Open Information, Open Data, Open Dialogue, Open Collaboration

Open Government a Digital Journey

2005 Electronic recordkeeping software Laserfiche

Enables Open Information internal (staff) and external (public)

2012 Right to Information and Protection of Privacy Act

Legislated access to municipal information

2017 Routine Disclosures published

2013 Open Data Policy

Provides access to raw (unfiltered) data

2012 Dialogue & Collaboration

Initiatives becoming more accessible with technology

2018 Local Governance Act s.69 electronic meetings

Citizen focus – Who is the modern citizen?

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Open Government / eGovernment Technology enabling transparency

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OPEN GOVERNMENT – Digital Government

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Pillars of Open Government

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City of Saint John decision making process

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Closed Meetings are limited in Municipalities Act

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2018 Local Governance Act – s. 69 electronic meetings

• S. 69 …it is permitted to use electronic means of communication in a council meeting or a committee of council meeting if it allows members of council to hear and speak to each other and, in the case of a meeting that is open to the public, allows the public to hear the members

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Open Government - Restore Trust

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jelly

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OPEN INFORMATION – Digital Information

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Laserfiche WebLink on City website connects to corporate repository records

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Increased use of electronic information management systems in City departments

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Click to Gov

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ABCs appointments database online

Proactive disclosure lists on City Website

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Access & Privacy: (Sort of a) First Quarter Report – 2017

City of Saint John Corporate Services

Common Clerk’s Office

Open Government Framework

Open Government

Open Information

Formal Request

Under RTIPPA

Informal Request

Routine Disclosure Active Dissemination

Open Data Open Dialogue

1 2 3

Basic Process

Request received by any officer of the City of Saint John triggers 30 day clock

Request for responsive records sent to

Commissioner of Office of Primary Interest (OPI)

Assigned by Commissioner to staff person

Search conducted and records retrieved by day

seven

Records provided in electronic format to Access

& Privacy Officer

Records uploaded into ATIPXpress (Case

Management system)

Records reviewed by Access & Privacy Officer

Consultation with OPI and Legal as necessary

Decision letter / responsive records package prepared

Consultation with City Manager

Provide decision letter / responsive records package

to applicant

Provide anonymized response package to

Common Council

Requests per year (2012-2017)?

26

49 46

89

98

45

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

2012 (36 weeks) 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 (15 weeks)

Who are making the requests?

6

9

18

1

9

1 1

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

20

Academia Public Media Law Firm Business Appeal Political Party

Number of requests by category (n=45)

Who are making the requests?

14%

20%

40%

2%

20%

2% 2%

Number of requests by category as percentage (n=45)

Academia

Public

Media

Law Firm

Business

Appeal

Political Party

When are the requests being made?

0

5

10

15

20

25

Jan-17 Feb-17 Mar-17 Apr-17

Number of requests by month (n=45)

Where are the requests being directed?

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

Growth &Community

DevelopmentServices

Protective Services Transportation &Environment

Services

Saint John Water Finance andAdministrative

Services

Corporate Services Transferred

Requests by program area (n>45 as some request are shared)

Where are the requests being directed?

32%

7%

4% 2%

17%

32%

6%

Requests by program area as percentage (n>45 as some shared)

Growth & Community Development Services

Protective Services

Transportation & Environment Services

Saint John Water

Finance and Administrative Services

Corporate Services

Transferred

How open are we?

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

In Full In Part Not at All Transferred Pending

Final Disposition (n=45)

Balancing Access & Privacy: use of exceptions?

Balancing Access & Privacy: use of exceptions?

Some measures of our success in 2017

97% of requests processed within legally required timeframe

100% of requests answered in full or in part (no full refusals)

1,046 pages processed

One appeal to the Commissioner

No appeals to the Court of Queen’s Bench

Municipal Benchmarking: Time to completion

2012 2013 2014 2015 2016

% within 30 days 95 84 80 80 98

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

Percentage of Regular Formal Right to Information Requests Handled within 30 Days

Municipal Benchmarking: Time to completion

Calgary Durham Halifax Hamilton London MontrealNiagara

FallsRegina

ThunderBay

Toronto Waterloo Windsor Winnipeg York Median Saint John

2013 80 90 97 78 88 78 93 100 74 58 82 92 81 82 84

2014 72 95 94 79 87 82 85 94 72 67 88 89 93 87 80

2015 72 67 95 83 56 87 77 84 76 82 88 91 93 88 84 80

2016 86

0

20

40

60

80

100

Percentage of Regular Formal Right to Information Requests Handled within 30 Days

Median (2015)

Final Information Management-related thoughts…

• RTIPPA has shined the light on poor IM practices

• Email • Financial Management • Retention Schedules

• RTIPPA has highlighted potential datasets for Open Data

• Councillor Contact and Social Media • Salary Information • Budget (tbd 2017)

• RTIPPA has highlighted the need to build-in Access & Privacy by Design if we are to increase the amount of information released routinely or actively.

• “Freedom of information legislation is only as good as the quality of the records and other information to which it provides access. Access rights are of limited value if information cannot be found when requested or, when found, cannot be relied upon as authoritative. Good records and information management benefits those requesting information because it provides some assurance that the information provided will be complete and reliable. It benefits those holding the requested information because it enables them to locate and retrieve it easily within the statutory timescales or to explain why it is not held.”

Lord Chancellor’s Code of Practice on the Management of Records.

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OPEN DATA Raw Digital Data

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Open Data and YOU!

The Open Data Catalog is a web-based tool that provides public access to datasets provided by the City under Open Data terms of use.

Open Data Catalogs are a centerpiece of almost any open data initiative, as they provide the “front door” for users to find and navigate available data.

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Technology Options for Open Data Catalog

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Socrata – Proprietary technology solution

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Socrata – Proprietary Technology Solution

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CKAN – Open Source Software Platform

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CKAN Open-Source Market leader worldwide

One of the strengths of the open source model is in the communities that form around free software products. The CKAN community is no different, and is arguably one of the strongest open data communities in the world. Together, the CKAN community has a wealth of knowledge and expertise that other people using the CKAN software can draw on. The Open Knowledge Foundation draw on and contribute to this rich resource to help us drive CKAN product development. CKAN in the US (with Drupal) New Drupal – DKAN version

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City Saint John – their own….

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Beginning in Budget 2017, release budgetary information in an open data format.

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Increase transparency in government spending

Provide data in open, non-proprietary formats such as XML, CSV, JSON

For convenience of specialized users, may also provide data in proprietary formats such as Excel, of shape files (GIS)

On-site (internal) dataset storage

Custom metadata fields

Manual uploading

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City of Saint John - Core catalog features

allow users to easily search for and download available datasets in open data formats, (A-Z listing)

display terms of use licensing clearly and (Licensing Agreement. This agreement encourages free use of the data with a few conditions and is consistent with best practices in other Canadian municipalities.)

provide attribution, metadata

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City of Saint John – Catalog cont

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OPEN DIALOGUE Digital Dialogue

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Emergency Alert Sign-Up

Pin-It (budget allocation to specific initiatives)

Participants at public engagement sessions on new Municipal Plan and Zoning by-law

On-line City registry where residents can sign up to receive updates on public events in their areas of interest

Twitter, Facebook

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Public engagement activities

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• Collaborate

• to restore trust, deliver services public wants

• Citizen is a co-producer

• participation

• transparency

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Open Dialogue

• Public and Social Innovation Labs

• 4 Questions

• Is my solution desirable?

• Is it feasible, viable?

• Is there evidence for scalability?

• Will it deliver impact?

• Principles

• act, invent, iterate, prototype

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Open Dialogue – Solution Labs

Harness the knowledge of sector experts to improve government’s policy development process.

Create Open Government communities of practice, comprised of internal and external to government stakeholders, for each of the 4 pillars of Open Government…..

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OPEN COLLABORATION Digital Collaboration

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NBSPRN - Networked Governance

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Collaboration venue

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Data Visualization – Saint John Water

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Questions?

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