Hi Ish,
> 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?
Good point. I presume nobody has been responsible until now, and I'd
rather not wait 10 years for no result.
I think I read that the World Bank suggests that National Statistical
Offices might be a suitable custodian of open data. (Possibly in the
World Bank Technical Assessment document
<
http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/2014/12/01/000469252_20141201092022/Rendered/PDF/928100WP0Techn0Box385378B000PUBLIC0.pdf>,
but I can't find the quote right now.)
> 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
Sounds fabulous.
> People tend to think Google Map is the solution.
In most country Google Maps is a decent solution because Google
buys/licenses high quality mapping data, then displays it for free. In
Mauritius there appears to be no mapping data for them to buy, hence the
sub-standard state of the maps. Open mapping data should be used to
feed google maps, open street map, and others.
Dan.
On 05/27/2015 09:09 AM, Ish Sookun wrote:
> Hi Dan,
>
> On Tue, May 26, 2015 at 11:34 PM, Daniel Laeng <daniel_at_laeng.org
> <mailto: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 <http://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?
--
Daniel Laeng
Software Developer
+230 5775 1037
Received on Wed May 27 2015 - 21:23:26 PST