It is possible to state that presently, open data is at its high water mark in the Government of Canada. Data.gc.ca has been refreshed, more importantly, the government has signed the Open Data Charter committing it to making data “open” by default, and a rash of new data sets have
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eaves.ca: Some thoughts on the relaunched data.gc.ca
Yesterday, I talked about what I thought was the real story that got missed in the fanfare surrounding the relaunch of data.gc.ca. Today I’ll talk about the new data.gc.ca itself. Before I begin, there is an important disclaimer to share (to be open!). Earlier this year Treasury Board asked me
Continue readingeaves.ca: The Real News Story about the Relaunch of data.gc.ca
As many of my open data friends know, yesterday the government launched its new open data portal to great fanfare. While there is much to talk about there – something I will dive into tomorrow – that was not the only thing that happened yesterday. Indeed, I did a lot
Continue readingeaves.ca: The Past, Present and Future of Sensor Journalism
This weekend I had the pleasure of being invited to the Tow Centre for Digital Journalism at the Columbia Journalism School for a workshop on sensor journalism. The workshop (hashtag #towsenses) brought together a “community of journalists, hackers, makers, academics and researchers to explore the use of sensors in journalism;
Continue readingeaves.ca: Some Nice Journalistic Data Visualization – Global’s Crude Awakening
Over at Global, David Skok and his team have created a very nice visualization of the over 28,666 crude oil spills that have happened on Alberta pipelines over the last 37 years (that’s about two a day). Indeed, for good measure they’ve also visualized the additional 31,453 spills of “other” substance
Continue readingeaves.ca: Awesome Simple Open Data use case – Welcome Wagon for New Community Businesses
A few weeks ago I was at an event in Victoria, British Columbia at event where people were discussing the possibilities, challenges and risk of open data. During the conversation, one of the participants talked about how they wanted an API for business license applications from the city. This is
Continue readingeaves.ca: The Value of Open Data – Don’t Measure Growth, Measure Destruction
Alexander Howard – who, in my mind, is the best guy covering the Gov 2.0 space – pinged me the other night to ask “What’s the best evidence of open data leading to economic outcomes that you’ve seen?” I’d like to hack the question because – I suspect – for
Continue readingeaves.ca: Canada Post and the War on Open Data, Innovation & Common Sense (continued, sadly)
Almost exactly a year ago I wrote a blog post on Canada Post’s War on the 21st Century, Innovation & Productivity. In it I highlighted how Canada Post launched a lawsuit against a company – Geocoder.ca – that recreates the postal code database via crowdsourcing. Canada Posts case was never
Continue readingeaves.ca: Toronto Star Op-Ed: Muzzled Scientists, Open Government and the Limits of Rules
I’ve a piece in today’s Toronto Star ”Rules are no substitute for cultivating a culture of open government“ about the Information Commissioners decision to investigate the muzzling of Canadian scientists. Some choice paragraphs: The actions of the information commissioner are to be applauded; what is less encouraging are the limits of her
Continue readingeaves.ca: Open Data Day: Lessons for Hacktivists
This piece is cross-posted on TechPresident where I post articles on the intersection of politics, technology and transparency and serve as an editor. Three years ago, after a chance encounter with Daniela Silva and Pedro Markun of Sao Paulo and a meeting with Edward Ocampo-Gooding and Mary Beth Baker in Ottawa,
Continue readingeaves.ca: Open Data Day 2013 in Vancouver
Better late than never, I’m going to do a few posts this week recapping a number of ideas and thoughts from Open Data Day 2013. As is most appropriate, I’m going to start the week with a recap of Vancouver – the Open Data Day event I attended and helped
Continue readingeaves.ca: Three Ways Anyone Can Contribute to Open Data Day
With well over 90 cities now scheduled to partake in Open Data Day and with several events expecting 50+ and even 100+ participants I wanted to outline some thoughts to help people who are thinking about participating but not sure what to expect or if they have anything helpful to
Continue readingeaves.ca: International #OpenDataDay: Now at 90 Cities (and… the White House)
Okay. We are 10 days away from International Open Data Day this February 23rd, 2013. There is now so much going on, I’ve been excited to see the different projects people are working on. Indeed there is so much happening, I thought I’d share just a tiny fraction of it in a
Continue readingeaves.ca: International Open Data Day Feb 23rd: Vancouver Edition
So International Open Data is rapidly approaching! All around the world people are organizing local events to bring together developers, designers, policy wonks, non-profits, government officials, journalists, everyday citizens and others to play, chart, analyze, educate and/or build apps with open data. For those of us who started International Open
Continue readingeaves.ca: Launching the Canadian OGP Civil Society Discussion Group
Dear colleagues, We are Canadians who have been actively involved with the Open Government Partnership (OGP) process, including by participating in the OGP meeting in Brasilia in April 2012. The OGP is a joint government – civil society initiative to promote greater openness, participation and accountability in countries which have
Continue readingeaves.ca: The Journal News Gun Map: Open vs. Personal Data
As many readers are likely aware two weeks ago The Journal News, a newspaper just outside of New York city, published a map showing the addresses and names of handgun owners in Westchester and Rockland counties. The map, which was part of a story responding to the tragic shooting in Newtown, Connecticut,
Continue readingeaves.ca: eaves.ca 2012-12-14 01:54:55
Just a brief update for those interested in participating in or organizing an event for International Open Data Day on February 23rd, 2013. The Wiki The Open Data Day wiki (sans logo, so a little rough around the edges) is now live and ready for action. The wiki is where organizers
Continue readingeaves.ca: Proactive Disclosure – An Example of Doing it Wrong from Service Canada
Just got flagged about this precious example of doing proactive disclosure wrong. So here is a Shared Service Canada website dedicated the Roundtable on Information Technology Infrastructure. Obviously this is a topic of real interest to me – I write a fair bit about delivering (or failing to deliver) government service online effectively. I think it […]
Continue readingeaves.ca: International Open Data Day – An Update
(Can’t read the whole post? Important stuff is highlighted in grey below.) Two years ago, I met some open data advocates from Brazil and Ottawa, and we schemed of doing an international open data hackathon. A few weeks later, this blog post launched International Open Data Day with the hope that supporters would emerge in 5-6 cities […]
Continue readingeaves.ca: Ontario’s Open Data Policy: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly and the (Missed?) Opportunity
Yesterday the province of Ontario launched its Open Data portal. This is great news and is the culmination of a lot of work by a number of good people. The real work behind getting open data program launched is, by and large, invisible to the public, but it is essential – and so congratulations are […]
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