question from EPA on data formats

[Micah Sifry]

Jeffrey Levy at the EPA Greenversations blog has a question that the folks here ought to be able to answer:

Transparent Calendars

Posted on May 6th, 2009 - 12:30 PM

---

About the author: Jeffrey Levy joined EPA in 1993 to help protect the ozone layer. He is now the NDirector of Web Communications.

A couple of weeks ago, EPA Administrator Jackson issued a memo calling for maximum transparency in everything we do. The memo put into EPA terms the ideas first espoused in the memo President Obama issued on his first full day in office, saying that government must be transparent, participatory, and collaborative.  The overarching theme is that you, the public, are entitled to know what we’re up to.

Those of us in EPA’s Web community really took notice, because our site and various social media tools (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) offer so many ways to serve those goals.  We have several projects underway.

One of the first is that the Administrator publishes her daily working calendar showing meetings with the public.  Next, she directed her senior management team to do the same.

We’re now setting up the process, and you’ll soon be able to see who’s meeting with top EPA leaders.

It occurs to us, though, that we could do better than simply giving you a calendar in table form. What if you could download multiple calendars across EPA and other agencies, and then create mashups as you saw fit?

So we want to publish machine-readable formats, too. And that’s where you can help us. Please let us know what works best: comma delimited, something else?

Also, please help us understand how you’d use the info; that’ll help us figure out how to make it easier.

We’ll be coming back to you to ask for your help on other questions, too, so here’s to a long, collaborative discussion!

http://blog.epa.gov/blog/2009/05/06/transparent-calendars/

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[Mark Tapscott]

Will the EPA calendar actually reflect all meetings of the Administrator or just those she and/or her staff deem to be of public interest? 

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[Jeremy Carbaugh]

Here is my answer that I posted to the blog:

At a bare minimum, you should provide schedule data using the iCalendar format.

http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2445.txt
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICalendar

iCalendar is widely supported by applications such as Microsoft Exchange, Apple’s iCal, Google Calendar, and others. There are also libraries for many programming languages that make it easy to work with the data in the format.

In addition to iCalendar, other formats to consider include:

- XML using xCal (http://xml.coverpages.org/iCal.html)
- hCalendar to markup the HTML page (http://microformats.org/wiki/hcalendar)

I would actually avoid releasing generic comma delimited data since there are plenty of great formats meant specifically for schedules and calendars.

Great work, and thanks much for asking the community for suggestions!

On Wed, May 6, 2009 at 1:32 PM, Micah Sifry <msi...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Josh Tauberer]

In addition (as submitted):

Besides the choice of data format, one needs to also consider what
information there is to be made available and how the public might use
it. If there is a calendar of meetings, the public might want to be able
to (reliably) categorize meetings by type or topic. In that case you
would need to include in the calendar data some normalized values for
topics that machines can search and sort, rather than merely having it
be obvious to a human reading the free text description of the event,
and that may not be possible in all calendar formats. I’m not familiar
with how the EPA works so I can’t give good examples. Also depending on
how many calendar feeds you create, you may need to also think about
aggregating them or listing them in a way that makes it easy for users
or web developers to choose the right ones. That is, calendars may also
need *metadata* reliably describing what the particular calendar feed is
for.

- Josh Tauberer
- GovTrack.us

http://razor.occams.info

"Yields falsehood when preceded by its quotation! Yields
falsehood when preceded by its quotation!" Achilles to
Tortoise (in "Godel, Escher, Bach" by Douglas Hofstadter)

On 05/06/2009 01:58 PM, Jeremy Carbaugh wrote:
> Here is my answer that I posted to the blog:
>
> At a bare minimum, you should provide schedule data using the iCalendar
> format.
>
> http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2445.txt
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICalendar
>
> iCalendar is widely supported by applications such as Microsoft
> Exchange, Apple’s iCal, Google Calendar, and others. There are also
> libraries for many programming languages that make it easy to work with
> the data in the format.
>
> In addition to iCalendar, other formats to consider include:
>
> - XML using xCal (http://xml.coverpages.org/iCal.html)
> - hCalendar to markup the HTML page (http://microformats.org/wiki/hcalendar)
>
> I would actually avoid releasing generic comma delimited data since
> there are plenty of great formats meant specifically for schedules and
> calendars.
>
> Great work, and thanks much for asking the community for suggestions!
>
>
>
>
> On Wed, May 6, 2009 at 1:32 PM, Micah Sifry <msi...@gmail.com
> <mailto:msi...@gmail.com>> wrote:
>
> Jeffrey Levy at the EPA Greenversations blog has a question that the
> folks here ought to be able to answer:
>
>
> Transparent Calendars
>
> Posted on May 6th, 2009 - 12:30 PM

> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> /About the author: Jeffrey Levy joined EPA in 1993 to help protect
> the ozone layer. He is now the NDirector of Web Communications./

>
> A couple of weeks ago, EPA Administrator Jackson issued a memo
> calling for maximum transparency

> <http://epa.gov/administrator/operationsmemo.html> in everything we

> do. The memo put into EPA terms the ideas first espoused in the memo
> President Obama issued

> <http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/TransparencyandOpenGovernment/>

> on his first full day in office, saying that government must be
> transparent, participatory, and collaborative. The overarching
> theme is that you, the public, are entitled to know what we’re up to.
>
> Those of us in EPA’s Web community really took notice, because our
> site and various social media tools (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) offer
> so many ways to serve those goals. We have several projects underway.
>

> image of a calendar pageOne of the first is that the Administrator

> publishes her daily working calendar showing meetings with the

> public <http://www.epa.gov/administrator/schedule.htm>. Next, she

[Jeffrey Levy, US EPA]

Mark:

We'll display all meetings with the public. We won't be considering
whether we think those meetings are of interest.

Jeffrey Levy
US EPA

On May 6, 1:47 pm, Mark Tapscott <mark.tapsc...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Will the EPA calendar actually reflect all meetings of the Administrator or
> just those she and/or her staff deem to be of public interest?
>
>
>
> On Wed, May 6, 2009 at 1:32 PM, Micah Sifry <msi...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > Jeffrey Levy at the EPA Greenversations blog has a question that the folks
> > here ought to be able to answer:
>
> > Transparent Calendars Posted on May 6th, 2009 - 12:30 PM

> > ------------------------------
>
> > *About the author: Jeffrey Levy joined EPA in 1993 to help protect the
> > ozone layer. He is now the NDirector of Web Communications.*

>
> > A couple of weeks ago, EPA Administrator Jackson issued a memo calling for

> > maximum transparency <http://epa.gov/administrator/operationsmemo.html> in

> > everything we do. The memo put into EPA terms the ideas first espoused in

> > the memo President Obama issued<http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/TransparencyandOpenGovernm...>on his first full day in office, saying that government must be transparent,

> > participatory, and collaborative.  The overarching theme is that you, the
> > public, are entitled to know what we’re up to.
>
> > Those of us in EPA’s Web community really took notice, because our site and
> > various social media tools (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) offer so many ways to
> > serve those goals.  We have several projects underway.
>
> > [image: image of a calendar page]One of the first is that the
> > Administrator publishes her daily working calendar showing meetings with

> > the public <http://www.epa.gov/administrator/schedule.htm>.  Next, she

> mark.tapsc...@gmail.com
> mtapsc...@dcexaminer.comhttp://www.dcexaminer.com/
> Proprietor,
> Tapscott's Copy Desk bloghttp://www.dcexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/TapscottsCopyDesk/

[Jon Henke]

First, thank you for taking the steps you've taken.....and for being willing to discuss it publicly. I know it's awfully tempting to follow the Monty Python advice for How Not To Be Seen (don't stand up), because the people who are willing to stand up and engage end up taking the slings and arrows.

Second, a couple questions:

1) Who is and is not "the public"? How is that category defined?

2) Why wouldn't the EPA disclose non-public meetings? I can understand the interest in not making the contents of meetings public, but what's the compelling public interest in not disclosing that they happened?

Perhaps there is a solid rationale there that just doesn't occur to me, but that exception seems like a potentially big rock under which a lot of meetings could be shoved.

_________
Jon Henke


-----Original Message-----
From: "Jeffrey Levy, US EPA" <usep...@gmail.com>

Date: Wed, 6 May 2009 18:54:27
To: Open House Project<openhous...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: [openhouseproject] Re: question from EPA on data formats

[Jeffrey Levy, US EPA]

Jon:

You're welcome, but as far as we're concerned, you're entitled. I
mean, you pay us. :)

I believe the definition will be that people outside gov't are "the
public."

As to your second question, people are constantly reading things into
who meets with whom. Think of it in your own life. Ever noted that
someone was going into your boss' or coworker's office and speculated
as to why?

And as to your last point (shoving things under a rock), the best
answer is to watch what we do. I think trust will build over time as
we do what we say we'll do.

Jeremy and Josh: thanks to you, too, for your thoughts (and I thanked
you in our blog, too). That's very useful info!

Jeffrey Levy
US EPA

[Mark Tapscott]

Jeffrey, with all due respect:

When government officials routinely  include on their online calenders names and titles of all meeting participants, a link to minutes of the meetings and links to copies of all documents considered in the meetings, then we will have a genuinely useful and credible transparency tool. Otherwise, merely listing a bunch of "Staff briefing" meetings is still mainly just pr spin intended to create the appearance of transparency.

The reality is that much of the most significant work an executive branch appointee does during the day isn't in official meetings but in conversation with one, two or a few key staff, telephone conversations with Members of Congress/committee staff, etc. And of course the argument against listing such activity on a public calender is that it discourages candid advice and discussion.

  

mark.t...@gmail.com
mtap...@dcexaminer.com

[John Wonderlich]

Otherwise, merely listing a bunch of "Staff briefing" meetings is still mainly just pr spin intended to create the appearance of transparency.

It's also a big step in the right direction, whose implementation and impact will likely be followed by other agency heads closely as they gauge the public appetite for real information beyond press releases.

I do find this phrasing a bit confusing, as Jon did:

We'll display all meetings with the public.

At first read, I read it to be "(We'll display all meetings) with the public", rather than "We'll display all (meetings with the public)".

This strikes me as similar to the line drawing happening around stimulus funds -- government agencies are being asked to make new kinds of distinctions about when speech should be public or private, written or oral, banned, recorded, etc.  Those lines won't be easy, and will take some tweaking to get right.

I'm glad the EPA is taking a proactive stance toward affirmative disclosure -- it should only lead to better things.

[Jeffrey Levy, EPA]

We've issued the guidance memo to senior managers. You can read it
here: http://www.epa.gov/adminweb/opa/workschedules.html

We'll begin posting calendars next Tuesday, after the Memorial Day
holiday.

Jeffrey Levy
Director of Web Communications
US EPA