Since I began seriously thinking about government technology a few years ago, I've held a core believe about open government data. It's simple - data created by the government is the property of the citizens. Providing it to us is not a favor, nor "extra" work that an agency has to do, it is part of the core mission of any democratic government.

So when New York's Metropolitan Transportation Administration (MTA) decides to obscure transportation data from outside developers, it's holding back data that we as transportation riders and taxpayers have already paid for. It's also working against the public good and the general tide of openness and transparency. Ultimately, the MTA will lose this fight. It'd be better to look to BART as a great example of what open data can do.

But enough people on the Internet complain. As a government technology dude and a user experience consultant, I'd rather offer the MTA a plan of action. So here goes - three steps toward becoming more open.

First, let people scrape your data. This is the first, best, easiest, and cheapest way to adopt an open attitude. Developers won't be overjoyed, but at least they'll have something usable to work with, and that gives you some footing to develop more open methods to provide public data. It also starts a conversation about transportation data, in which you should play a major role.

Second, put together a quick set of principles as to why and how you'll open up data in the future. This can be easy and written in under a month if you put some drive behind it. Personally, I'd publish it, but I spent enough time in government agencies to know this is politically tough. So just use it as your internal credo and reference it every time you get political pushback.

Three, commit to providing some raw XML data for all future projects and upgrades you do to your website. This adds a very small marginal cost to future projects, and will eventually just become part of your "blood" as an agency. Have a conversation with developers about what they'd want, then celebrate their successes and highlight great applications on MTA.info.

One final piece of advice - do this sooner rather than later. The world is changing, and the walls that once kept public data obscured are crumbling quickly. Does MTA want to be seen as a progressive champion of technology, or a bumbling government agency that doesn't know how to get out of its own way?