(iverson's) currentbuzz

The fact is, sticking to open, standards based technologies like HTML, XML, JSON and others are far more important and useful in getting your information out to the public than the proprietary formats of Adobe. Here’s a hint– if the data format has an ® by its name, it probably isn’t great for transparency or open data.

via Sunlight Labs: Blog – Adobe is Bad for Open Government.

Here is a link to the 8 principles of open data.

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• Adobe pushes Flash and PDF for open government, misses irony (arstechnica.com)
• Small pieces, loosely joined by machine tags (adactio.com)
• Adobe Pushing For Flash and PDF In Open Government Initiative (yro.slashdot.org)

Open allows experimentation. Open encourages competition. Open wins. Amazon needs to get with the program. Or, like AOL and MSN, Amazon will wind up another online pioneer who ends up a belated guest at the party it planned to host.

via Why Kindle Should Be An Open Book – Forbes.com.

A great article, and he’s got the anecdotes to backup what he says about open vs. proprietary markets and machines.

The Four Pillars of an Open Civic System – O’Reilly Radar.

And of course you can blend these data flows and come up with hybrids all you like. DIYcity’s SickCity, for example, is basically a C2C tool in its present, basic 1.0 incarnation – it detects instances of residents in your city saying they’re sick, and passes that news on to other residents. But a more sophisticated version of the tool would also pass that information on directly to the Department of Health when relevant, and would also, optimally, accept data from the DoH to pass that back to residents. Suddenly it has gone from a simple C2C tool to a tool that is C2C, C2G and G2C. Now we’re talking about interesting stuff. Each additional channel of data makes the system exponentially more valuable.

With all of these systems properly developed and engaged, our civic systems – local, regional, federal – should bloom and transform into the properly modern, Internet-age things they ought to be. This will translate to increases in efficiency, greater innovation and rate of change, better adaptability, and greater resilience, in addition to other advantages. To get there though, we’ve got to get beyond thinking simply in terms of transparency and government APIs.

Having our users ‘adopt’ lines of code means that they will come to own and support Miro in a more direct way than ever before. As a non-profit, we have a social and public mission built into our organization. As free and open-source software, the tools we create are open for anyone to change and reuse. It would be incredible to have a truly bottom up funding base as well.

via Adopt a Line of Miro Code! « Miro – Internet TV Blog.

This is what I have been telling students and others for sometime. Our century» Mitch Kapor: Why Wikipedia is the next big thing | Between the Lines | ZDNet.com: “The community should own the knowledgebase, Mitch said. It’s a kind of commons, and not owned by a business organization monetizing the sites. The business organization makes money by commanding the attention of by matching advertisers with users. “The community engages with business partners,” Mitch said. “I think it will be characteristic of the Wikipedia world and form of business that will be more responsible to the larger society.””