The City's biggest challenge is staffing. Aside from the learning curve, they say they just don't have many people to input the data. I argued since they are already typing this stuff (usually into a MS Word .doc -Lame!) it wouldn't take any additional staff to type it into a database.

One of the biggest complaints was that the info wasn't making it to the website, or when it did, there wasn't enough notice for meetings or events. Hilariously, our first meeting did not make it on to the website.

I had been wondering what had been done with our recommendations since we presented them last August. From what I can tell they haven't done much if anything (though I have yet to look closely at the development recommendations and progress).

I could babble on for a while, but instead I'll refer you to my previous blather.

OGC "Diary"
http://newnorthender.com/open-government/index.php

The Monster List
http://newnorthender.com/open-government/ogc-monster-list.html

Thanks for actually taking interest in this.

Steve McIntyre

Here are some things I’d like:
– an RSS feed for parking bans, so that I could set something up to send me a text message as soon as a parking ban is declared.
– an API for retrieving past, current, and planned road work information, including location and duration, that I could mashup with Google Maps.
– an API for retrieving information on reported and confirmed crimes and other law enforcement incidents, including latitude/longitude or street address, date and time of incident, who responded, and the result of the incident.
– ways to look up my own personal info that the city has on file, such as my car’s registration information, information on the building I live in (owner, lot details, tax info, etc.) — as long as this info is protected from others’ queries.

Also, what is proprietary about the site or systems so far? I don’t know.

If you want to follow what the current committee recommendations Kiss spoke of see

http://www.google.com/search?q=burlington+open+government+committee

(Perhaps your next blog post?)

The election software for IRV is *loosely* free software. So, I think free software support has legs in Burlington.

I don’t mind the current site, IMO. It just needs a lot of loose ends tied up.

@whereofwecannotspeak Good ideas! I’ve always hated the idea of an “archive” on the web – if you need an archive, that means you didn’t think through the fact that your information architecture should have factored in chronology to begin with. For example, blogs typically don’t need an “archive” because they’re based on chronology to begin with. Interesting idea too about showing all edits ever (like a wiki). That could certainly help with transparency and let people raise questions when data/content is changed.

Consider the fact that a lot of governments are already using Windows based servers (at least over here), or other proprietary software. Interfacing them with software from other manufacturers can be much more costly and difficult, than say getting a Windows server and building a site with ASP.NET.

Of course, this highly depends on whether or not there is a dependency on old systems with such software. In such case, it’s a matter of justifying the possibly greater cost of development.