Mark Headd recently published an excellent post on applying the principles of microservice architecture to the infrastructure of civic tech. I think the idea there is fundamentally correct and quite important. However, one paragraph and image in the post bothered me immediately and my brain has been gnawing at it ever since. Since a couple … More Some Thoughts on Mark Headd’s Thinking Small Post
GovLab has a good post about making data open for everyone, pointing out that a focus on making open data machine-readable, while important, isn’t good enough. It needs to be human-readable. I certainly agree with the point, but I would go further still. I think of opening data as a kind of ladder we must … More The Open Data Ladder
Local government budgets reflect a community’s values and priorities, or at least they are supposed to. Unfortunately, the barriers to citizens’ ability to understand the issues at stake and to participate in the public conversation can be daunting. Budgets are complex and traditional budget processes rarely work well to allow ordinary people to contribute in … More Introducing the Budget App 2.0
McKinsey has a good conversation with Mike Flowers, former chief analytics officer of New York city. Flowers points out that there is much more to an effective open data initiative than just getting the information online. It is critical also to: Overcome cultural and political barriers within the government, barriers that are more than just … More The Technology Part is the Easy Part: Lessons from NYC’s Open Data Efforts
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