Tom Steinberg on Open Data

We live in quite extraordinary times. We live at a moment where many of the most important politicians in our country and in some others overseas are actually eager to stand up and say that open data is an important priority for them, and for their nations. Just pause and think about it for a second: politicians! Talking about data! At all!

via Premise: Open Data: How Not To Cock It Up.

See DataSF for a great example of open data provided by a (municipal) government and some of the projects citizens have been rolling out with the said data.

Corruption-Ending SMS, I like that

On receiving their money in this way for the first time, most Afghan policemen assumed that they had been given a salary increase: in fact they had simply received their full pay for the first time. In some cases they received pay ‘rises’ of more than a third, preventing defections to the Taliban who were previously able to pay higher ‘salaries’.

via M-Paisa: Ending Afghan Corruption, one Text at a Time.