Open letter to Michigan Gov. Whitmer
January 16, 2019
Governor Whitmer,
Congratulations on your win, and the opportunity to lead the great State of Michigan. I want to call your attention to the importance of open data, and what it can do to provide resources and transparency within your influence of the State of Michigan. Currently data created by the various departments within the State of Michigan can be siloed and provided only when asked for by staffers. An example of the types of data that could be made available include road and transportation statistics, police and enforcement data, legislative records, health and community statistics, educational statistics and much more. The State’s data is an underutilized resource that once freed can create enormous value. I’d like you to join me in freeing that data by supporting an open data bill.
Why publish open data?
1. Makes responding to FOIA and open records requests simpler, quicker and less expensive. A famous essay by the Center for Michigan is titled, “if you want information from government get out your wallet and wait.” This is commonly called the transparency tax and has made getting data into the hands of our citizenry harder than it needs to be.
2. When governments release data it sparks interest by programmers and app developers. Creating an app is no different than cleaning a riverbank, they’re both examples of public service.
3. It helps agencies of different government organizations share data. State department’s data is siloed and when that barrier is removed there is an increase in efficiency. Open data will bring down those silos.
Both weather and GPS data are multi-billion-dollar businesses that were created by the public release of data. According to the GovLab at New York University over 500 businesses have been created based on open government data. Data is an underutilized resource that once freed can create enormous value and build a bridge between private and public entities.
President Barrack Obama signed an open data proclamation in 2013. Shortly after Health and Human Services held their first hackathon. Two emergency room physicians from Denver attended and the app they built, iTriage, received venture capital funding with the company later being purchased by Aetna.
I reached out to David Behen, the former CIO of the State of Michigan, that same year proposing the State of Michigan publish open data and an open data computer programming festival be held in Detroit called Code Michigan. The following year it expanded to three cities in the state. Several apps evolved to become startup businesses.
Previous Code Michigan successes included:
MI Maps — All Michigan State Parks and attractions were mapped. You can view where you are in relation to the park’s attractions. There’s a guide to restaurants and gas stations near the park complete with Yelp ratings.
MI Legi — Track all bills before the legislature and email the constituent’s representative or senator right from the app to provide valuable input.
Snow Fi — An app that will allow you to see which routes have been plowed before you leave for work. This allow commuters to choose a safe path to where they need to go while there is snow on the ground.
Gravesite Locator — An app that geo-references gravesites so that they can be easily located.
Several states starting with Hawaii have already passed open data bills. A group that I work with drafted a bill which received sponsorship this past year by Senator Curtis Hertel. It’s been through the drafting process. It exempts the executive branch and doesn’t involve hiring anyone. The State already has the software licensed so there is no to little additional cost to implement it.
What would have happened if the State’s tests on Flint water had been public? Could university scientists or a newspaper’s hired experts have shined a light on the problem bringing about a much quicker resolution to the crisis? The State of Michigan needs to marshal open data as a resource to help itself and others or forever be on the defense.
“Publicity is justly commended as a remedy for social and industrial diseases. Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants; electric light the most efficient policeman. The most important political office is that of the private citizen.”
- Justice Louis D. Brandeis
The citizens in the State of Michigan want a government that knows itself and can prove it with raw facts and figures. They want a government that not only knows it needs to fix its roads but which roads and why, has already sourced the sand and gravel, and made the data open available for both bidders and public inspection.
The State of Michigan already has active civic coding groups in Detroit, Ann Arbor and Grand Rapids that are consuming already publicly available data and creating amazing apps, made available to the citizens of Michigan. We have an historic opportunity to make the State’s government a platform upon which many can build, and I’d like your help making it so.
- Rick Mason, serial entrepreneur and Code Michigan founder
Thanks to Nick Kwiatkowski, James Wilfong, Jerry Paffendorf and John Farrar for reading drafts of this letter.
