Yearly Archives: 2014

Common Core Metadata for Open Data: A technical document on creating a common vocabulary for the datasets released by various agencies to the public, so that the information is easy to compare across datasets.
Open Data Policy Guidelines – Sunlight Foundation: A set of detailed guidelines on values that open data policies should incorporate prepared by the Sunlight Foundation, the leader in the field.
The Popolo Project: A collaborative project for building international open government data specifications relating to the legislative branch of government, so that civil society can spend less time transforming data and more time applying it to the problems they face. A related goal is to make it easier for civic developers to create government transparency, monitoring and engagement websites, by developing reusable open source components that implement the specifications. Although the data specification is designed primarily for open government use cases, many other use cases are supported.
Open Data & RTI: An international symposium that posed the question of whether Open data is a complementary concept or if it imposes restrictions of Freedom of Information. The page has the podcast of talks by legal scholars discussing new legal developments in Europe on this subject.
White House Open Data Policy: A short note outlining The White House’ open data policy issued on May 2013.
Communications & IT – United States Access Board: US Access Board creates regulations for equal access for people with disabilities. This page provides provisions pertaining to equal access in the domain of ICT.
White House Circular No. A-130 Revised: This Circular establishes policy for the management of Federal information resources. It includes a detailed set of procedural and analytic guidelines for implementing open data policies. It provides a useful background reading for those interested in practical aspects of open data policy.
Open Data Policy Comparison: Best Practices: Spreadsheet on various aspects of open data policies that are coming up in federal, state, county and city levels in the US. Each policy is evaluated based on a number of parametres that helps assess how far the law will go in making government data truely open.
New York open data amendment to administrative law: New York’s amendments to it’s administrative law creating the regulatory framework for providing open data. Useful for those who are looking for legal provisions for open data.
Open511: Open511 proposes specifications for road incidents, construction and etc. that matches open data criteria. With Open511, public bodies and citizens can get the most out of their jurisdiction
A spectacular defeat like the one suffered by the United Progressive Alliance II government could not have happened without a confluence of reasons. A consistent and careful messaging by the opposition and organisational and financial muscle of the BJP, among other things clearly played a role in UPA’s loss. What one cannot deny is that UPA II lost public confidence based on its abysmal record in office over the last five years. I’d like to focus today on one factor that created the greatest anger against the UPA and one more that gave people no reason to support it unlike […]

What broke UPA II

There have been many racist-like commentaries on rural and poor voters by the urban elite in this election season in India. Where would this lead us?

Urban arrogance in India’s elections

Just learned that one of the first to welcome me to the US is now gone. Pepsi, the adorable lab, with all her energy and love was a constant companion during my first five years in this country. There is so much to remember about Pepsi. Our long walks. Her “let’s play” look, and how she mistook me for my cousin– or should I say, her ‘dad’ – once. I will remember for a long time how I had to open the bedroom door when it was time to sleep and race to bed before Pepsi could occupy the whole […]

To a ‘Pepsi’ I loved