Civic OpenMedia is a publishing system for open government data. Using OpenMedia, you can quickly provide access to public data sets over the Internet in machine-readable form. System tools help you define, collect, filter and organize information content prior to publishing. Web services provide access to published updates at scheduled intervals and through RESTful query interface. Using community sharing capabilities, you may access and exchange data standards, content and additional resources with other organizations.

Civic OpenMedia is a free, open source system designed to help you efficiently and securely publish crime reports, 311 service requests, real property transactions, permit applications and other timely, high value data sets. OpenMedia will enable you to:

1. Collect transaction data content housed in a variety of forms
   1. Examples: database tables, CSV, XML files
2. Organize content and add value
   1. Add addresses, lat/longs, dates and other in-common dimensions
   2. Filter and generalize private or sensitive content
   3. Add metadata properties, e.g.; content type, source, coverage
   4. Define relationships between content types
3. Transform content into open standard controlled vocabularies:
   1. Examples: Open311, METAR, NIEM ucr, others
4. Provide Internet access to content in machine-readable form
   1. RESTful interfaces
   2. Atom, RDFa, microformats
5. Enable resource sharing and content exchange between community members
   1. Example: vocabulary schemas, transforms, addresses

Civic OpenMedia is written in Ruby on Rails and uses the CouchDB document-oriented database.

How to Get Started

Civic OpenMedia is in initial development stage with first release planned in Q3 2010. Visit the demonstration site to explore the latest deployment. Read the technical overview to learn more about system concept, design and operation. Visit the Vista release page for current software development information.

The OpenMedia software is the technology component of a broader open government data program. Successful programs will coordinate policy and process with such technology. This iPublic site offers information and resources related to Washington DC's open data program: DCStat. For more information, see: Gov 2.0 community. At OpenMuni.org, efforts are underway to share and publish government open data best practices based on experience in other communities.

How to Get Involved

See the getting involved page. Join the mailing lists. Request features and report problems using the issue tracking system.