Saying California has failed to make open data a priority, Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom said he has drafted an executive order he could issue should Gov. Jerry Brown leave the state.
Newsom made his remarks at the #Innovate Technology Conference in early December where he was among many of California’s civic tech leaders. As mayor of San Francisco, Newsom in 2009 mandated that machine readable city data be open for developers, and he has been critical of state government for not being progressive enough.
As an example, Newsom pointed to the state’s data portal (data.ca.gov) that appears to have been updated just three times in the last two years.
State leaders tell a different story. CalTech Director Carlos Ramos said California has been nationally recognized for a different open data website – its Geospatial Information Portal. He added the state has gathered and made public 11,000 data sets from across California government.
"The problem was that no one knew about it [GIS data]. So we consolidated it, we put it online and made it available for free. And now we are offering it to consumers, to entrepreneurs, to the citizens and to other governments," Ramos said in a speech following Newsom.
Techwire Host Christina Gagnier Interviews Code for America’s Jack Madans at #Innovate on Dec. 2, 2013
Photo: Tony Arias, Techwire.net
"The state is waking up when it comes to open data," Code for America Government Relations Manager Jack Madans said at the conference during an interview with Host Christina Gagnier. Madans said he has been working with the governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development (GO-Biz) to help the state a create a new data standard for land use and zoning in California.
Since its founding about four years ago, Code for America has sent web and application designers to work in city governments around the United States. Madans the non-profit intends to branch out and help state governments expand their technology capabilities. The group helps government entities get an open data policy in place.
"It is a mix of emphasis on open data, on design and lean processes," Madans said, adding that they will work to make a "quick win" with the government to redeploy open source software and data early in the process.
Madans hopes the nonprofit’s work helping local governments will apply to helping the state government develop products like apps to help their citizens.
"The app is the one thing that starts getting people excited, showing what’s possible, and in the same way the state’s starting to get that," Madans said. "We just need to figure out where the leverage is and where to push."
On January 21, the California Health and Human Services Agency (CHHS) is holding the first ever OpenData Fest to "increase access to public data, drive meaningful use, spur innovation, and enhance the linkages between health and human service programs across the state," according to the event website. Bryan Sivak, chief technology officer of the U.S. Health and Human Services Agency will keynote the conference. Code for America Interim CEO Abhi Nemani has been invited to speak in an afternoon session, according to the agenda.
