Hans Rosling
Opening up government data, along with open communities/priojects, will create a whirlwind of creative solutions to the problems we, as societies, face. In fact, I think such a move is essential for sensible solutions to the increasingly complex problems of the world: governments seem to be getting worse and worse at solving the problems we want them to solve. They seem less able and less willing. (Think health in Quebec, climate change, urban planning, to name 3).
I am one of the founding members of civicaccess.ca (though my participation was and remains minimal), which I hope might turn into a central space for making this happen in Canada.
Austin pointed me to a fantastic data talk (a TED video) by Hans Rosling at TED. Tracey points to the same place.
Here is Rosling’s blog. Here is his data/deisgn software project, gapminder.
And here is Free Our Data: Blog, a “A Guardian Technology campaign for free public access to data about the UK and its citizens.”
Which reminds me of a similar campaign from the Globe and Mail (ha ha ha! right.).
