Hi Dan,
On Tue, May 26, 2015 at 11:34 PM, Daniel Laeng <daniel_at_laeng.org> wrote:
>
> I'd like to join in. Are you saying that the skype call is at 20:50 on
> Thursday?
>
Yes.
>
> Some suggestions on things it would be interesting to discuss:
>
> *1. Discovery service for Open Data*
>
> It would be really nice (essential?) for there to be a single website
> which publishes (or at least indexes) all Mauritian open data.
>
> Reading the Open Government Data Initiatives
> <http://unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/un-dpadm/unpan050413.pdf>
> (2012) document (mentioned by SM a few weeks ago), I would assume that
> there should now be several government departments which have open data
> available. I'm unable to find much of that data, either because I don't
> know where to look, or because it hasn't actually been published. Having a
> nice index would at least make that clear.
>
Agreed. Currently, it is not easy to find such information from govmu.org.
I visited Statistics Mauritius and from the initial pages I went through, I
could not find any mention of Open Government Data (OGD). In its footer I
found a link to "archive collections" which lead me to population census
reports[1]. These are PDF files.
>
> *2. Agile Style Approach*
>
> It would be nice if we could have a unified voice advocating small steps
> towards opening up data *now*, rather than a 10 year bumbling government
> initiative that aims to do everything, but delivers nothing.
>
I would rather ask the OGD initiative falls under which ministry. It would
then be easier to know who is responsible for what. Could we say the
relevant ministry failed to achieve anything in 10 years?
>
> Specifically, although it would be wonderful to have a public API offering
> fully linked data from all government data, complete with unique IDs, I
> doubt anybody has the resources, desire or ability to do this in any
> meaningful time frame. So, I'd rather see the focus on delivering useful
> (but less perfect) data as soon as possible, then improve the offering over
> time. i.e. publish raw data now, work towards improving the data and the
> tech incrementally.
>
I agree.
>
> I have no experience in how the government here tackles open ended
> projects like Open Data, and would be interested to know your experiences.
>
From my experience, well, most of the projects are tackled by first having
workshops with people who do not ask questions. Those who ask are then
entitled to only 2 questions, not more.
>
> *3. Prioritise Geographic Data!*
>
> SM mentioned this in his email to Mr Hawabhay, and I can't emphasise
> enough how much I agree. Geographic data is a requirement for many web
> style business, and often for making sense of raw data.
>
> I have not seen a reliable source of map data in Mauritius, and that seems
> to be a huge problem. I assume that the government maintains the only
> detailed geographic data for Mauritius (maps, streets, addresses,
> everything) - I think there is a strong case for publishing this.
>
>
People tend to think Google Map is the solution.
[1]
http://statsmauritius.govmu.org/English/StatsbySubj/Pages/Archive/Archive--population-census.aspx
Regards,
--
Ish Sookun
- Geek by birth, Linux by choice.
- I blog at HACKLOG.in.
https://twitter.com/IshSookun ^^ Do you tweet?
Received on Wed May 27 2015 - 05:09:44 PST