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Bhutto / Google testimony on data accessibility
By WDavidStephenson | December 27, 2007
I’m going to hold off on comment about the implications of Bhutto’s assassination for right now, other than to repeat that the Bush Administration has failed to pursue a systems approach to foreign policy.
We’ve got a looong history in this region of steps we’ve taken at one point (i.e. arming the mujahadin in a proxy war against the USSR) coming back to haunt us, and, more recently, embracing Musharraf, not to mention infuriating the Islamic world by invading Iraq. You just can’t take actions in one arena without them affecting others. I’m just crossing my fingers that my son will still return on Jan. 13th, rather than being rerouted to Rawalpindi…..
Now back to our regularly-scheduled programming.
I came across a YouTube vid of Dec. 11th testimony before the Senate Homeland Security Committee (unclear about the context) by John Lewis Needham, Google’s manager for Public Sector Content Partnerships.Needham’s remarks revolved around Google’s work with many government agencies to implement use of the Sitemap Protocol, which he reported has dramatically increased the accessibility of documents ranging from OIG reports to benefit program eligibility. His rhetoric matched mine in my speech on “Transparent Government“:
“Making publicly available government information more accessible and useful to citizens not only helps deliver to Internet users the government information they need, but it also enables the government to provide services more efficiently and effectively to taxpayers, and it makes our democracy more transparent, accountable, and relevant to its citizens.”
What I advocate to achieve these goals goes beyond just improving public access to existing governmental sites. It entails government agencies following DC’s leadership and releasing data — especially real-time data — and encouraging the public to experiment with Google mashups and other types of data visualizations that may yield new insights into program duplication, etc. Needham didn’t mention that, but hope springs eternal!
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