Idea Lab

I wrote earlier about the IGOTF, a "non-conference structured around three sets of working group activities":

1. Case Law (Working Group Chair: Carl Malamud, carl at media dot org). This working group brings together individuals groups involved in the day-to-day work of putting the courts on-line. Topics that will be considered include markup of citations in cases, "universal resolvers" for mapping citations to URLs, recycling of PACER and other documents, and other subjects as appropriate.
2. Municipal Governments (Working Group Chair: Daniel X. O'Neil, danx at everyblock dot com). This group will focus on issues involved in citizens attempting to build interfaces around municipal government data. Technical issues such as harvesting techniques and presentation techniques will be covered, as will social issues such as negotiating for the release of public data.
3. Government and Copyright Issues (Working Group Chair: Fred Von Lohmann, fred at eff dot org). This working group will focus on assertion of copyright by government groups.

See more information at the Independent Government Observers Task Force Web site.

EveryBlock is the local host of IGOTF, and most of the team will be there to take part in workshops. I'm excited about this event because it is going to bring together people from a wide variety of areas. People working inside and outside government, people working on their blocks and working on web applications, people who have been at this for years and people who are just getting started. We're looking forward to it.