As some of you saw yesterday via Twitter, Vancouver has launched a beta version of its open data portal. This is a major milestone for Vancouver on several levels. It is a testament to our politicians, who had the vision and foresight to embrace this idea. It is a tribute to the city’s staff who have worked unbelievably hard to make this project come alive so quickly. It is a triumph for those of us who advocate and have been working with the city to move us towards open government and government as platform. Finally, it represents an enormous opportunity for coders and citizens alike, and it is to this group that I’d like to address this blog post.
The Data Portal represents an opportunity for citizens, especially citizen coders, to help create a City that Thinks Like the Web: a city that enables citizens to create and access collective knowledge and information to create new services, suggest new ideas, and identify critical bugs in the infrastructure and services, among other a million other possibilities.
But the open data is only the part of the puzzle. Yes, our data is now beginning to be set free. But we have to use it.
If not, we’ll risk losing it.
I wish I could say that the city will share data no matter what and that political support will continue forever. But the fact is, municipal resources are limited. While the potential of open data is enormous, we need more than potential; we need some wins. More importantly, we need an active and engaged community working to make Vancouver better, more efficient, and more interesting because of our open data. We need to show politicians and public servants in Vancouver, but also in Edmonton, Calgary, Ottawa, Toronto, Montreal, Nanaimo, Moncton and other places across the country that citizens want access to data, and that if we get it, we will help their city (or province, or country) come alive in new and inventive ways.
Back in June, shortly after City Council passed Open3 (the nickname for the Open Motion), I gave this presentation to both City staff and at Open Web Vancouver. In it I described how “the bargain” Clay Shirky says exists on every successful web 2.0 site also exists in cities that want to think like the web.
In our case the bargain is simple: On one side, the city agrees to share as much data as it possibly can, in open formats, as quickly as it can. On the other side, the community – and in particular citizen coders – must make that data come alive in applications, websites and analysis. The city has taken the first step in fulfilling its side of the bargain. (And yes, we need to keep adding more data; there is work to be done.) Now it is time to activate the other half of the bargain. If we don’t, we put the deal at risk.
So what can you do?
First, you can code up an app, or find ways to help those who are. Indeed, there is going to be a Hackathon tomorrow evening at the Vancouver Archives to do just this. A number of projects are already underway that you can join – or start one yourself! I will be there myself, and I encourage you to swing by too.
Second, if you’d like to build an application, but the dataset you need is currently not available, then complete the city’s Open Data priority survey!
Third, come add ideas, resources and projects to the Vancouver Open Data Wiki.
I’m enormously excited to see what evolves next. As many of you know, I’ve been advising the Mayor’s Office on open data and open government for several months now – and through my work with them and with city staff, I’ve been deeply impressed by the energy and commitment that I’ve seen. As far as I know, only three major cities have created data portals such as this, and to do this in three months is incredible. Over the next few days I’m going to share some more thoughts on what the Open Data portal means for Vancouver. If you get a chance I hope you’ll send me your thoughts as well, or post some to your own blog if you have one.
eaves.ca 
Yes, it will be interesting for sure – but the big problem is not just using it, but having the city listen to anything at all, which is what the problem has really always been in the past. I've been part of citizen advisory councils and vision processes and other committees as well as providing personal views directly and have been waiting a lifetime for the ideas generated to be recognized much less observed and even less listened to. Life seems to be too short to put too much time into this, it often seems. Kudos to the younger people with more energy and time now! I only wish the internet had emerged about 40 years earlier!
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David great post! We second your thoughts that the data needs to be used to keep these initiatives going. HomeZilla is going to be integrating some of the Vancouver data this weekend. We are working on a way to give some 'cred' to Open Vancouver for the data we are going to use.Thanks for a great post!
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I think the “use it or lose it” is an incorrect framing. Use of Vancouver's open data to create new things creates new value, which adds value to the city. With mashups and “citizen coders”, I'm sure there will be a handful of apps created — I love the fact that we've got our own city to experiment with all these cool tools with.But waggling your finger and saying “use it or lose it” is not, I think the correct approach. In most open source projects, unless there is continued economic drivers, it is very hard for a project to continue. Growing a commercial ecosystem is healthy.It's great to see Sandy from HomeZilla here. This is an example of economic value seen by one commercial entity. How do we attract more? How do we maintain the apps that do get created?I'd love to see a contest with prizes to motivate people to set up some usage of this data with real longevity. I think the Apps for Democracy contest in DC was a good example of this.
I agree with Boris and am glad to see I'm not the only one that raised an eyebrow at the title. While I think emphasizing outcomes is great in order to draw attention to the things that people build and to demonstrate some of the direct value open data can bring, my personal preference would be on questions of process. Now that we have this data open, who can get involved in ways they previously might not chosen to have, and how can we nurture them in creating cool things for the city?I'm sensitive to the fact that the resources it takes to open this data are competing with funding to fill potholes and make other tangible changes that many other wants. I don't want the point I'm making to detract from the awesome job the City of Vancouver has done. I'm just wondering if the kick in the ass encouraging us to take advantage of the opportunity can be delivered without threats of taking away our ability to play with our very meaningful toys, because it continues to put government in the position of having the “power” through the data/information and citizens being told to play ball or stop whining, which doesn't sound all that collaborative or, frankly, much fun either.
Boris – thank you for the comment. A couple of thoughts back…First, the post was not meant as a wag of the finger – but a recognition that there needs to be uptake, by anyone (coders, academics, bike advocates, etc..) for the city to want to invest. Just like when the city offers services through its community centres, if no one comes and uses them, those resources get redeployed. I also agree that there can be real economic value generated by open data (a point that was written into the Open Motion) and we should be asking how to we enable more apps (that get maintained) to be created. I'm not persuaded that an Apps for Democracy contest is the best way. I'm open to the idea, but having the city or sponsors inject 10K once every year (or less frequently) won't create a sustainable business model. It is great for proof of concept, but I think that's already been done. We know apps can be interesting, the question is what business models will it support, a competition won't answer that question (as far as I can tell – but again, I'm open to the idea and have been thinking about it as a next step for the city).
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Thanks, Karen, you've framed this excellently.I think that an app contest raises the profile of projects like this and provides incentive for some people/businesses to take the time to build an app. A business might very well be able to justify their *money* investment just for the PR of promoting their app. Huh, sounds kind of like what the City of Vancouver is experiencing right now as it gets free earned media around the globe! :PHaving a prize for best business use of the data can perhaps spur some of the entries in the right direction. Think of it as seed capital to get the ecosystem going.Some simple things like free hosting, or reserving some likely top level domain names so that “free” subdomains could be given out, might be starting points for making it more likely that some sustainable projects start and continue.
Boris – thank you for the comment. A couple of thoughts back…First, the post was not meant as a wag of the finger – but a recognition that there needs to be uptake, by anyone (coders, academics, bike advocates, etc..) for the city to want to invest. Just like when the city offers services through its community centres, if no one comes and uses them, those resources get redeployed. I also agree that there can be real economic value generated by open data (a point that was written into the Open Motion) and we should be asking how to we enable more apps (that get maintained) to be created. I'm not persuaded that an Apps for Democracy contest is the best way. I'm open to the idea, but having the city or sponsors inject 10K once every year (or less frequently) won't create a sustainable business model. It is great for proof of concept, but I think that's already been done. We know apps can be interesting, the question is what business models will it support, a competition won't answer that question (as far as I can tell – but again, I'm open to the idea and have been thinking about it as a next step for the city).
Thanks, Karen, you've framed this excellently.I think that an app contest raises the profile of projects like this and provides incentive for some people/businesses to take the time to build an app. A business might very well be able to justify their *money* investment just for the PR of promoting their app. Huh, sounds kind of like what the City of Vancouver is experiencing right now as it gets free earned media around the globe! :PHaving a prize for best business use of the data can perhaps spur some of the entries in the right direction. Think of it as seed capital to get the ecosystem going.Some simple things like free hosting, or reserving some likely top level domain names so that “free” subdomains could be given out, might be starting points for making it more likely that some sustainable projects start and continue.
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