New Book Review: "Data for the Public Good"

New book review for Data for the Public Good: How Data Can Help Citizens and Government, by Alex Howard, O'Reilly, 2012, reposted here:

Similar to another recently published O'Reilly Strata series text on Big Data, "Designing Great Data Products: Inside the Drivetrain Approach, a Four-step Process for Building Data Products", in the sense that it is very succinct, in this case providing focus on data for a specific purpose, rather than solely focusing on Big Data like the other series entries I have read recently, "Big Data Now: Current Perspectives from O'Reilly Radar" and "Planning for Big Data: A CIO's Handbook to the Changing Data Landscape", this quick read is expected to be a welcome addition to the reading list of anyone beginning their investigation of government data being made available to the public (otherwise known as "open data").

After discussing the case for open data and the potential that it has for public good, Howard walks the reader through several examples of how open data is currently being used, and then addresses trends demanding special attention in this space. As a consultant who has worked for both public and private sector clients, including pro bono work for another consulting firm which provides services around open data, I especially appreciate the outline of four areas that support the investment in this space that the author shares from John Tolva, the chief technology officer for Chicago, which includes trust, accountability of the work force, business building, and urban analytics, as well as the sharing of four trends that include civic network effects, hybridized data models, personal data ownership, and smart disclosure.

And the closing thought of the author speakes volumes: "The exabyte age will bring with it the twin challenges of information overload and overconsumption, both of which will require organizations of all sizes to use the emerging toolboxes for filtering, analysis and action. To create public good from public goods – the public sector data that governments collect, the private sector data that is being collected and the social data that we generate ourselves – we will need to collectively forge new compacts that honor existing laws and visionary agreements that enable the new data science to put the data to work."