Open Data

  • Standards & Solidarity

    A review of Code Swaraj: Field Notes from the Standards Satyagraha by Carl Malamud and Sam Pitroda Here at the Code for America Summit, my mind turns to Carl Malamud, who, to me, is a towering figure in our field, and who is chronically under-appreciated. Carl recently published a book, Code Swaraj: Field Notes from…

  • How to Look Up Federal Government Spending on Technology

    There are a number of ways to research technology spending by the federal government: Federal Procurement Data System – Next Generation: this is good for looking at the total amount of contract awards. USA Spending: this is good for looking up actual revenue flows— amounts actually earned. Functions sort of like a check ledger. CALC:…

  • Open Data: Roots, Impact, and Promise

    Here’s the full text and slides from a talk I gave this morning at The White House Open Data Innovation Summit.

  • A Radical Approach to Open Police Data

    A Radical Approach to Open Police Data

    On page 112 of the report of the Chicago Police Accountability Task Force, “Recommendations for Reform: Restoring Trust between the Chicago Police and the Communities they Serve“, there is a section about the publication of police data that might change the way we think about “crime data” in the #opengov and #civictech movement. In the section on Early…

  • These are the places near the place where police killed a boy in Chicago.

    The place where teenager Laquan McDonald was murdered by Chicago Police Officer Jason Van Dyke seems desolate in the video of his death. He walks a few steps on a wide-open street with no traffic before dropping from bullets. He laid dead in front of a bus stop and a sign heralding the construction of a new Marshalls…