HK$50 June 21st – July 4th 2013 www.harbourtimes.com

Inside Hong Kong Politics, Government and International Affairs 在香港政治政府及國際關係前沿

公開資料

Open Data 為何有些信息該向公眾免費發放

Opening government for a stronger Hong Kong

Photo: Peter Parks/AFP

Sino-US wrestling lands on Hong Kong Hong Kong tries to avoid a diplomatic bodyslam 中美角力 香港如何從外交硝煙中抽身

Photo: Aaron Tam/AFP

ICAC Reform New South Wales shows a way ahead 廉署改革 澳洲新南威爾士州的另一條路

Photo: Eyepress news

Hong Kong, America, and Snowden Hong Kong has no enemies, but might need protection from its friends 斯諾登門 沒有敵人的香港更需謹防盟友

Diplomat Lunch with Señor Juan Manuel Lopez-Nadal, Spanish Consul General in Hong Kong

港報 Harbour

Times | June 21st 2013

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Briefing Open data

Index People

Albert Chan Wai-yip Albert Lam Art McInnis Barry Cheung Bastien Douglas Bill Proudfit Chan kin-por Chan Pui-king Charles Mok Chiang Lai-wan Christopher Cheung Christopher Chung Chu Yam-yeun Claudia Mo Clement Chen Cyd Ho CY Leung Daniel Cheng Daisy Chan Daniel Lai Darcy Christ Darren Palmer David Webb Deng Xiaoping Dennis Kwok Fernando Cheung Edward Snowden Emily Lau Wai-hing Helena Wong Ida Lee Ip Kin-yuen Irene Choge Jeffrey Lam Johnny Lau Yui-siu Juan Manuel Lopez-Nadal Kevin Yeung Kim Dotcom Kim Salkeld Kwok ka-ki Lee Cheuk-yan Leonard Cheng Kwok-hon Leung Ka-lau Lo Wai-kwok Mable Chan Ma Fung-kwok Mart van de Ven Matthew Cheung Ng Leung-sing Nick Frisch Noel Tsang Patrick Li Paul Tang Raymond Chan Roen Yeung Rose de la Pascua Shih Wing Ching Sidney Chan Siegfried Verstappen Simon Young Sin Chung-kai Stephen Colbert Tang Ka-piu Thomas Jefferson Timothy Tong Hin-ming Tsang Tak-sing Victor So Winnie Ng Ching-ching Wong Kuen-fai Wong Kwok-hing Wong Kwok-kin Wong Ting-kwong Wong Yuk-man Wu Chi-wai Yip Kin-yuen Yip Kwok-him York Chow Xiao Bing

12–15 13–15 7–15 13 3–15 3–15 13–15 6–15 2–15 12–15 13–15 12–15 13 13–15 13 6–15 13–15 13 10 2–15 6–15 11–15 12–15 14 7–15 9–15 4–15 12–15 12–15 13 12–15 6–15 2–15 5 14 12–15 4–15 2–15 13–15 13–15 13 13–15 12–15 12–15 13–15 3–15 12–15 13–15 6–15 13 13 13 12–15 3–15 15 3–15 13 15 7–15 12–15 7 13–15 4–15 11–15 12–15 13 13 13 13–15 13–15 13–15 12–15 12–15 12–15 12–15 13–15 10

Companies

AOL4–15 Apple4–15 Centaline2–15 Facebook4–15 Google4–15 Kerry Properties 13 Link REIT 13 Microsoft4–15 MTR Corporation 3–15 PalTalk4–15 Skype4–15 Yahoo!4–15 Sun Hung Kei 13 YouTube4–15

Countries

Afghanistan14 Argentina11–15 Australia11–15 Botswana11–15 Ecuador11–15 France13–15 India14 Indonesia13–15 Ireland13–15 Kenya6–15 Philippines11–15 Singapore13–15 South Korea 13–15 Spain14 Taiwan13–15 Thailand14 Tunisia14 Uganda11–15 United Kingdom 3–15 United States 2–15

Government

ADEA7–15 Audit Commissions 2–15 Census and Lands Department 3–15 Centre for Food Safety 12–15 Communications Authority 12–15 Constitutional and Mainland Affairs 13 Customs and Excise Department 12–15 Efficiency Unit 2–15 Environmental Protection Department13–15 Equal Opportunities Commission 13–15 Estate Agents Authority 3–15 FEHD2–15 Food and Health Bureau 12–15, 13 Government Flying Service 13–15 Hong Kong Arts Development Council12–15 Hong Kong Institute of Vocational Education12–15 Hong Kong Journalists Association 6–15 Hong Kong Monetary Authority 12–15 Hong Kong Productivity Council 13 Hospital Authority 13–15 ICAC11–15, 12–15 Inland Revenue Department 13 Innovation and Technology Fund 13–15 Internet Learning Support Programme12–15 Judicial Salaries and Conditions of Service 13 Justice department 2–15 Labour and Welfare Bureau 12–15 Labour Department 13–15 Lands Registry 3–15 Liquor Licensing Board 12–15 Logistics Department 12–15 Mandatory Provident Fund 12–15 NATO14 NSA6–15 OGCIO2–15 Joint Secretariat for the Advisory Bodies on Civil Service 13 Open Data Hong Kong 3–15 Police Integrity Commission 11–15 PRISM4–15 Public Works 12–15 Ratings and Valuations 3–15 Protection of Wages on Insolvency Fund12–15 Town Planning Board 12–15 Urban Renewal Authority 13 West Kowloon Cultural District Project12–15

Organisations

Cervantes Institute Law Society of Hong Kong Spanish Chamber of Commerce Sunlight Foundation United Nations

14 13–15 14 3–15 7–15

»The world… will be run by synthesizers, people able to put together the right information at the right time, think critically about it, and make important choices wisely.« E.O. Wilson (Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge) Those synthesizers may, or may not, be in government. But if no one has the data, no one can make the decisions. Leader Andrew Work Editor in Chief

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he modern era has made masses of information available to governments. The people want their share. Some believe the government paid for data and should keep it or sell it as their ‘property’. Others believe that the government was only able to collect the data through funds collected from taxpayers and imposing their will on citizens to do this. Therefore the data belongs to the people. The latter are slowly getting the upper hand. Every government department will likely feel the pressure to open up soon. The big push: America The United States recently made waves not only for the data it is collecting (see our lead Op/Ed this week), but for the data is it going to hand out. President Obama, by executive order (obviating the need for approval of Congress and the Senate), has mandated an expansion of the scope of information that should be available in the future for entrepreneurs, journalists, NGOs, companies, scientists and anyone else interested. The CIO will maintain resources in the form of tools and best practices. Standards will be set and progress measured. Personal data and data related to law enforcement and national security will be exempt. But it means all government has to get on board in a measurable way and report on their progress. Theoretically, there is no hiding and everyone must get on board. Hong Kong is inching its way towards broader use of open data systems. In this, it is similar to many city level governments around the world. Many have made positive noises and opened data sets. Some in Hong Kong are pushing for more.

…to open up more Government data and, putting the public interest first, encourage developers to make use of such data at liberty and free of charge, so as to promote the development of more mobile and internet applications conducive to people’s livelihood and socialeconomic activities, so as to foster innovative applications by small and medium enterprises, enhance work efficiency, and create room for developers to identify business opportunities. Motion by Charles Mok, FC-IT, Professional Commons Legislator Hon. Charles Mok (FC-IT, Professional Commons) sat down with Harbour Times not long after his success in amending a motion to encourage more open data. The Hon. Jeffrey Lam (FCCommercial (First)/HKGCC, Economic Synergy) put forth a motherhood motion (Council Meeting May 8 2013) encouraging »the Government to adopt proactive policy measures maintain a businessfriendly environment in Hong Kong and devote more resources to assist small and medium enterprises.« This then served as a platform for other legislators to add their specifics to this motion. The key is ‘to open up more government data.’ The other elements may or may not happen, depending on public response. How the government opens up more data remains to be seen. Hong Kong open...ish Hong Kong launched the Data.One portal in 2011. It covers a range of data sets from pollution to FEHD licensing of offensive trades (including ‘fellmongery’ and shark fin processing) to census and property transaction data. It does present some interesting data. According to the Hong Kong Chief Information Officer (CIO) Daniel Lai »response to Data.One is encouraging. In particular, downloads of the traffic

key elements of open data If a government department or agency is to make open data real, it must be: • Complete data sets • Machine readable • Accurate • Up-to-date • Free to use, reuse, distribute, modify snapshot images have reached 700 000 times a day, and so far at least 13 mobile apps making use of the these images have been developed.« Drivers attempting to avoid congestion have been the most popular users. Other applications are in the public realm (see article ‘Open data is like a box of chocolates…). A group of aspiring entrepreneurs and open data enthusiasts met recently in an event they termed ‘Hackathon’ to assess Data.One. They looked at User Experience, Usability, Content Relevance for Citizens (compared against a World Bank standard), and Education – How easy it was to use the datasets given the tools and licensing required and how easy it was to find them. Their general assessment was that the Data.One site was on the right track, but still had significant room for improvement against World Bank Standards and global peers. In the Obama executive order, the CIO is one of

It is a bureaucratic problem. It is lesser a technical issue...Money can solve all these lesser (technical) issues with a bit of time....The real issue is bureaucracy. Charles Mok four key partners (including the Chief Technology Officer, Office of Budget and Management, and the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs) who will draft a binding policy that all government departments must comply with. In Hong Kong, the OGCIO seems excited about the prospects and tout their upcoming efforts to promote more use of open data by the community. Those who had the most experience with the OGCIO did not doubt their good intentions. However, they seem undermanned given the potential. The OGCIOs has only 5 staff, who also have other duties, working on Data.One. They are split between those who do policy work and liaise with data owners and those who provide technical support. It seems a meagre cohort for presenting a whole city’s data. Centaline, possibly the largest private sector user and presenter of free data, has 10 full time dedicated people working on cleaning, analysing and presenting the data they make available to the public for free. What seems to be lacking is the power to compel other departments to commit budgets and resources to deliver results across government. Charles Mok gave the OGCIO full marks for enthusiasm, but has concerns about bureaucratic hold-ups. He felt there was a reaction against the process of giving away data for ‘no apparent reason’. Bureaucrats may feel exposed. They may feel it is »adding work to their own task list that they aren’t going to be thanked for.« Even departments who are keen to put information out there have to answer to other government departments. »In particular, the Justice department and Audit commissions are going to come after them. They have to pass a variety of internal tests. »The first one would be asking the lawyers.« The accountants have asked why they would give away government ‘property’ and warn about data being used by someone to make profit. Charles Mok clearly came down on the side of saying that if government collects it, they should not be concerned about people using data for profit motives and just release it. He cited the example of weather data, asking if the government should restrict access to notice of an impending typhoon just because TV stations would run ads during their weather reports. He thinks not. »This mentality has to pass in today’s Internet world.« He supported an elevation of the issue to move things ahead. »Should there be a special office under the FS or CS, for example, or should there be an IT csar right under the CE?« »Where does the budget come from?...OGCIO controls a big part of the government’s IT budget, but not all. Because of the way the whole government’s budgetary process is being aligned, many of these major

近年來公眾要求政府「公開資料」的呼聲越來越高。 2011 年開設的「資料一線通」門戶雖得到良好的 初步回應，卻也前路多阻，不僅限於人力和預算， 亦受制於香港的官僚制度和陳舊觀念。有望在「政 務公開」上做大幅改革的美國是否該成為香港的樣 板？還是該徐步緩行，先從建立公眾信任和加大宣 傳教育等基本做起？本期港報深度採訪立法會議員 莫乃光及效率促進組專員蘇啟龍，希望能對問題的 探討有所助益及推進。如欲閱讀全文的中文翻譯， 敬請登陸 www.harbourtimes.com

projects inside government are within different departments and controlled by different departments and bureaus and not by the CIO’s office. So whoever has the money - they dictate the way to go. The CIO office is only an influencer.« He did believe progress could be made: »In the end, if there are significant public interest and pressure, government will act accordingly.« The inside track on Open Data Kim Salkeld is Head of the Efficiency Unit, a special forces team within the public service that works across government with many departments to improve, unsurprisingly, efficiency. They apply ‘business process reengineering, management

It’s helpful for… departments to share data. It increases understanding. It increases trust. Kim Salkeld, Head of the Efficiency Unit reviews, organisation restructure, change management and programme/project management’ to make the HKSAR government more effective and responsive. Data can be vital in this mission. »I have an entire team whose job it is to [identify data sets and patterns of interest] from 1823 (the government all-purpose complaint hotline).« He opened up to Harbour Times to bring a nuanced view of how the future of open data may proceed in Hong Kong. While many see open data as a process where government posts the data and snappy young entrepreneurs magically transform it into apps, he also sees how it can apply across and within departments to effect change. »You need to take the time to build the understanding on what the technology can do and what the people want and bring that together and manage the process.« Charles Mok identified a myriad of factors aggravating bureaucratic resistance. Kim Salkeld addressed the underlying concern: »There’s

For both private sector and public sector actors, opening up data is a benefit. It enables innovative applications and services to be developed more easily. Kim Salkeld great potential for good things to be done to the city, but if you rush into it and upset the people.... then you break down the relationship of trust.« He stressed the need for a cautious approach that integrated a range of elements. He cited the need for building trust among the departmental staff and with the public. He advised against ‘getting too excited about the technology,” because »it’s quite easy to build things but do people really use them?« He noted that within LegCo, many actors were reflecting public concerns by focusing on data protection and privacy. »This underscores the need to make sure that efforts to open up data do not backfire through insufficient attention being given to privacy concerns.« The philosopher He also brought a view of what was in it for government. »We are trying to increase the capacity of society as a whole to deal with and respond to the pressures [of the modern world]. It’s building up resilience in society. The more people understand how things are working and how to ask sensible questions about the information that’s out there, the more the society as a whole will be able to learn and move on…« »Fundamentally, one of the principal duties of any… government as a whole is to create a learning environment for society.« [email protected]

港報 Harbour

Times | June 21st 2013

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Briefing Open data is like a box of chocolates... One of Open Data’s appeals is the potential for use by the private and NGO sector to create data driven applications. These applications can benefit millions. HT examines the up and coming potential entrepreneurs with big dreams and the heavyweight of (mostly) open data use in Hong Kong, Centaline. andrew work

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he classic example of open data doing good in the world is GPS. Once the Reagan and Clinton administrations in the US made GPS data widely available, a broad range of industry-changing applications grew around the automotive, telecoms, farming and other sectors. The first application of open data arguably came earlier than that and had a strong geographical bent. In 1855, a disabled sailor, relegated to analysing ship log data on shore, compiled his findings in the book, The Physical Geography of the Sea, and made the results available for free to the public . The oceanographic data he collated and presented led to the founding of a global standard for recording and sharing data used by sailors worldwide. Hong Kong firms in the open data space range from up-and-coming to well established. The main article notes the broad use of traffic data to help drivers. The OGCIO website also has an example of a firm helping consumers to find medical clinics. It is early days, and these applications are fairly simple. However, there are collectives of entrepreneurs working in Hong Kong to see what they can make happen. The leading firm that has shown the way and that continues to use, analyse and provide data to the community, is Centaline. Centaline – the open data pioneer For years leading up to 1995, information about real estate transactions had to be collected by hand – ‘inefficient and time consuming,’ according to Roen Yeung, Head of Market Statistics for Centaline. Agents and agencies were the only players with access to market data, creating a severe informational disadvantage in favour of the agency compared to clients. Suspicious clients would hesitate to buy or sell, knowing the agents had the upper hand. The Lands Registry moved to producing electronic data, and later selling it, due to public demand.

The revolutionary change was to have a website with the transaction data Roen Yeung, Head of Market Statistics for Centaline Centaline officials, including founder and Chairman Shih Wing Ching, took note of the value of this data. They cleaned and analysed the data and presented their findings to a grateful public – for free. Other players had to follow, creating a new market standard. In one sense, they were using open data in that it came from the government. In another, they were providing open data as they made it available online for free. Centaline has been leading the revolution by putting their data on their website, Centanet, for public use. They update their own data in real time as transactions come in, then compare it to government data that comes in later. Individuals engaging the real estate market can access Centaline information, reducing the information imbalance and making them more confident about closing deals. This, in turn, helps market liquidity, appropriate pricing and generates more transactions – a plus for the whole industry. The public-private interface Centaline’s relationship to Lands Registry and the data sourced seems to have some important elements. One is a clear division of duty. There have been cases of commercial ventures from overseas requesting information from the Lands Registry that it does not collate. The LR can refer them to Centaline. ‘They are not specialised in performing data analysis, integration and

compilation. They are a registry department.’ Another element making the relationship work is open and continuous dialogue between the firm and various government departments. Centaline provides feedback to the Lands Registry (LR), Ratings and Valuations (R&V), Census and Lands Department (LD) about their experience as a customer and what would make the data provided more useful and usable. As they conceive new uses of data, they make further enquiries, prompting new data sets to be made available to the public and the industry. Combining their data with that of the government departments results in new uses and understanding of the real situation on the ground. For example, their current wish list includes improving the pricing, frequency and quality of information coming from departments about the salable area of flats. Different definitions and records means that confusion exists about data collected to present to the public and for oversight purposes of the Estate Agents Authority (EAA). Better coordination of definitions and reporting systems would reduce expense, excess bureaucracy and anxiety. Machine readable data could be compared across departments for discrepancies, leading to more clarity for consumers and agencies alike. Why bother? There seem to be two main drivers behind Centaline’s significant investment in collecting, analysing and presenting open data for almost 20 years. According to Ms. Yeung, Mr. Shih’s original thinking was »If you can enhance transparency… it will increase the transaction volume, which will be good for the industry.” The second benefit seems to go to the heart of thinking about open data. »The good thing is if the government does less, while still opening data to the public, the private sector will develop different versions based on market needs. It may do even better – because we have the market sense and feedback and we don’t have so many limitations. We can pull together data from different government departments and data from private sources, so the data will be more meaningful and useful to the public. Maybe the government, they have lots of rules... we have the flexibility to do it even better and more in depth. We have also the public interest [in mind]. If we give more data to the public, we have a better name as the public will not view us as just a profit-oriented company. When the public think of an agency, they will think of Centaline.« ODHK – the underground Open Data Hong Kong (ODHK) personifies the community of upstarts in this area. They innovate around available data and are keen for the information to be free. Bastien Douglas and Mart van de Ven from ODHK presented their vision to Harbour Times: to provide a platform to not only to raise awareness about open data but also to facilitate interaction and collaboration for using open data. They seek to empower engaged citizens with ideas and facilitate efforts to benefit a broad swathe of the population. The May Hackathon in Hong Kong, a two day event exploring the possibilities of open data,

saw a range of ideas being explored. Ideas may quickly turn into requests for data sets. Government workers would be wise to take note. Bill Proudfit, a knowledge and records management consultant and open data enthusiast picked his top 3 most promising projects. They included a project to take the proceedings in LegCo, available now only in machine unreadable and not very useful .pdf format, and have them transformed to a machine readable format. He also selected a project that would track Hong Kong food safety and another that would simplify the process of requesting information under the Access to Information legislation. Another project related to government would create a crowdsource app to put tags on LegCo video to make it searchable - something Harbour Times would strongly support [Ed. note – especially Calvin Lam, our LegCo eyes and ears!]. More commercial ventures include ideas about helping drivers find parking spaces, avoid MTR congestion, create maps other developers can tailor, or track food poisoning incidents for squeamish diners. Final word on open data applications The OGCIO is broadly supportive of all these efforts and clearly understands the value of making data freely available even if its application isn’t instantly observable. »To draw a culinary analogy, it is like we provide the flour and then its up to the chefs to think about whether they want to make croissant, seafood pizza or cheesecake, in light of the ingredients and skills they have.« Or, to pa raph rase For rest Gu mp, »Open Data is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get.« It may a global naval standard, GPS, a real estate index or a more accountable government – but it will probably be for a better Hong Kong. [email protected]

We are concerned with not only accessing and using open data but also what open data leads to: better decision making, improving people’s ability to create applications and have a better understanding of the world around them. Bastien Douglas, ODHK

Open Data in action: Marten van de Ven and an interested Hackathoner get geeky with IT sector Legislator Charles Mok discussing ODHK initiatives using Data.One resources. Photo: Vaughn Hew

Open data and keeping government honest p6 world class – indexing and auditing The Sunlight Foundation (est. 2006), a Washington based NGO supportive of open data, stresses the importance of indexing data sets (knowing what data government has) and audits (what is it and is it being made available). Many US cities are leading the way on understanding what they have, including San Francisco, Philadelphia and New York. San Francisco is mandating all departments identify what they have and when they will make it available in machine readable format. New York is constructing a dashboard to show the same. Philadelphia is prioritising some data sets over others. Wales and the UK national government are also cited as being advanced in this sense, having not only a great plan, but also superior execution. Almost all plans have been introduced in the last 18 months. Execution will take some time.

公開資料」的一大好處是使私 營以及非牟利機構得以發掘出 資料應用的潛力，令萬千市民 受惠。一眾夢想遠大的未來企 業家對公開資料的應用究竟有 怎樣的遠見卓識？中原地產利 用公開資料來提升整個房地產 市 場 的 透 明 度， 無 疑 開 此 先 河，為人樂道。而在其他行業 是否也有被廣泛應用的例證？ 且看港報為您剖視。如欲閱讀 全 文 的 中 文 翻 譯， 敬 請 登 陸 www.harbourtimes.com

港報 Harbour

Times | June 21st 2013

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Analysis Open data, free people Open data can be a boon to good government and a scourge to the bad. Improved efficiency, revelations that improve public policy and clean government are the upside. Privacy and other concerns must be respected. Indeed, a day is coming where it will be unacceptable for a government not to make all data collected available, machine readable and accurate. andrew work

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he day is coming when the people of Hong Kong expect every piece of data of a non-confidential nature to be open to the public. One of the major drivers of this is the seemingly relentless demand for more open government. ‘Data journalism’ is the use, professional or amateur, of open data to discover stories about government and communities. It is distinguished from routine questions for individual documents or facts in that it normally targets databases, or masses of information that can be converted into analysable data. People seem to want more of it. The recent Hackathon conducted by the community group Open Data Hong Kong (ODHK) gives a distant early warning of what is to come. Of the active projects listed, those aiming to influence policy and impact government operations outnumber commercial ventures 2 to 1. Many are aimed at the government’s operations itself, including LegCo. Peering behind the curtain Accessing information is the bread and butter of journalists. Harbour Times spoke to Darcy Christ of HKU’s JMSC - Journalism and Media Study Centre. The centre also runs the OpenGov Project whose best known member is longtime campaigner Chan Pui-king 陳貝琼. They advocate for open data in government and investigate specific issues. They look at issues such as government archiving, transparency and adherence to the Access to Information Code. Mr. Christ is programmer by background, journalist by avocation. He explained the disconnect between journalists seeking information and the governments providing it. The CIO described the amount of information online now as ‘vast’, but it never seems to be enough or properly presented for the new generation of programmer-journalists that are popping up in media newsrooms.

In many cases, government data is just in weird formats... Darcy Christ, JMSC The technical and bureaucratic challenges of presenting data are chronicled on pages 2 and 3 of this issue. Data journalists are distinct in that they frequently are not seeking to make the most of current open data on an ongoing basis, but are seeking previously unrevealed data sets or trying to prove a theory that requires one-off use of the right data set. And it often resides in sensitive materials. Data data everywhere… There are frequent differences of opinion between government and media. Mr. Christ, along with colleague Nick Frisch, are both part of the Open Government project under the JMSC. They recently presented a »Position paper for the Office of The Ombudsman in relation to its direct investigation into the access to information regime and Government’s records management system in Hong Kong.« The paper was presented as part of a consultation on the effective application of the government’s Code on Access to Information. It chronicles, among other facts, the reasons presented for 48 denials of request for information. The most common denial was a vague two word answer: Legal restrictions. Other major categories of denial, such as ‘Third Party Information’ seem more easily understood. Government has a duty to

Data on fund-raising activities covered by the Public Subscription Permit, Temporary Hawker Licence and Lottery Licence which are approved for charitable purposes

Updated and historical to 1999 Data formats RSS, CSV, XML

Data formats PDF, XML

Department Environmental Protection

政 府 日 漸 對 公 眾「 開 放 資 料」的訴求有所回應，然而 在大開山門前，仍有諸多挑 戰需要下手解決。公民的個 人私隱權益需被維護，技術 上的難關也需攻破。但水滴 石穿，通過不懈的努力和公 眾的支持，假以時日，我們 定能克服挑戰，迎來更透明 更公開的公共政策以及更完 善的政府管治。如欲閱讀全 文 的 中 文 翻 譯， 敬 請 登 陸 www.harbourtimes.com

Departments Social Welfare Food and Environmental Hygiene Home Affairs

Air pollution data

Approved charitable fund-raising activities

Population census statistics

Property market statistics

Dataset covering the 2011 population census, including results on individual districts and various other topics

Statistical data on property prices, rents, market yields, completions, vacancies among others

Data format XLS

Data format XLS

Department Correctional Services

Department Rating and Valuation

Covers the following licenses: Commercial Bathhouse Funeral Parlour Offensive Trade Place of Public Entertainment (Cinema/Theatre) Places of Public Entertainment (for Places Other Than Cinemas and Theatres) Slaughterhouse Swimming Pool Undertakers Karaoke Establishment Data formats PDF, XML Department Food and Environmental Hygiene

FEHD permits and licenses

Public transport

Data covering route and fare information of different means of public transport Data formats MDB, CSV Department Transport

Covers data such as locations of government offices, schools, libraries, GovWiFi premises, leisure, cultural, sports facilities and hospitals Includes location and details about different services provided by FEHD Data formats CSV, XML Departments Food and Environmental Hygiene Office of the Government Chief Information Officer

Geo-referenced public facility data

Real-time traffic data

Resources that show the average traffic speed of major roads, latest traffic conditions, average journey time for major roads, special traffic or transportation announcements as well as the latest traffic snapshot images

Includes information and images of selected government building projects since 2002 Data format JPG Department Architectural Services

Image resources

Water quality

Shows the latest information on beach water quality grading Data formats RSS Department Environmental Protection

Lists and descriptions of events or alert notifications from various bureaux/ departments and organisations through the platforms EventHK or GovHK Data format WS Departments Various

News and information

Weather data

Gives information about weather warnings, current weather report and local and 7-day weather forecasts. Also covers data on earthquakes worldwide and earth tremors felt in Hong Kong.

Data formats XML, PNG, JPG

Data formats RSS

Department Transport

Department Hong Kong Observatory

DATA.ONE. Datasets free-of-charge for commercial or non-commercial re-use from www.gov.hk. Look for the Data.One button on the right hand side.

protect privacy, whereas most journalists tend to lean toward less privacy when they believe the public interest could be served. Requests for »Documents in connection with the application for the post of Immigration Assistant by the requestor who was an unsuccessful candidate in the recruitment exercise« seems like it would violate a particular person’s privacy. However, »Request for access to information relating to enrolment number of international schools in Hong Kong in school years 2007/08 and 2008/09« was also denied (Rationale: Research, statistics and analysis; Third Party Information). Mr. Christ was not sanguine about the challenges to government that include: »Privacy concerns, the difficulty of converting a database to either a different format and/ or making it accessible. There are technical issues about how you open up a data set so it is live, so that it can be online, so it can handle requests and guarantee the accuracy of it and that it’s in a good format, and that if it does have privacy issues, certain data is scrubbed from it...These are real concerns. They will take time. They do cost money.« To be fair, governments can’t launch a major project using full time staff time for every request that may or may not turn into a media story that serves the public. But stonewalling and obfuscation could arise to hide a genuine abuse or problem. The act of non-cooperation can raise suspicion, leading to more problems than anything the data could reveal. How does one strike a balance? A Code vs. an Act Hong Kong has a Code on Access to Information. However, it is non-binding and refusal can be given for any number or reasons in addition to those cited above. Charles Mok cites what he called the most ‘hilarious’ of over 50 reasons to deny a request, which was »‘causing ill-feelings’. Making them [civil servants] unhappy basically. There are all these crazy and ridiculous exemptions in the current guidelines - which is not a piece of law.« The Hong Kong Journalists Association has called for the adoption of a legally binding Freedom of Information Act. LegCo is listening. Cyd Ho (GC-Hong Kong Island, C.A-up/Labour Party), in an amendment to a Charles Mok moved motion, recently advocated the adoption of a full Freedom of Information Act. Such an Act would be binding, as they stand in other jurisdictions, requiring disclosure of information

requested, barring rare exemptions (presumably not including ‘causing ill-feelings’). This may be a cause celebre for journalists and LegCo members keen for access to government information, but where does the public fall on this? A new application, being developed by an ODHK team, including Mr. Christ, may answer that. An open data app to get… more open data! There is currently a project underway in search of an elegant name to match its intriguing mission. Currently dubbed the »Reporting Tool for Requests for Access to Information,« this project aims to create an online app that will: • Simplify and put online the forms for Requests for Access to Information • Email the completed forms to the correct government officer. • Track the progress of the request. • Post the information when received for the applicant and the general public (obviating the need for a repeat request, saving the public and government time and effort). The app would, theoretically generate data about requests, what they revealed and why they were denied. This would provide individuals in the broader public with the ability to judge if denials were reasonable by their standards. Broader data sets, once made available, could reveal important trends about how Hong Kong works. The Economist recently cited Chicago as a leader in this area. Data from various departments combines to help city officials: »When a city holds a parade it can combine data on street closures, bus routes, weather patterns, rubbish trucks and emergency calls in real time.« Sanitation has improved: »the city knows with mathematical precision that when it gets calls complaining about rubbish bins in certain areas, a rat problem will follow a week later.« Chicago is preparing to share its software so cities around the world can get on board. Perhaps Hong Kong could use such software (assuming the NSA hasn’t built in a back door, see page 7). Commitment wanted Everyone Harbour Times spoke to for this article that worked with the OGCIO agreed on one thing: for open data to become a real benefit to Hong Kong, the OGCIO needs more resources in terms of people, budget and muscle.

Darcy Christ: »The fellows who are working on Data.One, they’re very interested in getting these data sets open. They’re pushing and they’re trying to do these things and they’re receptive to the comments we have about technically... how the formats, how they might be in a different format so it is easier for the computers to read, and all that will improve.« When it works the way it is supposed to Hong Kong doesn’t yet have the perfect heart-warming story about how open data improved governance and changed the world. Improved access and a maturation of our developers and data journalists may well soon produce such a story. In the

They don’t have any legal force behind them...they are given the same excuses we are. Darcy Christ meantime, Kenya shows what can be done. A Google sponsored program to educate journalists on how to undertake data journalism led a woman named Irene Choge to improve the lives of children in two counties of her native Kenya. These counties had chronically underperforming students with results far below the national average. Using Kenya’s equivalent of Hong Kong’s Open.Data, she investigated grades against school infrastructure spending and discovered the problem was...toilets. Cuts in infrastructure spending meant fewer or no toilets leading to more disease, and more absenteeism - especially girls missing school due to lack of segregated facilities. And, of course, this meant poor exam results. This led to a public campaign to solve the sanitation issue at the Ministry level and parents now have apps allowing them to compare sanitation conditions at their children’s schools against their Kenyan counterparts. Better sanitation is being implemented now with results expected to follow. If Hong Kong commits to and learns to manage its open data, it could realise the sorts of benefits beginning to accrue to places as diverse as Chicago and Kenya. [email protected]