Monthly Archives: February 2012

The Exciting Launch of Represent and What It Says About Open Data in Canada

Last week a group of volunteer programs from across Canada announced the launch of Represent – a website that tries to map all of Canada’s boundaries. Confused? Don’t be. It’s simple. This is a nifty piece of digital infrastructure – try visiting the website yourself! After identifying where you are located it will then tell you which MP riding, MLA/MPP district and census subdivision you are located in.

So why does this matter?

What’s important about a site like Represent (much like its cousin site Mapit, which offers a similar service in the UK) is that other websites and applications can use it to offer important services, like letting a user know who their MP is, and thus who their complaint email should be sent to, or identify what by-laws are applicable in the place where they are standing. Have you ever visited the site of a ~~radical group~~ non-profit which urged you to write your MP? With Represent that organization can now easily and cheaply create a widget that would figure out where you are, who you MP is, and ensure you had the right address or email address for your letter. This significantly lowers the barrier to advocacy and political mobilization.

This is why I consider sites like Represent to be core digital infrastructure for a 21st century democracy. Critical because the number of useful services that can educate and engage citizens on politics and government is virtually limitless.

But if we accept that Represent is critical, the site’s limits tell us a lot about the state of our democratic institutions in general, and our open data policy infrastructure in particular. In this regard, there are three insights that come to mind.

1) The information limits of Represent

While Represent can locate any of the federal and provincial ridings (along with the elected official in them) there are remarkably few cities for which the service works. Calgary, Charlottetown, Edmonton, Mississauga, Montreal, Ottawa, Stratford, Summerside, Toronto and Windsor are all that are identified. (The absence of Vancouver – my home town – is less alarming as the city does not have wards or boroughs, we elect 10 councillors in an at large system). The main reason you won’t find more cities available is simply because many cities choose not to share their ward boundary data with the public. And of course, things don’t need to stop with just city wards, there is no reason what Represent couldn’t also tell you which school district you are in, or even which specific school catchment area you are in, in say Vancouver, or North Vancouver.

The paucity of data is an indication of how hard it is to get data from most cities and provinces about the communities in which we live in. There has been great success in getting open data portals launched in several cities – and we should celebrate the successes we’ve had – but the reality is, only a tiny fraction of Canadian cities share data about themselves. In the overwhelming majority, useful data about electoral boundaries, elected officials, schools, etc… exists and are sued internally by governments (paid for by our tax dollars) but they are never shared publicly and so cannot help drive democratic engagement.

So here’s a new rule. If your city boundary data isn’t in Represnt – your city is screwing up. It’s a pretty simple metric.

Oh, and Canada Post, you’re the biggest offender of them all. Your data is the default location specific data set in the country – the easiest way to locate where someone is. Being able to map all this data to postal codes is maybe the most important piece of the puzzle, but sadly, Canada Post clings to data our tax dollars subsidize the creation and maintenance of. Of course, in the UK, they made Postal Code data completely open.

2) Lack of Standards

And of course, even when the data does exist, it isn’t standardized. Previously non-profits, think tanks and even companies would have to manage data in various forms from innumerable sources, (or pay people lots of money to organize the data for them). It shouldn’t be this way. While it is great the Represent helps standardize the data, standard data schemas should already exist for things like MPP/MLA/MNA ridings and descriptions. Instead we have to rely on a group of volunteer hackers to solve a problem the countries leading governments are unable, or unwilling to address.

3) Licenses & Legality

However, the real place where Represent shows the short comings in Canada’s open data infrastructure is the way the site struggles to deal with the variety of licenses under which it is allowed to use data from various sources.

The simple fact is, in Canada, most “open data” is in fact not open. Rather that have serious restrictions placed upon them that limit the ability of sites like Rperesent.ca to be useful.

For example, many, many cities still have “share alike” clauses in their licenses, clauses that mean any product created using their data may not have “further restrictions of any kind.” But of course, each city with a “share alike” clause has slightly different restrictions in their license meaning that none of them can be combined. In the end it means that data from Vancouver cannot be used with data from Edmonton or from Montreal. It’s a complete mess.

Other jurisdictions have no license on their data. For example electoral boundary data for British Columbia, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Nova Scotia is unlicensed, leaving users very unclear about their rights. Hint to these and other jurisdictions: just make it open.

What Represent really demonstrates is that there is a need for a single, standard open data license across Canada. It’s something I’m working on. More to report soon I hope.

Despite these hurdles, Represent is a fantastic project and site – and they are looking for others to help them gather more data. If you want to support them (and I strongly encourage you to do so) check out the bottom of their home page. Big congratulations to everyone involved.

Requests for Endorsements: My Application to Attend The Open Government Partnership

16 Replies

Dear friends,

Below (first in english then in a rough french translation – my spoken is much better than my written so I’ve relied on Google translate) is my application letter to attend the April 16-18 Annual Open Government Partnership meeting in Brasilia as a Civil Society Representative.

The first reason I’m posting this is in an effort to make my application as transparent as possible. By posting it, if people have comments, additions, questions,I thought it might be helpful to post it. I can’t promise to engage every issue – I know some people have disagreed with positions I have taken – but I will do my best to engage what I believe is a broad community that cares about everything from open data, to access to information requests, to simply having more accessible MPs and websites.

Another – connected – reason I’m posting my application is I need your help. As part of the process I’m asked to submit organizations that endorse my application. For those of you who already have expressed this support… thank you. I will definitely add you to this letter. If you are willing to support my application and have not yet let me know, please do send me an email (or comment below). I need to add you organization (if any), your name and your email address.

The application deadline is February 6th (yes, it would have been better to get this up sooner) so ideally any feedback would be great to get today or this weekend. That said, I would still love to get feedback after the 6th in case I do go, I’d still like to be able to listen for and act on what you care about.

If you have other questions about or suggestions for the application, please let me know. Thank you!

Dear Open Government Partnership,

I am writing to express my desire to participate as a local civil society member at the 2012 OGP meeting in Brazil.

I have been active in Open Government for the past 7 years working as an advocate, adviser and chronicler of transparency in Canada and around the world.

Background and Engagement in OGP Issues

As an advocate, I’ve spoken about the challenges around Open Government across Canada at the municipal, provincial and federal levels. Internationally, I’ve given the opening keynote at the last two International Open Government Data Camps hosted by the Open Knowledge Foundation, was invited to address the 7^th International Conference of Information Commissioners in Ottawa and Mexico’s Semana Nacional de la Transparencia, and given talks at the Gov 2.0 Expo and Summit in Washington DC (at which the host, Tim O’Reilly, stated, “If you read only one blog in the Gov 2.0 space, you should read eaves.ca”).

In addition to speaking, I’ve tried to actively demonstrate ways open government can improve our communities. My belief is that we need a broad set of ways to engage citizens in open government – some will be motivated by accountability, but others will be engaged by simply having their lives made easier. Consequently, in pursuit of advancing accountability, I worked with a team of developers sponsored by Microsoft to create Emitter.ca, a website that mashes up pollution, politician, and company data to enable citizens to identify heavy polluters in their neighborhoods and region. While trying to find ways to show how open government can promote better services, I worked with friends to create Recollect.net, a simple service that uses open data to remind citizens to take out their recycling and garbage. And as an advocate, when the Federal Government lagged by years behind the US and the UK in creating an open data portal, I created http://www.datadotgc.ca which sought to track open data sets already being shared on various ministry website to demonstrate that, contrary to its position, the government already had a policy infrastructure to do open data. This site helped pressure the government into launching its own formal open data website.

I’ve also worked actively in the Open Government space by engaging with governments directly. In 2009, I co-drafted the open motion for the Mayor and Council of the City of Vancouver. This lead to the first city council motion in the world directing city staff to make open data part of their activities. As a result, Vancouver launched the world’s second municipal open data portal (after Washington DC). I also worked with the city’s IT staff to revise procurement rules to make open data a required specification as well make open source software a permissible option. At the federal level, I worked with NGO and educated key government players to shift Canada – which had been skeptical – into agreeing to participate in the OGP.

I have, however, also been critical when necessary. I’ve written pieces in newspapers and on my blog when governments have failed to be transparent or have taken steps in the wrong direction.

Meeting Contribution and Learnings

The Open Government Partnership provides civil society members with a rare carrot and stick for engaging their government on the issue of open government. Because it requires the government to set clear goals around transparency in an international forum, it provides civil society with leverage to hold the government to account.

While this leverage must be handled responsibly (factually incorrect critiques will erode the public’s confidence in civil society organizations), if properly used it can compel the government to move more aggressively on fixing problems in this area. This is of particular urgency in Canada, where government transparency has been in decline over the past several decades. Once considered cutting age, Canada’s access to information regime is wildly out of date. Access to information requests are handled more slowly than ever and access to government information – with the exception of a dramatic improvement in the area of open data – is becoming more restrictive. My goal at the Open Government Partnership will be to engage other government and NGOs to understand the transparency benchmarks being set by other governments that can be used as a way by which Canadians can judge the progress of their own government. I can also share my own experiences in moving open data policies through local and national governments, as well as some approaches for engaging non-traditional stakeholders in this space.

OGP Outreach Plan

Upon returning from the Open Government Partnership, I commit to aggregating feedback from various actors in an effort to have it directly inform the goals and actions of the Canadian Federal Government with whom I have a critical but cordial relationship. I will also, of course, blog about what I believe are the key benchmarks Canadian civil society actors should be using to pressure and measure the Canadian government against. Finally, I commit to get on the phone with any civil society actor that contacts me and discuss with them what I observed and how I believe it impacts their organization.

Funding

With regard to funding, my hope is that I will be able to find some alternative funding for travel. As a result, I’m looking to have my room and board covered along with some of my travel costs. My hope is that by doing so, it might be possible to use some of the OGP funds to support the travel of others.

The organizations, names and emails of the leaders endorsing my application

Organisation Leader Email

Thank you for considering my application. Please let me know if you have any questions.

Sincerely,

David Eaves

version française

Cher Partenariat gouvernement ouvert,

Je vous écris pour exprimer mon désir de participer en tant que membre de la société civile locale à la réunion de 2012 du OGP au Brésil.

J’ai été actif au sein du gouvernement ouvert pour les 7 dernières années de travail comme un défenseur, de conseiller et chroniqueur de la transparence au Canada et partout dans le monde.

Contexte et engagement dans les questions du OGP

En tant que défenseur, j’ai parlé des défis autour de la transparence du gouvernement partout au Canada aux niveaux municipal, provincial et fédéral. Au niveau international, je vous ai donné le discours d’ouverture lors des deux dernières International Open Camps de données hébergées par le gouvernement de l’Open Knowledge Foundation, a été invité à s’adresser à la 7e Conférence internationale des commissaires à l’information à Ottawa et du Mexique Semana Nacional de la Transparencia, et donné des conférences au l’Gov 2.0 Expo et au Sommet de Washington DC (à laquelle l’hôte, Tim O’Reilly, a déclaré: «Si vous ne voulez lire un blog dans l’espace Gov 2.0, vous devriez lire eaves.ca”).

En plus de parler, j’ai essayé de démontrer activement des façons un gouvernement ouvert pouvons améliorer nos collectivités. Ma conviction est que nous devons un large éventail de moyens pour engager les citoyens dans un gouvernement ouvert, dont certains seront motivés par la reddition de comptes, mais d’autres seront engagés en ayant simplement leur vie plus facile. Par conséquent, dans la poursuite de l’avancement de responsabilité, j’ai travaillé avec une équipe de développeurs parrainés par Microsoft pour créer Emitter.ca, un site Web qui écrase les données de la pollution, homme politique et la société pour permettre aux citoyens d’identifier les pollueurs dans leurs quartiers et de la région. Tout en essayant de trouver des façons de montrer le degré d’ouverture du gouvernement peut favoriser de meilleurs services, j’ai travaillé avec des amis pour créer Recollect.net, un service simple qui utilise les données ouvertes à rappeler aux citoyens de prendre leur recyclage et des ordures. Et en tant que défenseur, lorsque le gouvernement fédéral retardée par des années derrière les Etats-Unis et au Royaume-Uni dans la création d’un portail de données ouverte, j’ai créé http://www.datadotgc.ca qui a cherché à suivre les données ouvertes fixe d’ores et déjà partagé sur le site Web du ministère, pour montrer que, contrairement à sa position, le gouvernement avait déjà une infrastructure politique de faire de données ouvertes. Ce site a contribué pression sur le gouvernement en lançant son propre site web officiel de données ouvert.

J’ai aussi travaillé activement dans l’espace ouvert par gouvernement collaboration avec les gouvernements directement. En 2009, j’ai co-rédigé la motion ouverte pour le maire et le conseil de la ville de Vancouver. Cela a conduit à la motion du Conseil municipal première dans le monde de diriger le personnel municipal pour faire partie des données ouverte de leurs activités. En conséquence, Vancouver a lancé seconde municipale dans le monde Portail de données ouvertes (après Washington DC). J’ai également travaillé avec TI de la Ville de personnel pour réviser les règles de passation des marchés pour rendre les données ouvertes une spécification requise ainsi rendre les logiciels open source d’une option acceptable. Au niveau fédéral, j’ai travaillé avec des ONG et instruits joueurs clés du gouvernement de transférer au Canada – qui avait été sceptique – en acceptant de participer à l’OGP.

J’ai, cependant, a également joué un rôle crucial lorsque cela est nécessaire. J’ai écrit des pièces dans les journaux et sur mon blog où les gouvernements n’ont pas réussi à être transparents ou ont pris des mesures dans la mauvaise direction.

Comment vais-je contribuer à la réunion et ce, je veux apprendre de fréquenter;

Le Partenariat sur la transparence gouvernementale offre aux membres de la société civile avec une carotte et du bâton rare pour engager leur gouvernement sur la question d’un gouvernement ouvert. Parce qu’il oblige le gouvernement à fixer des objectifs clairs à la transparence dans un forum international, il offre à la société civile avec effet de levier pour obliger le gouvernement à rendre compte.

Bien que cet effet de levier doit être géré de façon responsable (dans les faits critiques incorrectes va éroder la confiance du public dans les organisations de la société civile), si elle est correctement utilisée, elle peut contraindre le gouvernement à agir de façon plus agressive sur la résolution des problèmes dans ce domaine. Ceci est d’une urgence particulière au Canada, où la transparence du gouvernement a été en déclin au cours des dernières décennies. Autrefois considéré comme la coupe d’âge, l’accès du Canada au système d’information est follement hors de date. Demandes d’accès à l’information sont traitées plus lentement que jamais et l’accès à l’information du gouvernement – à l’exception d’une amélioration spectaculaire dans la zone de données ouvertes – est de plus en plus restrictive. Mon objectif au sein du Partenariat sur la transparence gouvernementale sera d’engager les autres gouvernements et les ONG pour comprendre les repères de transparence étant fixés par les gouvernements d’autres qui peuvent être utilisés comme un moyen par lequel les Canadiens peuvent juger l’état d’avancement de leur propre gouvernement. Je peux aussi partager mes propres expériences dans le déplacement des politiques d’ouverture des données par les gouvernements locaux et nationaux, ainsi que quelques approches pour engager les acteurs non traditionnels dans cet espace.

Description de mon OGP plan de sensibilisation avec la société civile et d’autres où je rentre chez moi

Au retour de la société en commandite gouvernement ouvert, je m’engage à agréger les commentaires des différents acteurs dans un effort pour faire informer directement les objectifs et les actions du gouvernement fédéral canadien avec qui j’ai une relation critique, mais cordiale. Je vais aussi, bien sûr, blog sur ce que je crois sont les principaux critères canadiens acteurs de la société civile devraient être en utilisant à la pression et de mesurer le gouvernement canadien contre. Enfin, je m’engage à prendre le téléphone avec n’importe quel acteur de la société civile qui communique avec moi et discuter avec eux ce que j’ai observé et comment je crois que son impact sur leur organisation.

Financement

En ce qui concerne le financement, mon espoir est que je serai en mesure de trouver un financement alternatif pour les voyages. En conséquence, je suis à la recherche d’avoir ma chambre et pension comprise avec certains de mes frais de déplacement. Mon espoir est que, ce faisant, il pourrait être possible d’utiliser une partie des fonds du OGP à financer les déplacements des autres.

Les organisations, les noms et les courriels des dirigeants approuvant ma demande

Organisation Leader Courriel

Merci de considérer ma demande. S’il vous plaît laissez-moi savoir si vous avez des questions.

Sincèrement,

David Eaves

Use The Economist's Data to Find the Best City in the World

1 Reply

Yesterday The Economist Intelligence Unit and Buzzdata launched a $10,000 contest to help enhance The Economist’s “Best city in the world” index.

Yes. It’s a data and visualization competition to identify the best city in the world to live.

As part of the contest, The Economist Intelligence Unit has shared two data sets, its “liveability” and “cost of living” indices for 140 cities around the world. This is, in of itself, pretty cool. But the contest moves beyond their data. As the website outlines, the competition’s core objective is to not just use this data, but figure out what other data sets should be used.

Your mission: to create a new “liveability” index, using the 140 cities in the EIU’s datasets, that determines which is the best city in the world to live in, using these datasets PLUS any additional publicly available data sources that you wish to use (note: see the Contest Rules for information on using additional data). You are also required to create a visualization of the new index that you’ve created.

If you’ve always felt that some important factors in livability and quality of life have not been getting the attention they deserve, now is a chance to change (or add them to!) the debate.

You can check out the rules and judging criteria, as well as sign up, over at the contest’s webpage.

I, sadly, won’t be participating in the competition as… I’m pleased to share that I’ll be helping to judge the contest.

Adapting KUALI financials for cities: Marin County is looking for Partners