Henkilökohtaiset työkalut

Suomen datakatalogi

Tutkimus.parvi.fi

Loikkaa: valikkoon, hakuun

Sisällysluettelo

Finnish Data Catalog

Collaboration between official data catalog in suomi.fi and evolving data catalog in the developers community (Just the idea.. texts are old and have mistakes--Apoikola 25. lokakuuta 2009 kello 00.46 (EEST))
Collaboration between official data catalog in suomi.fi and evolving data catalog in the developers community (Just the idea.. texts are old and have mistakes--Apoikola 25. lokakuuta 2009 kello 00.46 (EEST))

Peter recently released the source code for the www.opengov.se data catalog website (which is an unofficial catalog of public sector information in Sweden).

The code is meant for those countries/areas where the the government currently doesn't provide information about public data sets, so that the developer communities may start the to collect the data catalog to increase transparency and enable re-use of public sector information.

The application will be soon be used to power an open data initiative in Finland and hopefully more people will be interested in creating a catalog for their own country.

Project resources:

Other links:

1. Introduction

According to the UN, Finland is no longer among the top information society countries (lähde?). This is a fact that has spawned initiatives and actions among the Finnish government (lähde?). Among key items to work on is making all kinds of public data more open and available, even in raw forms, to be further developed by the people into interesting services and mashups.

We strongly believe that the collaboration between citizens and public sector may be enhanced by clever IT-solutions.The availability of public information enables people, and society as a whole, to take responsibility and apply conscientiousness in the decision making processes. On the other hand private citizens and organizations have lots of detailed information waiting to be delivered in useful manner for the public sector organizations. We want to use software to help address these issues.

Tähän voisi poimia jotakin pointteja kansainvälisesta datan avaamistrendistä. Obaman hallinto kantsii aina mainita :-) ks open symposium visio

Currently the first version of the Finnish data catalog can be found at http://suomi.fi/datakatalogi. It is a static webpage listing some of the openly available public datasources. The catalog will be developed further and the data at the page will be made available through a REST API. There are certain advantages maintaining the official version of the catalog as part of the suomi.fi portal, most importantly the public sector organizations trust the official portal which makes it easier to open more data sources.

Development of the data catalog as part of the national portal has also some disadvantages, it will take time before the usability, accessibility and over all quality will match sites like http://www.data.gov/ and http://www.opengov.se/ . Even when it is ready, it is unlikely that the developers would feel strong ownership over the official data catalog. Also, in the official listing where the exact and correct information is the top-priority it would be challenging to openly document status of data "under progress" (see the old list in a Google document).

Therefore there is a need for a user friendly webservice made by members of the open data community itself that would function in collaboration with the official "validated" data catalog. The idea is that suomi.fi organization will be able to get updates about data requests by the community through a REST API.

2. Project goals

The goal of the project is to create a set of web services for

  • making public data sources usable for developers and analysts (browse/classify/comment)
  • collaboratively coordinating the documenting of possible public data sources and "opening" of currently closed datasets.

Concrete deliverables may also include e.g.

  • dialogue (discussions) tools
  • developer tools
  • samples
  • back-end tools

Conceptually the goal is to create a tool for "mediating" the use and opening (finding, contacting, lobbying) up process of public data. Especially between developers, analysts and public institutions. This project aims for the Finnish context. However there is a growing need for this kind of service also in other EU countries. It is therefore important that the working practicess are such that the groundwork for an international collaborative project is laid. It is very likely that there will be exchange of ideas and maybe even co-operation during the project.

3. Tools and technology

Tools and technologies will be defined together with the group and the customer.

More important than tools and technologies themselves are open API's and open-source licensing and thinking. Use of pre-existing components is strongly encouraged.

REST API's are among known key goals.

Django/Python is one possible development technology. One important criteria in selecting the technology is the evidence of an volunteer open source community (in Finland and internationally) using the chosen technologies. The choise of technology should therefore as much be seen as a choise of developer community.

Other ideas for the choices of technology:

4. Contact

“Social media for citizens and public sector collaboration” (Somus) is a research project funded by the Academy of Finland during 1.1.2009-31.12.2010.

Somus project was main organizer in the open data contest "Apps for Democracy Finland" and the researchers of Somus project are well connected with open data supporters in Finland and other countries. Support from suomi.fi and other public institutions is good.

The Somus project creates new understanding of citizenship, publicity and participation in decision-making in the era of social media. Open, citizen-driven media must support the different phases of participation: public definition of common problems, collection and accumulation of knowledge and other competencies, development of socially grounded innovations, and actual decision-making.

SOMUS has been working on this topic since 1/2009. Interestingly, there are a number of self-organized experts also involved in this movement also. 

Organization: TKK / Mediatekniikan laitos
Role: Research assistant
Name: Teemu Ropponen
E-mail: Teemu.Ropponen##tkk.fi
Telephone: 040-525 5153
Address: Konemiehentie 2, 02015 HUT

Planning

Notes from open data workshop at Slush

Haettu osoitteesta http://tutkimus.parvi.fi/index.php/Suomen_datakatalogi