The other week – in the midst of boarding a plane(!) – I did an interview with the CSEDEV on some thoughts around open data, open government and open source.

The kind people at CSEDEV have written up the interview in a kind of paraphrased way and published it as three short blog posts here, part 2 here and part 3 here.

Part of what makes this interesting to me is how a broader set of people are becoming interested in open government. Take CSEDEV for example. Here is an Ottawa based software firm focused on enterprise solutions. It’s part of an increasing number of software companies and IT consulting firms are taking note of the open government and open data meme. Indeed, another concrete example of this is Lagan, a large supplier of 311 systems, announced the other week that they would support the open311 standard. This dramatically alters the benefits of a 311 system and the capacity for it to serve as a platform and innovation driver for a city.

But, even more exciting, the meme is starting to spread beyond IT and software. I was recently asked to write an article on what open data and open government means for business more generally, here in BC. (Will link to it, when published)

These moments represent an important shift in the open data and open government debate. With vendors and consultants taking notice governments can more easily push for, and expect, off the shelf solutions that support open government initiatives. Not only could this reduce cost to government and improve access for public servants and citizens, it could also be a huge boost for open standards which prove to be transformative to the management of information in the public sector.

Exciting times. Watch the open government space – now that it’s linked to IT, it’s beginning to gain speed.