Open Data – Foundational Component to Open Government

Elaine Gamble, Managing Director, Corporate Communications, City of London

November 24, 2011

“The way to make government responsible is to hold it accountable. And the way to make it accountable is make it transparent so the American people can know exactly what decisions are being made, how they’re being made, and whether their interests are being well served.”

Barack Obama (January 21, 2009). Remarks by the President in Welcoming Senior Staff to the White House. The White House. Retrieved May 13, 2010, from http://www.whitehous.gov/the_press_office/REmarksofthePresidentinWElcomingSeniorStaffandCabinetSecretariestotheWhiteHouse.

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What is Open Data? Open data is a philosophy and practice requiring that certain data are made available to the public, without restrictions from copyright, patents or other mechanisms of control, for free and in a machine readable format.

Why do it?The goal of open data is to make government open, accessible and transparent and encourage more participation in government.Many examples also show it can save government money.

David Eaves: http://eaves.ca/2010/04/14/case-study-open-data-and-the-public-purse/

What happens with Open Data?

Benefits of Open Data• Demonstrates commitment to transparency,

accountability, innovation• Provides developers and others with free access to

data in a usable/re-usable format• Creates opportunity to use data in new and

innovative ways that government may not have considered or have the expertise or time to create

• Contributes to the strength and vibrancy of the digital media economy within the City

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Challenges for Government• Corporate culture – from control to open government

concept• Policy – from a “fee for data” to a “free data” policy• Legal considerations – privacy, intellectual property,

liability• Resources – scope, managing expectations and

sustainability• Branding and accuracy – potential confusion of who’s

responsible

How Did London Get Started?• Open data advocates approached the City• We agreed to explore the idea• Internal group developed the initiative– Review other cities efforts– Discuss risks and benefits– Investigate potential data sets– Seek Council approval for the initiative

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Getting Started• Get the right people in the room• Research other cities• Get Council approval for the initiative/policy• Develop internal terms of reference– Criteria for decision-making– Monitor use of data– Evaluate costs, staff resources, benefits, risks– Liaise with the community to find out what their

needs are

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Criteria for Consideration• Public: Is the data already publicly available? • Cost/time: To obtain and convert the data to a raw

format? • Privacy: Can it be released under privacy legislation?• Security: Does the data represent a security threat? • Public Interest: is there a threat to the public interest?

• Third party contractual obligations which would prevent release?

• Legislation: Is it compliant with any other legislation?

Requests for Data Sets• Transit data• Boundary files, wards, official planning areas• Garbage collection dates and geographic zones• Election results by ward and poll• Tree census and tree inventory data• Budget and financial statement info• Water quality test results

Latest Update• ‘Beta’ website launched in September 2010• Internal consultation – inform, educate• Evaluate human resources and costs

associated with expanding the initiative• Liaise with members of the community• Look at new and existing data sets to

determine future releases• Budget app contest launched in November

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Next Steps for Open Data in Canada

• The Cities of Ottawa, Toronto, Edmonton, and Vancouver are working together to improve the OpenData programs in each of the cities including:

• Sharing technology• Commissioning an OpenData Framework report• Making improvements to the Terms of Use common

across each of the cities• Working towards common data standards

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For More InformationElaine Gamble

John Bontje Managing Director,

Manager, Technology Corporate Communications Services Department

www.london.ca/open jbontje@london.ca @londoncomms

519-661-2500, ext. 4891 facebook.com/londoncanada

egamble@london.ca 519-661-2500, ext. 4782

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