Public Datapower in our hands

Show of hands, folks. How many of you are trained statisticians? How many of you would rather have oral surgery than work with data? Thought so. But here’s the rub. Data are the lingua franca of government. Our activities and lives are their raw material. They

determine whether many of us get more government benefits and which states and communities get grants. They are cited as the rationale for legislation, good and bad. I’m issuing a tough-love challenge today: if you and I really want to play a substantive role in government -- not just in campaigns -- we must become comfortable dealing with data. Fortunately, the Web 2.0 era presents us with an incredible opportunity to both gain access to government data and

understand and use it to become empowered to really play substantive roles in government.

In the past, you and I couldn’t even get at government data. Once collected, much of it remained locked in government

computers, kinda like the Ark of the Covenant when it was locked in a government warehouse.

Fast forward to 2008. Lo and behold, in the latest Indiana Jones sequel, Indy retrieves the Ark!

In my book, that’s an omen that you can’t keep things hidden forever!

Similarly, closely-controlled and long-lost government data are being liberated by the growing demand for transparency

by watchdog groups, the media -- and us.

“

... of all methods for analyzing and communicating statistical

information, well-designed data graphics are usually the simplest and at the same time the most

powerful. -- Edward Tufte

”

Beyond shedding light on how government operates, far-reaching and unprecedented change can result when we make

reams of data available, plus tools to portray them visually.

Generally acknowledged as the leading thinker on data graphics, Edward Tufte says that even the most skilled statisticians

often find representing data visually is the most insightful way of making sense of them:

"…. of all methods for analyzing and communicating statistical information, well-designed data

graphics are usually the simplest and at the same time the most powerful.”

This example is a Google mashup Jon Udell whipped up quickly to highlight pothole complaints to the DC Department of

Public Works, and track the repairs’ status.

Sure, you might find that information in a chart, but who’d sift through pages of records to possibly find the one or two

that applied to their neighborhood? By contrast, if you saw this map, and lived near one of the pointers, wouldn’t curiosity

compel you to click on it? Wouldn’t the fact that it includes not only information about where the pothole is and when the

complaint was made, but also the repair status TODAY, both fascinate you -- and provoke you to call the DPW if it’s now 3

months later and the map shows the repair still hasn’t been made?

So a simple map can be the impetus for both citizen awareness – and greater agency accountability. Incidentally, this

example also illustrates an important aspect of data visualizations: while many are done by organizations, many are done by

individuals with a passion for a specific issue, such as..

… Rami Tabello’s illegalsigns.ca, documenting illegal billboards in Toronto ….

…. Adrian Holvotny’s ChicagoCrime ….

…. and Jacqueline DuPree’s documentation of neighborhood issues in Southeast D.C.

Some visualizations combine various data bases to illustrate convergence, contrasts or possible causality.

This example is Neighborhood Knowledge Los Angeles, a collaboration between UCLA and community activists. Their

motto: “neighborhood improvement and recovery is not just for the experts.”

This is an great example of data visualization’s impact, because it combines and maps data on 7 “problem

indicators” (including code violations, property tax delinquencies, and fire records, etc.) that might have otherwise remained

isolated within differing city agencies, even though they all related to the same block. When you see the data brought together,

and so many danger signs repeated on a map of a single block, that’s a red flag to city officials to intervene NOW with

coordinated services to halt the decline.

“… put together big enough and diverse

enough groups of people & ask them to

make decisions affecting [the] general

interest, [and] that group's decisions will,

over time, be intellectually superior to the

isolated individual, no matter how smart or

well-informed he is.

”-- The Wisdom of Crowds

Equally important, web-based data visualization sites often include community-building Web 2.0 such as topic hubs, tags,

and discussion areas. They make it easy to focus many individuals’ and groups’ attention on a policy issue, increasing the

chance that new insights will emerge precisely because of the interplay of so many perspectives.

As James Surowiecki wrote in “The Wisdom of Crowds,” “… put together big enough and diverse enough groups of people

& ask them to make decisions affecting matters of general interest, [and] that group's decisions will, over time, be intellectually

superior to the isolated individual, no matter how smart or well-informed he is."

TextTextText

1st: release the dataText

Successful governmental data visualization projects include two components.

The first is to release data -- plenty of it -- in easy-to use, easy-to-find, ways.

Sure, some motivated, technologically- sophisticated individuals can create informative data visualizations the hard way,

by “scrapping” data from governmental web sites.

However, now that it is so simple to create data feeds such as RSS or KML that are generated automatically as new data

are added, there’s little rationale for government agencies not to do so.

In fact, Princeton researchers recently released a paper making a startling assertion:

“Rather than struggling, as it currently does, to design sites that meet each end-user’s need, we argue that the executive

branch should focus on creating a simple, reliable and publicly accessible infrastructure that exposes the underlying data.”

Several federal and state agencies now publish a variety of data feeds.

Bar none, the most exciting model is the District of Columbia’s Citywide Data Warehouse. It provides real-time numerical

and geospatial feeds, drawn from more than 200 data sets, ranging from crime reports to to building permits to those pothole

complaints.

Now the UK is upping the ante -- literally.

The government’s Power of Information Task Force is asking the public: “Ever been frustrated that you can't find out

something that ought to be easy to find? Ever been baffled by league tables or 'performance indicators'? Do you think that

better use of public information could improve health, education, justice or society at large?”

Did you ever imagine government would ask you those questions? Wow!

And they aren’t just asking questions: the government is giving a £20,000 prize fund to develop the best ideas on ow to

use government data to the next level.

Let’s hope the result is more data feeds -- and more smart ideas.

2nd: visualize data

The second major component of a public data project is to help people find simple-to-use ways to portray the data

visually. A growing range of new Web 2.0-based visualization tools are readily available. Several commercial sites, such as this

one, Many Eyes, or Swivel, now offer secure versions making it simple for agencies to also add internal visualization sites.

The creators of IBM’s Many Eyes say:

“Our goal is to ‘democratize’ visualization and to enable a new social kind of data analysis …. in recent years, we have

become acutely aware that the visualizations and the sparks they generate, take on new value in a social setting.

Visualization is a catalyst for discussion and collective insight about data .... When we share it and discuss it, we

understand it in new ways.”

This particular visualization was the first one that I personally created, to help understand patterns in DHS's

disbursement of funds for one of its programs. The simple-to-understand directions allowed me to upload the data and create

the visualization in a matter of minutes. If I can do data visualizations, believe me, you can too!

I’m going to conclude with a challenge to all of us: it’s time to put up or shut up.

Data feeds on critical issues are there -- not as many as we’d like, but enough to start.

And we’ve got the tools to make them understandable.

Let’s show that we’re ready, willing, and able to play a constructive role not only in electing candidates, but also in the

governing process as well, by learning how to use these data visualization tools, and creating vibrant, diverse and fact-based

discussions of the issues facing the country.

Texttinyurl.com/568obs

Let me make that challenge a little more specific -- and really timely.

The Obama campaign gets it about the importance of data. In fact, the first two items in the governmental transparency

section of his technology white paper call for:

• “making government data available online in universally accessible formats to allow citizens to… comment, derive value, and

take action in their own communities.”

•and for “pilot programs to open up government decision-making and involve the public in the work of agencies, not simply by

soliciting opinions, but by tapping into the vast and distributed expertise of the American citizenry to help government make

more informed decisions”

Next week the Obama campaign launches meetings across the country, “Listening to America,” designed to involve the

general public in creating the Democratic Platform.

Let’s make that discussion substantive, and fact based, and show that we’re on board with his commitment to make data

available and to use it wisely.

I’ve taken the lead, creating a topic hub, “Obama platform” on the Many Eyes site. The URL is tinyurl.com/5680bs

I’ve “seeded” it with a variety of data, on issues ranging from global warming to the housing crisis, plus some

visualizations various individuals have created of those data, as well as their interpretations of the data.

When you leave this conference, find statistics relating to your pet issues, and upload them to the “Obama platform” hub.

Get your friends to do the same. When you go to the “Listening to America” events next week, cite these data and the

interpretations.

Lets improve the quality of political debate -- and of government, by becoming familiar with data resources and data

visualization tools.

The payoff: transformation!

When that happens, the benefits will be many, and varied:

• more informed policy debate, grounded in fact, rather than rhetoric

• consensus building

• better legislation

• greater transparency and less corruption: greater accountability

• optimizing program efficiency and reducing costs:

• new perspectives, especially when “the wisdom of crowds” emerges.

Who would have believed that dry data -- with a healthy doses of Web 2.0 magic -- could become

the engine to involve the public in governmental transformation! Now go forth and multiply (or

divide or add).

Stephenson StrategiesD.Stephenson @ stephensonstrategies.com

335 Main Street, Medfield, MA 02052508 740-8918

Based in part on a white paper veloped for the nGenera Government 2.0: Wikinomics, Government and Democracy research program

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To learn more about transparent government and how to create the processes and policies to make it a reality, contact:

Stephenson Strategies 335 Main Street, Medfield, MA 02052 (617) 314-7858 D.Stephenson@stephensonstrategies.com