Hi SM,
My skype ID appears to be "zipzipuk" (I can't remember why). I'll be
ready to join at 20:50.
> There is a decision to set up an Open Data Portal. In my opinion,
> this could be used to delay the release of the datasets. My position
> is for the government to make the datasets publicly available as soon
> as possible.
I agree with your position.
>
> I'll list the discovery service for Open Data as something nice. Let
> me know if you agree to to that.
When I say "discovery service", I'm willing to be pragmatic: I'm happy
with a prominent web page with a (maintained!) list of Government Open
Data with links to offsite download pages for each. Having an open list
of Open Data feels like the first step of Open Data.
> Please see dataportal.statsmauritius.govmu.org As far as I know,
> there isn't any Open Data available from other government
> departments. A lot of information is paper-based. The difficulty is
> getting that as a file which can easily be parsed.
Yes, I had a look at dataportal.statsmauritius.govmu.org. I'm not sure
if it qualifies as open data (they've tried pretty hard to hide each
piece of data behind as many clicks as possible), although it's nice to
have a beginning.
I think several government departments are starting to scan their paper
based records into PDFs. Yes, this is difficult to parse, but I'd love
to see them making these available.
Cheers,
Dan.
On 05/27/2015 12:39 AM, S Moonesamy wrote:
> Hi Dan,
> At 12:34 26-05-2015, Daniel Laeng wrote:
>> I'd like to join in. Are you saying that the skype call is at 20:50
>> on Thursday?
>
> I gather that you have heard the usual local excuses when it about
> being on time. :-) The weekly Skype Call is from 21:00 to 22:00. I
> asked for people to join the call at 20:50 so that we have 10 minutes
> to deal with the usual difficulties. Please send me your Skype ID.
>
>> 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.
>
> There is a decision to set up an Open Data Portal. In my opinion,
> this could be used to delay the release of the datasets. My position
> is for the government to make the datasets publicly available as soon
> as possible.
>
> I'll list the discovery service for Open Data as something nice. Let
> me know if you agree to to that.
>
>> Reading the Open Government Data Initiatives (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.
>
> Please see dataportal.statsmauritius.govmu.org As far as I know,
> there isn't any Open Data available from other government
> departments. A lot of information is paper-based. The difficulty is
> getting that as a file which can easily be parsed.
>
>> 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.
>
> Agreed.
>
> I prefer not to have government initiatives, workshops, etc.
>
>> 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 am not keen about having an API as it might require:
>
> - a login
>
> - have usage limits
>
> It is useful to have unique identifiers. However, that may turn into
> a government project and cause delays. AS you mentioned, it is better
> to get the raw data now and work towards improving the data and the
> tech incrementally.
>
>> I have no experience in how the government here tackles open ended
>> projects like Open Data, and would be interested to know your
>> experiences.
>
> It can cause a lot of frustration as nobody is responsible for anything.
>
>> 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 agree that geographic data should be a priority. My guess is that
> it may be very difficult to get access to it.
>
>> 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.
>
> There are:
>
> - 3D large scale aerial maps
>
> - Orthophoto
>
> - Data from the Land Administration and Management Systems
>
> - GIS mapping data
>
> There is also a National Spatial Data Infrastructure project to
> provide access to geo-spatial information.
>
> Regards,
> S. Moonesamy
>
--
Daniel Laeng
Software Developer
+230 5775 1037
Received on Wed May 27 2015 - 21:08:12 PST