OpenSpending: Building a Global Database of Public Finances Washington, DC - Wolfram Data Summit 2013 Anders Pedersen @openspending / @anpe PRESENTED BY.

OpenSpending: Building a Global Database

of Public Finances

Washington, DC - Wolfram Data Summit 2013

Anders Pedersen @openspending / @anpe

PRESENTED BY

CC-By v3 Licensed (all jurisdictions)

PowerKnowledge is

Open Knowledge is

EmPowerment

We work to open up information & see it transformed into open knowledge that empowers citizens and organizations to better understand their world and effect positive change.

Advocacy and Evangelism toOpen up Data & Content

Create tools, skills and communities

Data => KnowledgeKnowledge => Action

OpenSpendingA global community

Creating an open map of the money

From streetlights to international aid

Why do build a global database of spending

data?

We might hope to see the finances of the Union as clear and intelligible as a merchant's books so that every member of congress and every man of any mind ... should be able to comprehend them, to investigate abuses, and consequently control them.

President Thomas Jefferson to Treasury Secretary Albert Gallatin, 1802

Remember #Muffingate?

Case: Working Links (UK)

72 contracts or 7,400 transactions (2010-2012)

“The private sector shareholders are Capgemini, a consultancy with extensive public sector contracts, and Manpower, a recruitment firm. The charitable owner is Mission Australia, which works with troubled families and children. The British Government holds a stake, managed by the Shareholder Executive.”Source: The Daily Telegraph,

What we do

Development aid

Help citizens map spending in their communityCharter school spending in Washington DC

Budget vs. spending data (Brazil)

Still big issues to solve

Access in more countriesUSASpending (federal): 2007Brazil (federal): 2009United Kingdom: 2010Slovenia: 2011Greece: 2012

Not exactly a ripple effect...

Data is not machine readable

Data is messyUnited Kingdom: 3327 data sets released without any standard No unique identifiers

What is next for OpenSpending?

More types of dataRevenues from extractive industries (following Section 1504 of Dodd-Frank)Procurement dataTaxation dataCompany data

Broaden the community

Nepal: Building connections between developers, journalists and aid specialists

Build initiatives bottom-upJapan: Budget sites in 45 cities

Demonstrate relevance

Deploy tools to dig into spending data patterns

Connect the dots: individuals and government contracts

Exploding Info Complexity

In 1820s all UK bank clearing done in a single room in London once a day. Today, billions of transactions a minute.

Data is a PlatformNot a Commodity

We Build on ItNot Sell It

Becoming theOpen

Knowledge Society

http://okfn.org/http://okfn.org/get-involved/

http://openspending.org/