Last night I attended an event co-sponsored by MITX and MassDOT featuring the Massachusetts Open Data Initiative, MA government’s effort to make its data available to the public in a meaningful, secure way. We heard from a number (a large number, in fact) of members of the MA government from the Secretary of Transportation (the first real part of the initiative is live MBTA bus feeds) to the GM of the MBTA to a gentleman named Tim Vaverchak from the Mass IT department.

Mr. Vaverchak’s talk was last and, as there were so many speakers, each presentation was relatively rushed. But I felt that what Vaverchak was able to outline in the short time he had was intriguing. He spoke of the goals of the MA Open Data Initiative: move beyond just transportation, focus on business & constituent needs, don’t just provide data for data’s sake, allow users (constituents and developers) to rate the value of a data set. These goals were extremely reasonable – even surprisingly so: one doesn’t necessarily expect that from government.

But what the entire evening had me thinking about was an extension on the question of how government can provide data to the public and do it well: how can they do so in a manner that scales? By scale I mean both across departments within a state/local government, but also on a pure numbers basis: how can what MA does here be a model for nationwide data feeds?

In advertising we constantly struggle with producing something that is both ground breaking and results producing. An out-of-home installation or 2 week online stunt could certainly garner buzz. But what does it do to move the needle? What does it do to return the investment of those who paid for it? So sitting at the event last night I kept thinking about the usefulness of it, but also its limitations in terms of scale Sure, I can produce an iPhone app that shows me how late the 39 bus is going to be and that’s great for tinkerers or proofs-of-concept. But I want to use this data and provide my users with real value – and do so efficiently. I want more bus routes (we’re getting that by end of the summer), I want trains (that’s a much harder problem to solve), I want to be able to tie it in to road closings, weather and historical data. And – I want to build this so it can be used by anyone in the country.

A few of those problems aren’t too hard to fix. And some of it is already available. But that last point – true scale – is going to be much further down the line. The National Weather Service came together in 1870 to help the military. It wasn’t until 1890 that it was identified as useful to civilians. I’d like to see the MA Open Data Initiative move to a national model a bit quicker than that.

I spoke with one of the gentlemen who helped run the MassDOT Real Time Data Developer Challenge about this, Chris Dempsey. He mentioned that there are currently two private organizations that are running different metro transportation data sets (the first was NextBus, the organization providing the MA data set…I admit I can’t remember the second). He said that other states are working on this, but certainly not too many (according to data.gov, only a handful of states and municipalities are providing “machine readable” data sets to the public). He also mentioned – and rightfully so – that MA wants to get it right at home first. Then they’ll work on a model for other states.

Internally, I struggle with one more question: SHOULD scale be provided here? Scale leads to commercial interests and sponsorships. Clearly I’m ok with that from a professional standpoint. And this is certainly nothing like a corporation sponsoring a presidential candidate. But should I look up at a screen in a bar and see “You have 45 minutes until the next bus arrives…enough time for a Bud Light!”? I’m not sure.

Thoughts?