How can we make sure that the Bay Area cities use formats for their open data that are comparable?

Another link for our metro makeover section on the links page.  Please everyone, don't be shy, begin posting your annotated links.  It is OK to suggest a new section for our links page.

This is a book with articles by twenty different authors, freely downloadable.  The web page is: beyondtransparency.org. What we need to think through is how at this relatively early date in the opening up of government data we can make sure that the Bay Area cities use formats that make the data comparable.  Then down the road it will be so much easier to create a larger Metro region open data system.