For formats, I agree that being too prescriptive can be a problem as standards 
evolve. However, some simple recommendations could go a long way: 

* Don't use PDFs
* Use something open and common (e.g. csv over excel)
* Do your best to describe your data

Maybe just asking for well-used web standards would be a plus.

-Z 

-- 
Zach Beauvais | @zbeauvais (http://twitter.com/zbeauvais)
[email protected] (mailto:[email protected])
http://zachbeauvais.com


On Wednesday, 10 October 2012 at 18:46, Mr. Puneet Kishor wrote:

> 
> On Oct 10, 2012, at 7:47 AM, Luis Villa <[email protected] 
> (mailto:[email protected])> wrote:
> 
> > Isn't the correct answer "specifying any particular formats or
> > specifications is a recipe for having an obsolete bill within years or
> > months"?
> > 
> 
> 
> 
> Not necessarily. As I noted on the Quora page, formats come and go, and there 
> is no doubt better and more suitable formats will be invented in the future. 
> More important than specifying the format is to insist that whatever format 
> is used, it should be free, open and well documented, and if it requires any 
> tools to use it optimally, the tools should also be free, open and well 
> documented.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> > 
> > On Wed, Oct 10, 2012 at 7:42 AM, Zach Beauvais <[email protected] 
> > (mailto:[email protected])> wrote:
> > > Quora sent me this question [1], which I think is of interest to the OKFN:
> > > 
> > > If you were making a bill about open data for a local government, what 
> > > sort
> > > of specifications and formats would you include in the bill?
> > > 
> > > And it's starting out with a few interesting answers in situ.
> > > 
> > > This subject might be a good post/paper for people to pass on to civil
> > > servants/local representatives with a step by step guide to transparency?
> > > 
> > > Best,
> > > -Z
> > > 
> > > [1]:
> > > http://www.quora.com/Open-Data/If-you-were-making-a-bill-about-open-data-for-a-local-government-what-sort-of-specifications-and-formats-would-you-include-in-the-bill
> > > 
> > > ---
> > > Zach Beauvais | @zbeauvais
> > > [email protected] (mailto:[email protected])
> > > zachbeauvais.com (http://zachbeauvais.com)
> > > 
> > > 
> > > 
> > > 
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > okfn-discuss mailing list
> > > [email protected] (mailto:[email protected])
> > > http://lists.okfn.org/mailman/listinfo/okfn-discuss
> > > 
> > 
> > 
> > _______________________________________________
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> > http://lists.okfn.org/mailman/listinfo/okfn-discuss
> > 
> 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
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> 


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