Its the Peoples Data

Its The Peoples DataTom Johnson, Director - Region 9Society of Professional Journalistst o m @ j t j o h n s o n . c o m4/18/20151

Its The Peoples Data [CLICK]Thank you for this opportunity to float an idea that I hope members of SPJ will find interesting -- interesting enough that some will step up and say, Yeah, I want to get involved. But also interesting enough that others will say, Heres something that could be added to the mix -- to the planning and implementation of an initiative called Its The Peoples Data. [CLICK]

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Source: The New Yorker. Oct. 4, 2010 http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2010/10/04/small-change-3 Digital Age driving change. In everything.

Its The Peoples Data The foundation for this proposal is, first, to agree that the Digital Age is driving changes in every aspect of our culture and life. In this case, that specifically includes the traditional role of the peoples access to governmental data. These changes are rooted in the basic process of what we do, not only as journalists but the process tied to all intellectual activities. [CLICK]2

3Journalists, et al., in DatasphereTake in; intellectually metabolize

FOIA in the Digital Age

MetabolismLatent EnergyInEnergyOut

Species in Biosphere:

Its The Peoples Data 3All living things take in energy from a variety of sources in the ecosystem. That fuel is metabolized into life-sustaining activities. We, as information workers, [CLICK] take in data in a variety of forms. We analyze that data, which produces information that we print or broadcast back into the digital ecosystem. Call that environment the Datasphere, that theoretical place where all data resides. But times have changed. [CLICK]

FOIA in Digital AgeProcess = Data In Analysis Info OutData = 1s and 0s, ergoData necessary for qualitative, quantitative, geographic and timeline analysisThe DOCUMENT is not important; the DATA is4/18/20154

Its The Peoples Data Today, essentially ALL that data either exists as 1s and 0s or is translated from ink-on-paper hard copy into 1s and 0s. That digital form is necessary to efficiently pass that data to colleagues or citizens. That digital form [CLICK]is necessary to conduct any qualitative, quantitative or geographic analysis of that data. Therefore, [CLICK]

government DOCUMENTS, per se long the treasure sought by reporters and active citizens are NOT important. It is the DATA, that used to be in or on physical documents, that is necessary for analysis the analysis that helps us understand what the government or other public agencies is and are doing. This calls for, I believe, a shift in our thinking AND a shift in our vocabulary. [CLICK] [CLICK]

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SPJ Initiative: Its The Peoples DataShift the vocabulary:Its NOT Freedom of Information; its Freedom of DATA Taxpayers have paid for the collection of the data. Therefore, IT IS THE PEOPLES DATA

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Images

Text

Quantative.Geog

Its The Peoples Data That is, we should no longer just talk about freedom of INFORMATION, but think more in terms of freedom of DATA. It is digital data [CLICK]in all its forms textual, quantitative, geographic, photographic that is necessary for fact-based decision-making. And here is a key point: [CLICK] Taxpayers paid for the collection of all that data in the hands of government. We all paid for it. Ergo, ITS THE PEOPLES DATA. And we want it. We want that DATA without having to go through the obstacle course of multiple offices, bureaucrats and printed forms. [CLICK]

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Digital Age flips FOIAAdmirable history[1] of SPJ v. Closed govt4/18/20156

[1] Swedish Freedom of Information Act of 1766. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1973849/Freedom-of-the-Press-Act-of-1766 Also: [U.S.]History of FOIA. Electronic Frontier Foundation. https://www.eff.org/issues/transparency/history-of-foia

Its The Peoples Data [Pause]The Society of Professional Journalists has a long and admirable history of challenging our governments to make available The Peoples Data. [CLICK]

These battles have been fought in jurisdictions at all levels, [CLICK] in the cities and states, and in all types of agencies. [CLICK]

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Digital Age flips FOIAAdmirable history of SPJ v. Closed govtIn Digital Age, citizens accustomed to instant deliveryHistory of FOIA is defensive/reactive4/18/20157

David Cuillier

Kathryn Foxhall

Sonny Albarado

Its The Peoples Data Notably, too, are the watch-dog efforts and challenges conducted at the national level by SPJ members and leaders like David Cuillier , Kathryn Foxhall and Sonny Albarado.

Efforts like theirs, and those of many others, have been invaluable in demonstrating the contributions of the Society of Professional Journalists to our student and professional colleagues and to the nation.

But I think it is time to expand on these efforts because of the changes driven by the Digital Age. [CLICK]

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Digital Age flips FOIAAdmirable history of SPJ v. Closed govtFOIA action is too often reactiveIn Digital Age, citizens accustomed to instant delivery, yet slow-down in govt responses.[1]4/18/20158 [1] TED BRIDIS, Mar. 18, 2015 2:43 PM EDT AP. Administration sets record for withholding government files

Its The Peoples Data [Pause a second] Historically, our actions regarding the freedom of information or freedom of data most often have been in response to a denial of access. Some bureaucrat or politician, often arbitrarily, decides that a citizen or reporter cannot have some documents or data? Why? Well, just because, is the response followed by a myriad of rationalizations. And then pressures from SPJ and other organizations -- and possibly litigation --follows.

In the Digital Age, citizens are becoming less tolerant to such cavalier responses from public employees. [CLICK]

In a time of rapid photocopy machines and over-night delivery from Amazon, not only do we want it ALL, we want it all RIGHT NOW! But for every action there is a reaction. ]CLICK]

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Digital Age flips FOIAIn Digital Age, citizens accustomed to instant deliveryGovt agencies complain about being overwhelmed with FOIA requests [1]Majority of FOIA requests not from journalists[2] [3]Can we take SPJ, et al. FOIA activities to a local and broader audience?

4/18/20159[1]Department of Homeland Security in 2012 and Catherine Andrews. Why You Need Improved Operational Intelligence for Big Data March 9, 2015

[2] KEVIN JOHNSON and KEVIN G. HALL. New players replacing newspapers in seeking government info USA Today 03/14/2015; 2014 Chief Freedom of Information Act Officer Report to the Attorney General of the United States and FOIA Lawsuits

[3] Jeffrey A. Roberts. State budget includes new AGs office lawyer to handle growing number of records requests. Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition. 2 April 2015.

Its The Peoples Data Despite the reality that digital data moves at the speed of light, government agencies are not prepared for the wave of requests by The People for The Peoples Data. [CLICK]

And the general public probably does not realize that the majority of those requests for The Peoples Data are NOT coming from journalists. They are coming from corporations and lawyers who, most often, have very narrow objectives. [CLICK]

Given these new factors in the Digital Age, [CLICK] I suggest that it time to leverage SPJs status, abilities and activities by taking them to a broader, and intensely local, audience -- an audience of citizens and organizations also seeking The Peoples Data. Heres why. [CLICK]

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Its The Peoples Data Traditional government responsibilities

4/18/201510Public SafetyEducationPublic HealthElectionsCourtsInfrastructure

Its The Peoples Data Traditionally, government in America has been charged with managing specific societal needs and responsibilities. Data to drive decision-making related to these tasks has been collected by officials since Moses took a census 13 months after leading the Israelites out of Egypt. [http://biblewiki.net/people/Moses#s_census] Today, that collection task continues, but on a much larger scale. [CLICK]

Data is collected by every agency at every level of government. And even the census manuscript of 1790 [CLICK] is available in digital format.

But as always, The People paid for the collection of this data with their taxes. Therefore, it is the task of government a relatively new but vitally important task to [CLICK]10

Its The Peoples Data Drive change in political & bureaucratic world view

4/18/201511Primary Tasks of GovernmentPublic SafetyEducationPublic HealthElectionCourtsInfrastructureMake The Peoples Data available to The People

Its The Peoples Data make The Peoples Data available to The People. The Society of Professional Journalists can work to change the political culture so everyone in government understands that a KEY aspect of their job is to make The Peoples Data available to The People.Give us the data pertaining to education, transportation, taxation, public health, infrastructure Give it to us in most original, fine-grained format as possible, and Give it to us in the shortest possible timeHow can SPJ speed up the process? [CLICK]How to do that?

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SPJ Initiative: Its The Peoples DataSPJ chapters and affiliates become the hub of community training, data harvesting, analysisLocal journalism institutions promote and coordinate broad spectrum of interest groups/people[1]

4/18/201512[1] Jeffrey A. Roberts. State budget includes new AGs office lawyer to handle growing number of records requests. Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition. 2 April 2015.

Its The Peoples Data SPJ working with local journalism institutions -- becomes the hub for linking the media with the community to [CLICK] together inventory and harvest city and county data and then coordinate the training of citizens in analysis and presentation of that data. The journalists might well learn something as well.

This will be a complex, and very long-term project [CLICK]12

4/18/201513Its The Peoples DataSPJ Pro & Student+Local MediaGreen PartySocialist PartyChamber of CommerceCentrist PartyLocal Political ScientistsLocal Economic Develop.Community Action GroupsFood BanksUnited FundCommunity FoundationsFreelancersTraffic PlannersTea PartyCommon CauseLeague of Women Voters

Its The Peoples Data The emphasis here is on broad community participation. That will call for a lot of promotion and major recruitment efforts at the community and county level. [CLICK]13

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Its The Peoples Data it will call for dedicated project leaders who are conversant with digital collaboration and task management tools. Some knowledge of data base creation and structure will also be helpful. And it will call for some significant fund-raising [CLICK]

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SPJ Initiative: Its The Peoples DataSPJ chapters and affiliates become the hub of community training, data harvesting, analysisLocal journalism institutions promote and coordinate broad spectrum of interest groups/peopleConduct city/county data censusBuild data base of local data basesWorkshops in data retrieval, cleaning, analysis and story-telling toolsTest, measure and re-test

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Its The Peoples Data But this is a scalable project. A project that can start with one or two small-town efforts to build some proof-of-concept tools and case studies that can be tested, measured, refined and tested again before rolling out the initiative to all of our SPJ chapters.

A challenge? Sure. But I think the reputation of SPJ along with the Digital Age conditions challenging the media and citizens today can generate a unique synergy of opportunity and service to deliver results.

Of course there are both [CLICK] Pros and Cons to this.

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SPJ Initiative: Its The Peoples DataConsTechnology is easy; changing cultures is hardLong-term endeavorMgmt/coordination a full-time task

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Its The Peoples Data [CLICK] On the down side, it is relatively RELATIVELY -- easy to learn and employ the technologies needed to plan and execute this project. [CLICK]

But Changing a culture is what is hard, so [CLICK] this is far from an overnight endeavor. Current student members of SPJ will be working on this when they are in retirement. [CLICK]

And building and managing this initiative will require some full-time dedication from someone. But in the long-run, I think the return on investment will be great. [CLICK]

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SPJ Initiative: Its The Peoples Data4/18/201517ConsTechnology is easy; changing cultures is hardLong-term endeavorMgmt/coordination a full-time taskProsEnhance democratic participationEconomic development[1]Reduce data requests; cost of govtEnhance profile of local media Enhance profile of SPJ; recruit membersFocused involvement of SPJ membersNew Digital Age skillsScalableGenerate revenue (training & contract projects)[1] Joel Gurin. Building Business with Open Government Data. March 26, 2015 http://www.slideshare.net/centerforopendataenterprise/sxsw-panel-presentation

Its The Peoples Data The rewards are varied and rich. The rewards are novel. But those rewards will flow to citizens, and also to the media organizations that step up to lead this effort to enrich democracy and citizen participation in our democracy. [CLICK] So17

Its The Peoples Data: Next StepsWhat do you think?4/18/201518

Its The Peoples Data [CLICK]

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Its The Peoples DataTom Johnson, Director - Region 9Society of Professional Journalistst o m @ j t j o h n s o n . c o m4/18/201519

Presentation @ slideshare or w w w . b i t . l y / 1 D d L U Q 7 Video @ http://1drv.ms/1H0exlh

Its The Peoples Data Please feel free to download or pass along this presentation. The links are up there. And, if youre interested in working on the Its The Peoples Data, initiative, contact me at the email address down there.Im Tom Johnson. Thanks for listening. 19

Its The Peoples DataThink Big.Start Small.Move Fast.4/18/201520

Its The Peoples Data