and collaboration in environmental science, policy, and sustainable technologies."

"The University System of Maryland recognizes that we need to foster a sustainable environment to retain Maryland's quality of life and leading role in the nation's knowledge economy," said Donald Boesch, president of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, whom Chancellor Kirwan has appointed the system's vice chancellor of environmental sustainability. "The best way to ensure that future generations of Marylanders inherit a healthy, sustainable environment is to lead by example and see to it that today's decisions contribute to a better tomorrow."

Goals of the USM sustainability initiative include:

• Reducing energy consumption system-wide by 15 percent and greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by the year 2020 per Governor Martin O'Malley's EmPOWER Maryland initiative and Climate Change Commission recommendations as a way to save taxpayers money, reduce stress on Maryland's energy markets, and improve the environment;

• Crafting and enacting new policies for capital projects, human resources, and procurement to achieve these objectives;

• Conducting audits of greenhouse gas emission for all USM institutions and using best practices to reduce these emissions;

• Developing a system-wide strategy for campus sustainability and energy efficiency, including "green" building guidelines and sustainability benchmarks for all new construction and major facility renovations;

• Refocusing and strengthening instructional and research programs dealing with environmental sustainability and climate change;

• Bringing the expertise of USM's institutions to bear in addressing Maryland's three-part challenge of Chesapeake Bay restoration, growth, and climate change.

"Across the university system, I have met and spoken with many students who want sustainability to become a guiding principle for our universities and our society," said USM Student Regent Richard Scott, a senior at Frostburg State University and a member of the Maryland Student Climate Coalition (MSCC). The MSCC is a grassroots organization of USM students advocating for the adoption of sustainable practices and a policy of carbon neutrality across the university system. "I am very encouraged by the system's proactive stance and commitment to become a leader in responding to the challenges of global climate change."

The sustainability initiative is one of three new initiatives established by Chancellor Kirwan to address major challenges to Maryland's economic leadership, educational preparedness, and environmental quality. In addition to fostering system-wide sustainability, the chancellor has set two other priorities for his tenure: closing the college retention and graduation achievement gap for minority and underserved students and fostering the state's global economic competitiveness by increasing the number of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) teachers and graduates from USM institutions.

For more information on the USM sustainability initiative, visit: http://www.usmd.edu/usm/sustainability.