Brazilian Government Open Data: Implementation,
Challenges, and Potential Opportunities a developer point of view
15th Annual International Conference on Digital Government Research
Kellyton Brito Ph.D. Candidate - Pernambuco Federal University
Assistant Professor - Pernambuco Rural Federal University
June/ 2014
• Introduction
• Brazilian Government Open Data (BGOD)
• Implementation of 2 applications using (BGOD)
• Discussion of challenges and opportunities
Agenda
Open Government
According to T. O'Reilly:
“the use of technology— especially the collaborative technologies at the heart of Web 2.0— to better solve collective problems at a city, state, national and international level”
3
Open Government
• Well known* benefits:
– To increase of transparency, public participation and collaboration;
– To decrease of corruption;
– To increase of efficiency and effectiveness in Government;
– To offer better services;
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Open Government Partnership
• 2011 – Open Government Partnership (opengovpartnership.org)
• 8 Founding Governments – Brazil, Indonesia, Mexico, Norway, the Philippines, South
Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States
• Currently: 64 countries
• Open Government Declaration -> Country action plans
5
Brazilian Actions
• Access to Information Law (2011) – Active and reative publishing
• Open Data Portal: dados.gov.br – 238 datasources and 2132 resources (june/14)
• Lots of specific portals – Cities, government agencies
• Hacker marathons and application contests
6
Brazilian Application Contests
• Recife Application Contest1
– Launched at the same time that City Open Data Portal - July/2013
– Objective: "to build applications or conceptual projects that enhance life in Recife.“
– Total prizes: US$15,000
• First prize for app category: US$ 4,500.00
– Only Recife citizens
– 34 projects + 23 applications
1 http://cidadaointeligente.rec.br/
7
Brazilian Application Contests
• RioApps application Contest2
– Launched August/2013
– Data from Rio de Janeiro open data portal
– Objective: "to create software applications that improve the city and the lives of its residents, businesses and tourists.”
– US$40,000 through thirteen prizes, including one "popular choice" category
– 264 applications
2 http://rioapps.com.br 8
The Applications
• Cidadao Recifense (Recife Citizen)
– First prize winner of Recife application contest
– Data about budget, education, health and tourism.
– http://cidadaorecifense.com.br
• Rio Inteligente (Smart Rio)
– Second best voted on health category.
– A subset of Cidadao Recifense. Only health data.
• First challenge: the impossibility to develop the same app
– http://rio.cidadaointeligente.com
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Main Functionalities
• Health-units finder
– Where is the nearest?
• Hospital, Emergency Unit, Family Clinics, Rehab, etc?
14
Main Functionalities
• Health-units finder
– Where is the nearest?
• Hospital, Emergency Unit, Family Clinics, Rehab, etc?
• Vaccination Card
– Vaccination: well-know method to prevent many diseases
– How to remember when to get vaccinated?
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Main Functionalities
• Health-units finder – Where is the nearest?
• Hospital, Emergency Unit, Family Clinics, Rehab, etc?
• Vaccination Card – Vaccination: well-know method to prevent many
diseases
– How to remember when to get vaccinated?
• Several functionalities only on Recife’s site
27
Challenges
• Difficulty of governments to provide useful websites based on their data
• Multiple and decentralized data sources
– National open data portal already exists
– Rio de Janeiro and Recife (and lots of cities and government agencies) have their portal
– Some divergences between all of them
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Challenges
• Lack of standards for data publishing
– Each publisher chooses what and how to publish
– No compliance with national repository
– No standards among cities
– No standards within the city or agency or domain
Webservices, CSV, XML, JSON , Plain text...
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Challenges
• "Zombie" data
– Dumps of databases
• Even if accessed through an online API
– No updates policies
• One-way data
– How to return data to government?
• How to measure the impact?
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Opportunities
• General public can provide some services better than the government, using their (our) data
• The creation of a framework of republishing government data: – Common Architecture – Pluggable – Through an online API – According to common patterns/standards
• The creation of a sustainable business model for this kind of application
GOV
Public 35
Brazilian Government Open Data: Implementation,
Challenges, and Potential Opportunities a developer point of view
15th Annual International Conference on Digital Government Research
Kellyton Brito Ph.D. Candidate - Pernambuco Federal University
Assistant Professor - Pernambuco Rural Federal University
June/ 2014