Q: Simpler/gov, your browser-based tool, is aimed directly at the “raw data” paradigm shift, correct?

Rick Schaffer: That’s right.

Q: How do I pronounce it by the way, simpler-slash-gov?

RS: Just simpler-gov — the slash is silent. [smiles]

Q: So what’s the easiest way to describe simpler/gov?

RS: Hmm, I wish there was an easy way — remember, we’re in new territory here.

Q: Well is it a platform, a tool, an application?

RS: The complicated answer is this: It’s a platform that gives you tools that enable open data and that you can use to create custom applications...all to facilitate an open, transparent government.

Q: Yikes. What’s the simple answer?

RS: Okay, I can take a hint. We’ll save the complicated stuff for later. [smiles]

Q: Thank you.

RS: The simpler answer, so to speak, is that simpler/gov is a tool that enables government to easily publish their raw data to the web, and empowers users to easily access and work with that data.

Q: What do you mean by work with the data?

RS: Slice it, dice it, group it, sort it, export it — do almost anything you want or need to do with it!

Q: When you say almost anything, is that code for there are actually a lot of limitations?

RS: Well, yes and no — this is where the part about creating applications comes in. If you connect simpler/gov to a data set, you can immediately sort, manipulate, and work with that data in a number of useful ways — we have built that functionality in, essentially created an application for that purpose. And this in itself is extremely powerful.

Q: I see. But if I want to go beyond that functionality?

RS: Simpler/gov is also a tool to create your own applications for working with the data — so at that level the possibilities become truly limitless.

Q: Starting to sound complicated again — creating applications?

RS: It’s actually not as complicated as you might think, but for now suffice it to say that what simpler/gov gives you is a tool for accessing raw data and then doing anything you like with it.

Q: Okay, hang on — let’s back up for a second. Exactly what paradigm does this shift, and how?

RS: Well, think about the world wide web today. Currently you can access loads and loads of information from the web. But what you get is confined to what the people who published the information decided to put out there — what they think you need. And the information you get is generally static — you can’t manipulate it, formulate it, or work with it on a fundamental level.

Q: What do you mean the information is static? It’s digital, right?

RS: Yes, it’s stored and transmitted digitally, but it essentially functions like analog information when it comes to working with it.

Q: Uh, you lost me.

RS: Let’s say you are doing research on the web, on a particular topic involving government data. The information you gather might be in web pages, text documents, spreadsheets, pdfs, images, and so on.

Q: Right. Why is that bad?

RS: It’s not bad, it’s just extremely limiting. Imagine sitting at your desk and someone hands you a book, a report, some charts and graphs, a calendar, and a few spreadsheets.

“Here you go,” she says, “Here is the information you wanted.”

But what if you need to compile all or some of that information, sort it and group it in different ways, formulate it and so on — extract a specific subset of information out of that pile of paper?

Q: You’d have a lot of work in front of you?

RS: Exactly. That’s if you could even get what you need out of it, because you’re limited by what’s in that stack. Well, that’s essentially what you get from today’s web — digital information that functions a lot like good old fashioned analog information.

Q: And with simpler/gov and access to raw data?

RS: Imagine sitting at your desk again — same scenario. But this time a crack database programmer walks up — no paper — nothing in her hands but a double mocha.

“Uh, I located the original sources of all the information you asked for,” she says, “Just tell me what you need and I can have it for you in about five minutes.”

Q: So you’re saying simpler/gov essentially turns me into a crack database programmer?

RS: In simple terms, yes. It lets you acquire raw data and manipulate and work with that data any way you see fit. Without having to be a programmer.

Q: So the paradigm shift is about easy access to dynamic, rather than static, information?

RS: Bingo. It’s about freeing the data. And shifting control of how that data is utilized to the end-user.

Q: Wow, I see what you mean — that is a major shift.

RS: Yes. [smiles] Can I buy you a mocha?

Q: [smiles] Make it a double.

RS: Perfect.