Classic dilemmas are like riddles, or puzzles. Solving them can feel elusive, leading to prolonged bouts of inadequacy, schism, and want. A classic dilemma has three aspects.

1. The unreachable destination
2. “~”, or the conjoining factor, aka the relation-ship
3. The easily possessed requisites, or raw goods (already in arms reach)

By viewing this project, along with similar attempts at catalyzing Open Gov(ernment) as classic dilemmas, we institute a logic model that overcomes adversity.

Whereas the aggregating of federal budget data represents the (seemingly) unreachable destination, I argue that Treasury Board’s website (and similar resources) represent our easily possessed requisites.

This raises the question of relation-ship. What conjoining factor will solve our dilemma, given my claim that Treasury Board’s data leads to aggregated federal budget data in two easy steps? I’m asking: what’s the next step? How would we get there (3) from here (1)?

A dilemma’s relation-ship helps frustrated populations sail over rough waters. The ship’s physicality comes from the raw goods that surround us, where here ‘us’ refers to progressives in support of Open Gov and ‘raw goods’ refers to government department/Ministry expenditures data.

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The other day I spotted a relation-ship hailing from the United Kingdom. I called out to the ship. “Who are you? Where are you coming from? And where are you headed?” They replied, “Where does my money go?” As I mulled this over privately, a second reply came from the distance. “We are what we seek. Our identity-as-question indicates our origins. Questions and identities infused with direction enable movements.”

I stood there, thinking about our own dilemma, trying to make up an identity-as-question like the Brits had done. I thought about all the British high water adventures. ‘Wondered about their past movements, landings, and domineering actions. Something’s different these days. The universality that the UK and other great States claim doesn’t seem to be territorial, nor coercive. I would call it an adoptive universalism, wherein the off-spring of great States are initiatives encapsulated by questions. In this way, any country might ask the same question. But in doing so, it displays its own public initiative.

So now I’m asking, where does my money go? Specifically, where does my Canadian money go? The money can always be traced further out. But my British mates meant something specific by the word ‘go’. They meant ‘going’. Where does my (tax) money go (annually)? The Brits wonder, as do we, what additions or alterations occur annually, affecting my (tax) money’s flow?

Adjustments in spending are made public during the tabling of Canada’s annual budget. Ministries provide the basis for mapping money. From Ministry to department, and from department to program. It gets a bit more detailed, but what data verifiably assists the layman’s understanding? Each point of money retention is a node, or data point. And where a node delivers grants, funds, or expertise to civil society and the market, there we can record a stimulus.

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At launch, this initiative was necessary. It gained its conviction in a climate of near-zero interest rates, bankrupt transnationals, share-acquiring governments, and failed banks. While foreign governments leveraged (read: tested out) advanced online data gathering and dissemination tools, the Canadian Government stood still. While Americans collaborated to enable novel self-reporting routines, Canada’s Government reacted by creating a Google Map with little pin markers, indicating where projects were slated or underway around the country. Something had to be done. We tried to identify that specific something, but instead began by settling for a buck shot. A site. A wiki. A blog. Even a back-end project space. We had everything, except for an explicit root cause that Canadians could comprehend and rally around. Didn’t anyone stop to ask, “what’s a stimulus (package) anyways?

We wanted to affect change. We took action by creating a bunch of space. We then invited public participation. But invitations alone do not create communities. There needs to be a promise, or possibility around which community can gather. In the case of a data initiative, data needs to be acquired, or at least be on its way. Very quickly, it was clear that Open Data in Canada was still maturing as a movement. That meant no data, for now. The political waters were hostile to our popular destination. Though moored for some time, we’ve regained our energy and are channeling positive thoughts elsewhere.

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The equation for a budget tracking and implementation schema (PDF) is:

This = These = Those

Here, this refers to the budget as a whole. These refers to the major zones or Ministries where funds are allocated. Thirdly, those refer to the specifically-named funds or programs where money is retained for interaction with civil society and the market.

The Parliamentary Budget Officer is in the middle of a classic dilemma. He’s pointing to a far-off place, where forecasting and costing boost planning for initiatives. Kevin Page needs to ask: what resources are at my disposal? How can I bring about new accountability? What can I construct with these materials at hand?

From a bit of this to a collection of these.

When writing this post, I was reminded of my initial interests in the @StimCan initiative.

“How best can we facilitate data’s exchange?”

I then thought three statements would do the job.

I have _____.
I want _____.
I need _____.

For example, I have __data on the Infrastructure Stimulus Fund___ (PDF).

I say if you’re down with data, then we should mix things up a little.

I think if we need something done, lets just (put in an) ask.

I want  ___to Track the Money___!

But that’s America’s motto. And aren’t mottos presumptive?

Instead, what’s Canada’s question?

Maybe, “How can we track our Loonies?” That won’t fly. Someone might misinterpret the meaning of ‘our loonies‘.

What’s happening in Canada’s loonie bin? That, too, might be misinterpreted. Either way, looks like we just need more interpreters.

Open Data and Open Government are each gaining ground. Maybe you’re wondering what the difference between the two is? That question marks the end of this initiative, and the uptake of a broader, more diffuse effort. Canadians are demanding Open Data while giving form to Open Government.

We’re placing demands on what’s taking shape. Time for Canada to Open up a little.

So we’ll be pulling the site and the wiki. We’ll keep the blog for a while longer, to let others know about the project lessons learned.  Although we didn’t reach our desired end state, we did accomplish a few things along the way. Part of our goal was to raise the profile of open data and get people talking about it, and some could say we did that. Mind you, we weren’t the only ones who had come ready to talk open data at ChangeCamp.

I learned so much working on this initiative.  I learned about open data, open source, drupal, the Parliamentary Budget Office and other mechanisms of government,  collaborative project planning and new ways of working with cloud-hosted apps.  I didn’t learn how to make budget data more available or less political though, so I still have a long way to go.

After a quiet summer and early fall, the @stimcan team is pleased to be receiving a healthy dose of attention.   What has been happening?  Media has picked up our story – Canadian Press, Metro, Winnipeg Free Press,  Le Journal de Montreal,  the Cape Breton Post and the Chronicle Herald, to name a few.  What has been the result?  Canadians are getting in touch with us, telling us to keep at it. “We need this information (and data)!”

So, with that spirit in mind, we thought we would link you to the recent stories, but more importantly, make a shout out for your submissions, your stories, thoughts and perspectives.  The initiative will grow through your participation.

Connect with the Stimulus Watch project at:

By email: info@stimuluswatch.ca

On Twitter: @stimcan

And soon via a Facebook Page!

In the Media:

TODAY! 

At 1:30pm EST, Senator Elaine McCoy will be on the Dave Rutherford Show // AM 770 CHQR

YESTERDAY!

Stimulus spending watchdogs stymied by lack of Canadian data // Winnipeg Free Press

Stimulus detail in U.S. prompts envy in data-starved Canada // Metro News

Around the Web:

Show Us the Money // Liberal Arts & Minds

Dude, where’s my stimulus? // Techvibes.com

Where do you fit in? Can you lend a helping hand? The work that needs to be done is much more like play. At least it feels that way when you get connected to the right people who share your interests and passion. Do you write? or report? How about programming? Can you apply yourself in the packaging of data for public consumption? Are you a good storyteller? Voice or keyboard? In this town, we’re collecting raw goods (read: data) and we’re processing it for public digestion and export. The larger achievement of this enterprise is the broad, voluntary participation by active Canadian citizens. And the reward is not simply ‘participation’ but rather the skill of ‘coordination’. That is to say, from being a part of our village’s activities, each participant gains strength and knowledge in the realm of self-organization among (geographically) dispersed, (digitially) inter-connected social networks.

A dynamic site. A crowd-developed wiki. A project blog. A database. The site will explain, re-direct, outline, and offer detail about various aspects of the project as it evolves. Reflections and reviews of this evolution will take place in the project blog. The wiki will ideally grow into a public resource, which educates visitors about the budget, its development and implementation, with broad connections to all current and emerging resources aggregated by the project. The database hosts public data sets, while also serving as a support for the tracking and coordination of related online resources and feeds.

The truth of the matter is that our village is only coming to be. We’ve put up flyers about a frontier town, which we’ve only named and surveyed recently. We just now have the basic infrastructure up for people to settle here and take their place. So a variety of lots are presently available. Where ‘ye reckon you’ll lean up? The liberty’s yours.

Taking notes at ChangeCamp session
CC-BY-NC-ND
http://www.flickr.com/photos/crangulabford/3537017342/

I went to the first meeting, but decided not to participate on the planning committee.  I didn’t want to stretch myself too thin.  If I did, I’d lose steam and be too tired to enjoy, and help out, on the day of the event.  The benefits of participating in social media  - reading blogs & online forums, learning and sharing knowledge with my tweeps on Twitter - has had a huge impact on my work and personal life. 

I wanted to contribute something back to the cause.  It was my pleasure to be able to help the people who have taken the time to organize this conference and others who have taught me through their openness and use of social media.

I’ve been inspired by so many people and events lately.  Working with McCoy, Gwen, Morgen and Richard is enriching my life enough already but hearing them talk about StimulusWatch.ca yesterday was re-energizing.  Senator McCoy proposed the session to the changecampers first thing in the morning and facilitated it as well.  Gwen live videostreamed all day. Morgen and Richard explained some advantages of community participation and open data. I bounced around with the audio recorder. Everyone shared their ideas and asked thoughtful questions.

I ran out of steam early in the day but left with a whole list of people to follow on Twitter, ideas to blog about, and new items on my to do list that I can’t wait to get started on.

As you may have seen by tracking our Twitter hashtag #stimcan, there’s a video interview, an audio interview, and you can also see some of us in action:

Senator McCoy proposing our session

CC-BY-NC-ND http://www.flickr.com/photos/crangulabford/3536985736/

Laura explaining something or possibly giving her tiger impression

CC-BY-ND http://www.flickr.com/photos/ming2046/3537181875/

Senator McCoy facilitating / taking down feedback and ideas

CC-BY-NC-ND http://www.flickr.com/photos/crangulabford/3536206165/

Gwen’s video-streaming setup - Gwen and Senator McCoy powered by enthusiasm and caffeine

CC-BY-NC-SA Richard Akerman

Morgen chatting with Senator McCoy

CC-BY-NC-ND http://www.flickr.com/photos/crangulabford/3536158801/

It can be hard to pin point the exact moment a thought becomes an idea, becomes an action, but what I can tell you is that when the Senate received the budget, that was when Senator McCoy expressed the thought that Canadians needed deserved a platform where they could track government spending AND offer their feedback in real time – Canadians Helping Government Help Canadians.

So, Senator McCoy brought together individuals she knew with website and design experience and those with a keen interest in public policy who a) have insight into where some of the federal dollars are going and b) whose work and service can only benefit from having access to more data. 

In an interview with CBC radio Senator McCoy planted the seed if you will and the idea immediately began to sprout. We not only heard from those supporting the idea, but more so, those wanting to volunteer to help make the idea become a reality. This simple step brought us Laura, Richard and Morgen, our web guru’s….our guides. 

Since then we have been propelled into a whole new realm, where blogging and email are “old school” and web 2.0 Social Web is alive and thriving. Our guides networked and patiently taught us about social media and introduced us to a whole new wonderful lexicon. But more than that, they have shown us that there is an abundance of Canadians who share the common vision of openness and collaboration; a common passion for effective change in how we govern. 

A thought, an idea, a whole new magical world…Can it get any better?

The idea merged all of my interests: to engage with all kinds of Canadians using online technology to crowdsource the reporting of how the Stimulus Budget was impacting citizens and communities might help Canada weather the economic storm.  If we could come up with a way to measure it early and repeatedly, we could have almost real time data on which to base decisions. I was almost sold.

I blogged about it right away. I could see a “Government improvement enabled by citizen monitoring” post two years from now.  I would offer encouragement, if nothing else.

Gwen, at Senator McCoy’s office, e-mailed me that day.  We fixed an appointment for Monday after work, with an agreement that I’d bring some/body(ies) with me.  We needed a number of questions answered to figure out if this idea was do-able.  I didn’t have the expertise.  Luckily two peers, Well, one Peers and one Akerman, responded to my plea for participation.

Richard, Morgen, Gwen, Senator McCoy and I had an excellent first meeting; not least of all due to the coffee.  We shared ideas and gave language to what were still only vague ideas at that point.  We all thought it was possible but we’d have to spend some energy to make it happen. And more than that, we would need to recruit more people.  Senator McCoy had some, I figured I had a couple of people I could call on for help.  We all jumped in with both feet.

This is the first time I enter into a collaborative agreement.  I feel like I should be paying or getting paid.  But mostly I think this is just a really great learning experience.  I call it professional development.  I learn skills I can add to my CV. I work with dedicated experts who sit patiently through theories about Zombies2.0. and questions about twitter etiquette or iPhone apps.  So far so good, if we can get some momentum going, I really think we could create a platform to let citizens and government interact while we figure out how to do more with less.

Can’t wait to hear your ideas about what we could do with this site.