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City of Calgary Open Government Data Overview Walter Simbirski Open Data Strategist

City of Calgary Open Government Data Overview Walter Simbirski Open Data Strategist January 28, 2014. Content. Open Government Data What is Open Government Data? Why the interest? Open Data at City of Calgary Our mission Where are we? Where are we going?.

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City of Calgary Open Government Data Overview Walter Simbirski Open Data Strategist

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  1. City of Calgary Open Government Data Overview Walter Simbirski Open Data Strategist January 28, 2014

  2. Content • Open Government Data • What is Open Government Data? • Why the interest? • Open Data at City of Calgary • Our mission • Where are we? • Where are we going?

  3. What is Open Government Data? • Data that is collected by a government and made available to the public • At no cost (to the user/public) • Under the same terms and conditions for all users • With no restrictions on how it can be used • Through a common portal • Common conditions that may be applied include: • Attribution - Give credit • Share alike • Subject to legislation such as privacy • It should be machine readable and in non-proprietary formats

  4. 5 Stars of Open Data (Tim Berners-Lee) ★make your stuff available on the web (whatever format) ★★make it available as structured data (e.g. excel instead of image scan of a table) ★★★non-proprietary format (e.g. csv instead of excel) ★★★★use URLs to identify things, so that people can point at your stuff ★★★★★link your data to other people’s data to provide context

  5. Why Open Government Data? • Openness and transparency • Improved access to information • Foster collaboration with other organizations or agencies • Allow citizens to develop applications • City of Calgary Triple Bottom Line Policy • Considers economic, social and environmental implications in decision-making processes

  6. State of Open Government Data • 372 Open Data Catalogues world wide • 49 Open Data Catalogues in Canada • Source datacatalogs.org

  7. How is open data being used? • Fighting Corruption • “Montreal group hacks away at corruption one spreadsheet at a time” - The Canadian Press on Sunday, November 18, 2012 • “Billions lost in charity scandal” – The Toronto Star, November 12, 2002 • Generate new business and develop new products and services • http://www.opendata500.com/ • “Warren Buffett Uses Open Government Data” - www.nextgov.com • Emergency operations • Adopt a hydrant/sidewalk/tsunami siren… • Social welfare such as locating homeless services and shelters • Public Safety - http://www.publicengines.com/ • Universities, real estate boards, open maps, reporters…

  8. Examples

  9. Example Source - New York Times

  10. Examples - Source New York Times

  11. History of Open Data at City of Calgary • Commercial Data Dial Up Service introduced in 1993 • Open Data Service • Pilot (Public Data) 2010 launched with Cityonline • 2011 – Updated from Public Data to Open Data • License revised to remove commercial restrictions • 2013 – launched data.calgary.ca • Downloads have increased more than 1000% (now over 10,000 downloads monthly) • Currently 139 data sets • 2014 – dedicated resource for Open Data

  12. data.calgary.ca - Features

  13. data.calgary.ca

  14. Cost of Open Data – Free data? • City of Calgary corporation • Tangible assets > $60 billion • Employees > 13,000 • Distinct services > 500 • Adding data to the Open Data Catalogue • Find data steward • Determine suitability of data for Open Data (status of data, structure of data, privacy impacts, current data uses) • Establish mechanism(s) for data delivery • Data preparation (formats, geo-reference, scrub private information) • Create an entry in the catalogue manager • On average 40 person hours (over a number of weeks) are required to add a data set to the catalogue

  15. Future of Open Data at City of Calgary • Increase the number of data sets • Open by Default • Expand the scope of data sets • Crowd sourcing and external partners (business groups, etc.) • Make it easier to find Open Data • Engagement • Citizens, developers, data analysts, data users • Internal Business Units • Updates to website • Continue to improve user friendliness based on surveys, focus groups and usability studies • Increased level of integration with other resources while providing a clearer indication of services with respect to user types (Professional vs Developers vs Citizens) (calgary.ca/cityonline.calgary.ca/data.calgary.ca) • Work with open data interest groups • Standards for licensing and data • Other municipalities and government groups • Data for Good

  16. What is your primary reason for using open data?

  17. What type of Open Data datasets interest you the most?

  18. Calgary Top Data Sets • Census data (aggregate vs individual data sets) • Transit schedules • Floodplain • Business Licenses

  19. Top Data Sets – Other Municipalities • Medicine Hat – Cemetery listings (61,477), Recreation classes (2,523) • Edmonton – Snow removal (16,484), Election results (2,420) • New York City – WIFI hotspots (51,245), Subway entrances (25,121) • Chicago – Employee names/salaries (215,069), Building permits (113,426)

  20. How to keep information flowing • Feedback • Negative and positive • Wants/needs • Be realistic but if you don’t ask… • If you have done anything interesting let us know.

  21. Thank You

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