Government 2.0. Charting the course to social and economic opportunity for all Canadians. Inspire more

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1 Government 2.0 Charting the course to social and economic opportunity for all Canadians. Inspire more

2 Table of Contents 3 Microsoft s Commitment to Government Organizations in Canada 4 Embracing the Vision of Government Open Data What is it? Why is Open Data Relevant to Governments? 6 Open Standards What is it? Why are Open Standards Relevant to Governments? 7 Open Source and Community Developed Software What is it? Why is Community Developed Software Important to Governments? 8 Collaboration and Partnerships: Achieving the Vision of Government Empowering Governments with Education and Technology to Create Social and Economic Opportunity for All Canadians Government Charting the course to social and economic opportunity for all Canadians. 2

3 Microsoft s Commitment to Government Organizations in Canada Microsoft Canada is deeply committed to making Canada a more innovative, productive, and economically prosperous country. This is why we play an active and relevant role in the issues that affect our community nationally and locally. Through investments in Canada and collaborations with thought leaders, we are helping to chart a course that creates social and economic opportunity for all Canadians. Technology empowers governments to create social and economic opportunity for all Canadians. Government Charting the course to social and economic opportunity for all Canadians. 3

4 Embracing the Vision of Government 2.0 Government 2.0 is about governments becoming more efficient and more effective in meeting the needs of their individual and business constituents. Gov 2.0 is about empowerment. It is about empowering individuals to participate and gain insight into services and opportunities that directly benefit themselves and their families. It is about empowering individuals to engage their government to help positively influence the decision making process. It is about empowering businesses with the data and the knowledge to speed their navigation through regulatory processes and supporting programs that allow them to focus on their business not the red tape. It is about empowering all three levels of governments, both internally and externally, to break down the barriers to working more effectively together. By transforming how governments deliver services, governments help deepen the relationship between the public sector and the constituents they serve. Innovative software for efficient communications, collaboration, and information collection and sharing, make it possible for governments to be more connected with their constituents than ever before. Software solutions optimize efficiencies and drive public value. Government Charting the course to social and economic opportunity for all Canadians. 4

5 Open Data What is it? Founders of the Internet suggest that the next wave of innovation on the web will be realized through the publication and use of well structured data by the organizations that create it. In simple terms, this means that instead of publishing a picture of a chart on a web page, organizations are encouraged to publish the data that was used to create the chart in the first place. Why is Open Data Relevant to Governments? Value generation. There is value in the transparency and judicious sharing of data with constituents to transform government services delivery. Sharing well-formed data empowers constituents to use the data in new perspectives to support unique requirements. Microsoft Actively Contributes to the Open Data Community Our commitment to enabling your open data initiatives is demonstrated not only in our products that use open standards, but also in the sharing of best practices and learning we have gained from working with other forward-thinking federal and state governments that are opening data once considered internalonly information. Coupled with the expertise of the extensive Canadian Microsoft Partner community of over 16,200 local technology partners, governments are well positioned to attain their open data initiatives. By enabling access to the data, individuals are empowered to draw their own conclusions and use the data to improve their community. Businesses use the data to become more competitive resulting in a stronger Canadian economy. Furthermore, there is value to the government in the sharing of data with each other. Departments can use each other s data to create powerful tools and insights. When data is open, departments update on the fly without initiating time consuming requests for current data. Microsoft enables governments to manage the data that they are entrusted so that government department can create, store, search, publish, and share this information with all constituents via the web. Microsoft products and solutions are actively used in Gov 2.0 solutions and many governments already use a variety of Microsoft products for their enterprise applications. Publishing the data from these applications is often simply a matter of adjusting software settings. Publication of this data can be in a variety of widely used formats. The use of XML formats in Microsoft Office 2007 provides an open standard approach to extend the use of government data across an even broader range of products and solutions than ever before. Government Charting the course to social and economic opportunity for all Canadians. 5

6 Open Standards What is it? Open standards describe one technique that technology companies use to make their products work with one another. A second technique is bilateral agreements between technology providers. And a third equally effective technique is the publication and sharing of interfaces and protocols. All three enable data, products and ultimately people to work well with one another. Microsoft Actively Contributes to Open Standards Microsoft is committed to open standards as a key element of our activities to enable diverse products to work well together. We are directly involved with the development of national and international standards at the Standards Council of Canada. Our experts are actively involved in Canadian standards development for accessibility, privacy, security, database, and other relevant subject areas. In fact, Microsoft is actively involved in over 150 standards bodies around the world. Not only do we contribute to these standards activities, we also implement these standards in our products. Why are Open Standards Important to Governments? Interoperability. Microsoft technologies have a long history of working well with other technology companies products, and we have an ongoing commitment to improving interoperability. Building on this commitment, Microsoft is continually transforming in order to be more open more open in engineering and intellectual property; more open in relationships with customers; and more open with industry, standards, and policy bodies. Open standards ensure governments and their constituents have seamless access to data. Microsoft s Interoperability Principles Support for Standards and Data Portability are just two of the key tenets of Microsoft s Interoperability Principles. Learn more about our interoperability principles and standards efforts at microsoft.com/interop. Government Charting the course to social and economic opportunity for all Canadians. 6

7 Open Source and Community Developed Software What is it? The variety of meanings associated with the term, open source, has caused confusion and misunderstanding. Open source describes: Intellectual Property (IP) treatment and licensing models; and Community development processes. Microsoft Actively Contributes to Open Source Microsoft is an active participant and contributor to the communitydeveloped software environment and has sponsored, led, and contributed to a variety of projects on SourceForge, as well as the newly developed Codeplex Foundation at Codeplex.com. Key projects that support Canadian public sector organizations include the Open Document Format (ODF) converter for Office 2007, the OpenSML DAISY Converter for Accessibility, and the SharePoint Accessibility Toolkit written to support government of Canada accessibility requirements. Microsoft has also worked with governments in Canada to deploy the Solutions Sharing Network in support of their non-internet facing community software development activities. It was previously thought that open source software came at no cost or low cost; however, experience has taught government organizations that software acquisition costs only represent a small fraction of the cost to operate any IT system. The operation, maintenance, and development costs far outweigh the acquisition costs. Frequently the costs to sustain no cost software frequently outstrip that of costed software. As confusion turns to clarity, governments recognize the community and collaborative development aspects of open government and focus on the total cost of ownership (TCO) for their software solutions. Why is Community Developed Software Important to Governments? Clarity and focus. While at one time the commercial software community and noncommercial community seemed to be diametrically opposed, both communities have come to appreciate that they hold considerable similarities. Thus, they have come together on a number of fronts: interoperability, standards, and community development among others. This coming together has helped dispel the myth that community developed software comes at no cost. There has also been recognition of the variety of licensing models for software. We have seen the emergence of a wide variety of licenses, each with their own strengths. Microsoft has several licenses that support community development software and encourages adoption, adaptation, and extension. Government Charting the course to social and economic opportunity for all Canadians. 7

8 Collaboration and Partnerships: Achieving the Vision of Gov 2.0 Collaboration is a fundamental underpinning of Gov 2.0 activities, and Microsoft remains committed to strengthening our collaboration with Canadian governments. A Short List of Microsoft s Partnerships Institute for Citizen Centred Services Municipal Information Systems Public Sector CIO Council Solutions Sharing Network Standards Council of Canada Microsoft has worked with the Public Sector CIO Council, the Municipal Information Systems Association and the Institute for Citizen Centred Services for their service improvement and other Pan-Canadian service delivery initiatives. We have also worked to contribute to the Strategic Reference Models used for public sector enterprise architecture initiatives. These models define government service delivery at the business level and help to ensure reusable solutions across the three levels of government. This interaction has helped to ensure that the reference models that guide government service delivery leaders with their IT delivery are directly aligned with reusable and shareable elements found in Microsoft s Citizen Services Platform and Connected Industry Framework suite of reusable building blocks that enable the rapid delivery of government services. A Short List of Microsoft s Collaborations Codeplex Foundation Government of Canada Strategic Reference Models ODF Converter for Office 2007 OpenXML DAISY Converter for Accessibility SharePoint Accessibility Toolkit SourceForge Government Charting the course to social and economic opportunity for all Canadians. 8

9 Empowering Governments with Education and Technology to Create Social and Economic Opportunity for All Canadians Microsoft partners and collaborates with software development communities and thought leaders to help governments and their constituents close the digital divide. Governments are empowered to help individuals, businesses and departments and agencies within governments reach their full potential through greater information sharing and collaboration. Through the innovative application of software that makes government data more available in standard formats, governments effectively deliver the wide range of services that Canadians depend upon in their day to day lives. Gov 2.0 empowers individuals, businesses, and governments to reach their full potential through greater collaboration and the sharing of data. Government Charting the course to social and economic opportunity for all Canadians. 9