Open Data - Challenges and Opportunities for the GEO and Citizen Community

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


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


Open Government


� 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


Open Government


� Open Government as defined by citizens and

communities of interest has a data – centric focus

5

Source: Toronto Change Camp 2009


Open Data Success Stories

- Federal Government: Canada

6

• GeoDiscovery

• GeoBase

• Atlas of Canada + + +



- Federal Government: United States

7

• GeoSpatial One Stop

• Data.gov

• Note data formats



- Federal Government: United Kingdom

8

• Data.gov.uk(Sir Tim Berners-Lee on their team)

• Ordinance Survey OpenData – history of fees now gone



- 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



- Provincial Governments

10

• Land Info Ontario

• GeoNova Portal

• GeoBC



- 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



- Municipal Government: Toronto

12

• Mayor Miller

announces

open initiative

Apr 7, 2009.

• Beta V1

Nov 2, 2009

• App Dev

community

started data.to

site



- 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



- 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



- Municipal Government: United States

15

• Washington DC

• San Francisco

• New York City



- 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”



- 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


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



- 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 !


� 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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- Example Applications for Citizens


� NY City Apps Contest

Winner

� Wayfinder – app for

Android Smart Phone

- finds subway

stations and routes

needed

� Many apps have

transit focus

21




� 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




� Location, Location, Location

� New and Existing Location based data

� Mashups in Mapping and Applications to Answer

….. Where is and What’s Nearby

23



Yelp

Map the Path

Geodelic



- 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”


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

Thank you

Jury Konga, Principal

eGovFutures Group

(905)640-7377

[email protected]

Open Data - Challenges and Opportunities for the GEO and Citizen Community

Technology

open data challenges

nanaimo open data

mashups of open data

open data workshop

open data hackathons

open data new opportunities

informationopen data

data maintenance