Open Government and the legal profession
The Government recently called for freer access to state data. This was promptly followed up by the release of the draft NZ Government Open Access and Licensing (NZGOAL) framework. It endorsed the view of the NZ Council for Humanities:
“Now more than ever is there a very present need to bring information the Government holds on behalf of its people into the public domain so that it may be used in ways that stimulate innovation, generate cultural creativity, social interaction and dialogue, while also kick starting economic growth.”
Amen. Last month Tim O’Reilly put the question succinctly: “can government become a platform?… the real secret of success in Government 2.0 is thinking about government as a platform.”
He elaborates:
“Rather than licensing government data to a few select ‘value added’ providers, who then license the data downstream, the federal government (and many state and local governments) are beginning to provide an open platform that enables anyone with a good idea to build innovative services that connect government to citizens, give citizens visibility into the actions of government and even allow citizens to participate directly in policy-making.”
The legal profession should be at the forefront of this process, but it has a history of lagging in such matters – even in the United States, as reported here following September’s Gov 2.0 Summit in Washington DC:
“Unfortunately, the legal profession was missing from the proceedings, convicted in absentia for being part of the problem instead of part of the solution.”
Let’s hope that as this process moves forward, through Government programmes and the efforts of those such as Open New Zealand, the legal profession and justice system is a full participant, and able to be part of the solution.
