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The Chief Data Officer of the State of Connecticut has posted his Draft Open Data Policy for public comment on the Connecticut Data Portal. I will likely share my thoughts once I finish reviewing and formulating them, but overall it seems to follow many of the best practices espoused by the public data community. It is good to see that this is being taken seriously by someone in state government, but also disappointing to see the lack of views and engagement by the general public. I hope you will take a look and add your comments to the Google Doc.

Connecticut Auto Dealers have declared war on Tesla Motors. Lead by Jim Fleming they are deploying a cynical and misleading public relations campaign against America’s newest domestic manufacturer of automobiles. Their bone of contention is S.B. 198 An Act Concerning Electric Vehicles and H.B. 6682 An Act Concerning the Licensing of New and Used Car Dealers. S.B. 198 is more narrow and would create an exemption for Tesla while H.B. 6682 is a little more broad. The passing of either bill would be a win for consumers and for making Connecticut a more friendly place for innovators and start-ups.

With all the hype around Google Fiber it is easy to be jealous of people in places like Kansas City that have gigabit Internet. That is why I was glad to see that yesterday Comptroller Kevin Lembo and New Haven Mayor Toni Harp testified in favor of An Act Concerning Gigabit Internet Access. The bill itself is a placeholder so it takes some digging to figure out what exactly is happening. Fortunately the Office of Consumer Counsel and Comptroller’s Office have both been putting out a lot of material on this effort that I describe and link below.

From FiveThirtyEight:

It works like this: Each of the women proposes to her first-choice man, and he rejects or accepts. Women still without a partner approach their second-choice man (the women can propose to men who have already accepted an offer, and the men can choose to reject an initial proposal if a better offer comes along). This continues until there are no women left who want to propose to a man.

Bruce Schneier on identity theft in 2005:

The second issue is the ease with which a criminal can use personal data to commit fraud. It doesn’t take much personal information to apply for a credit card in someone else’s name. It doesn’t take much to submit fraudulent bank transactions in someone else’s name. It’s surprisingly easy to get an identification card in someone else’s name. Our current culture, where identity is verified simply and sloppily, makes it easier for a criminal to impersonate his victim.