Presented by Jury Konga
eGovFutures Group
URISA Ontario
Be Spatial Annual Conference
Vaughan, Ontario
May 6, 2010.
Open Data - New Opportunities
for the GEO and
Citizen Community
Jury Konga Open Data Opportunities
Overview
� Open Government and the Role of Open Data
� Success Stories in Open Data
� Challenges and Opportunities for the Citizen
and GeoCommunity
� Audience dialogue … your views!
2
Jury Konga Open Data Opportunities
Open Government
and the Role of Open Data
� Open Government is …
� Often referred to as Gov 2.0
� Gov 2.0 is synonymous with … transparency, access to
information/Open Data, citizen engagement, citizen
empowerment, innovation and collaboration
� Open Data is KEY to Open Government
3
Jury Konga Open Data Opportunities
Open Government
and the Role of Open Data
� Open Government has become highly visible …
Obama’s Open Government Directive (Dec. 8, 2009)
� Publish Government Information Online
� Improve the Quality of Government Information
� Create and Institutionalize a Culture of Open Government
� Create an Enabling Policy Framework for Open Government
4
Jury Konga Open Data Opportunities
Open Government
and the Role of Open Data
� Open Government as defined by citizens and
communities of interest has a data – centric focus
5
Source: Toronto Change Camp 2009
Jury Konga Open Data Opportunities
Open Data Success Stories
- Federal Government: Canada
6
• GeoDiscovery
• GeoBase
• Atlas of Canada + + +
Jury Konga Open Data Opportunities
Open Data Success Stories
- Federal Government: United States
7
• GeoSpatial One Stop
• Data.gov
• Note data formats
Jury Konga Open Data Opportunities
Open Data Success Stories
- Federal Government: United Kingdom
8
• Data.gov.uk(Sir Tim Berners-Lee on their team)
• Ordinance Survey OpenData – history of fees now gone
Jury Konga Open Data Opportunities
Open Data Success Stories
- Federal Government: Australia
9
• Spatial Data Directory
• National Data Australia site
• It’s at Beta stage as many sites are– not waiting for perfection … just do it
Jury Konga Open Data Opportunities
Open Data Success Stories
- Provincial Governments
10
• Land Info Ontario
• GeoNova Portal
• GeoBC
Jury Konga Open Data Opportunities
Open Data Success Stories
- Municipal Government: Vancouver
11
• Council motion
May 2009
• Beta V1
Sept 15, 2009
• Beta V2
Jan 20, 2010
• Open Data
Hackathons –
Sept ‘09, Dec
’09, Jan ’10,
Apr ‘10
Jury Konga Open Data Opportunities
Open Data Success Stories
- Municipal Government: Toronto
12
• Mayor Miller
announces
open initiative
Apr 7, 2009.
• Beta V1
Nov 2, 2009
• App Dev
community
started data.to
site
Jury Konga Open Data Opportunities
Open Data Success Stories
- Municipal Government: Edmonton
13
• Open Data
Catalog Jan ’10
• Open Data
workshop and
application
competition Feb –
Apr ’10
• Apps4Edmonton
– proposals,
community votes,
apps developed,
winner in Sept ‘10
Jury Konga Open Data Opportunities
Open Data Success Stories
- Municipal Government: Nanaimo
14
• Open Data – not just for large municipalities
• Nanaimo – pop. 85,000, 88 sq. km
• Also known for their leadership in providing data via Goggle Earth
Jury Konga Open Data Opportunities
Open Data Success Stories
- Municipal Government: United States
15
• Washington DC
• San Francisco
• New York City
Jury Konga Open Data Opportunities
Open Data Success Stories
- We Have Data …Now What?
16
• USE THE DATA!
• Washington DC
– Apps for
Democracy ’09
• Code for
America –
“Connecting City
Governments &
Web 2.0 talent
• DataSF ’09
“Innovation
Showcase”
Jury Konga Open Data Opportunities
Open Data Success Stories
- We Have Data …Now What?
17
• USE THE DATA!
• DataTO.org –
community based
• Apps4Edmonton
– City sponsored
• Apps for Climate
Action – B.C.
• Other apps
contests in the
works
Jury Konga Open Data Opportunities
Open Data Initiatives
- Challenges for Government
18
� Corporate Culture – Moving to Gov 2.0 is a significant shift for many
organizations (all levels of government)
� Policy – precedents and today's trend is to move from a “Fee for Data” to
a Free Data corporate policy
� Legal considerations related to privacy, IP and perceived liabilities
� Resourcing the initiative – many recent initiatives have been “off-the-
side-of-the-desk” projects … after start-up, data maintenance including
issues of data quality e.g. GIS “grade” versus crowdsourced
� SES (Scope, managing Expectations and Sustainability) e.g. what data
(based on FOI), priority ranking system, operational funding model
Jury Konga Open Data Opportunities
Open Data Initiatives
- Example Benefits for Citizens
19
� Access to Open Data at no cost + new tools to USE the data
� “Ease of use” for data in a usable/re-usable format – developers
� Opportunity to create mashups of open data from multiple sources
� Economic spinoffs for business in new software, data mining products and
services, innovation centres/communities
� Increased efficiencies (e.g. reduced $ for FOI) for both government &
citizens (reduced time and money to access/use data)
� Access to new innovative services and applications – “smart” phones !
Jury Konga Open Data Opportunities
� Stumble Safely – a guide to bars and
avoiding crime, “Apps for Democracy”
Silver Award
� “... contest is to develop innovative software to
present District data, its long-term goals are
broader,” said District CTO Vivek Kundra. “By
making government data easy for everyone to
access and use, the District hopes to foster citizen
participation in government, drive private-sector
technology innovation and growth, and build a
new model for government-private sector
collaboration that can help all governments
address the technology challenges of today and
tomorrow.”
� President Barack Obama named Vivek Kundra the
Federal Chief Information Officer (CIO), on March
5, 2009
20
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Open Data Initiatives
- Example Applications for Citizens
Jury Konga Open Data Opportunities
� NY City Apps Contest
Winner
� Wayfinder – app for
Android Smart Phone
- finds subway
stations and routes
needed
� Many apps have
transit focus
21
Open Data Initiatives
- Example Applications for Citizens
Jury Konga Open Data Opportunities
� FixMyStreet started in UK;
recently began in Canada
in Ottawa area
- benefits from open data
� Community controlled;
data passed on to
appropriate jurisdiction
� Issues with approach
- industry standards
versus public expectations
(e.g. potholes)
- public sector capacity to
address issues
� Recent collaboration on
Open 311 may impact
22
Open Data Initiatives
- Example Applications for Citizens
Jury Konga Open Data Opportunities
� Location, Location, Location
� New and Existing Location based data
� Mashups in Mapping and Applications to Answer
….. Where is and What’s Nearby
23
Open Data Initiatives
- Example Applications for Citizens
Yelp
Map the Path
Geodelic
Jury Konga Open Data Opportunities
Open Data Initiatives
- Opportunities for the GeoCommunity
24
� GIS community has known about the value of geospatial data since the
1960’s - it’s now front and centre in the Open Data movement
� Leadership Opportunity – sharing your geo knowledge to allow others to
understand the potential of all things geo can add value to citizen
designed services and public sector service delivery
� Innovation Opportunity – define effective processes, standards, policies
to support sustainable open data programs in government and new
areas of geospatial data analyses and applications
� Collaboration and Partnership Opportunity – “All of us is smarter than
one of us”
Jury Konga Open Data Opportunities
Questions?
- Yes, I have some ….
25
� Dialogue with the Audience
� Q: What existing data should be geocoded to open up
opportunities for new applications to better serve citizens and
businesses?
A: Audience says ….
� Q: What role could the citizen and business community play in
maintaining data?
A: Audience says ….
Jury Konga Open Data Opportunities 26
� Gov 2.0 – becoming the new way of doing business. Strive to optimize
the role of geospatial data and analyses in public service delivery
� Open Data – the trend is local to global. All levels of government need
to increase knowledge and pick up the pace of moving forward
� Collaboration 2.0 - leveraging social media greatly facilitates the public
sector connecting with one another AND the citizens
� Open Data.CA – today, the goal is to collaborate on opening up ALL
geospatial data in Canada …. as a starting point!
Go To www.govloop.com/group/opendataca - join, share, plan, act!
Concluding Thoughts …
and Challenge
Jury Konga Open Data Opportunities 27
� Gov 2.0 and Open Data Education opportunity – MISA Ontario
Annual Conference, June 13 – 16, 2010. Niagara Falls, Ontario.
www.misa.on.ca
Open Gov, Open Data … M
on
da
y
Tu
esd
ay Wednesday
Gov 2.0 Mini
Unconference
- Delegates decide
discussion topics