I will also join the skype discussion on thursday
thanks
On Wed, May 27, 2015 at 9:09 AM, Ish Sookun <ish_at_hacklog.in> wrote:
> 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 - 06:57:44 PST