Hi Mark,
Thanks for all efforts in this space over the last couple of years - the
community appreciates it. Best of luck and continued success with the
Moment Is.
Cheers Jury
@jkonga
From: datato@googlegroups.com [mailto:datato@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of
Mark Kuznicki
Sent: January-16-12 3:06 AM
To: datato@googlegroups.com
Subject: [DataTO] Retiring DataTO.org
I'm sending this message to let the Toronto open data community know that I
am officially retiring the DataTO.org website.
DataTO.org was created to fill a particular need at a particular time, when
the City of Toronto first launched its open data catalogue at
toronto.ca/open, to help identify the community's needs and preferences in
order to help the City plan future dataset releases. We were lucky that
developer Adam Thody and David Suydam of Architech Solutions stepped up as
good community citizens to custom build the DataTO.org site very quickly
(and for free) so that it could co-launch with the City's catalogue. I have
provided hosting for the site since it was created.
Our original vision was to build out a platform that could provide
structured community around data that was regional or even larger in scope,
not just for one particular data publisher. While that vision was never
realized, I know DataTO.org has helped the City identify, prioritize and
publish new datasets.
Since DataTO.org was created, Toronto's Pete Forde of Toronto and his
talented crew created BuzzData. With BuzzData's vision to provide the social
and collaboration infrastructure around data everywhere - well beyond our
initially regional vision for DataTO.org - and their commitment to this
space, it appears that the need to provide community around data will be
well served in the future.
BuzzData does not currently provide data users with a structured way to
submit, comment, rate and rank new (unpublished) dataset requests directed
at specific data publishers as DataTO did. I think this would be a great
enhancement, have communicated this to Pete and the BuzzData team and I hope
to see their product enhanced to meet this need in the near future.
As I reviewed how things have developed since launch, it became clear that
Adam and I did not have the time or the real need to further develop the
platform along the lines of the original vision. I made a few attempts to
find another community sponsor to take over the hosting and further
development of the site, but none was forthcoming. Given that, it didn't
make sense to continue pay for hosting a platform with no real future while
others like Buzzdata have stepped up in such a big way.
The DataTO.org site code has been published to Github as open source
(https://github.com/thody/DataTO) and is available for any developer who
wants to fork it or further develop the platform. (The platform also
underpins DataOtt.org for Ottawa, and that site is still in operation.)
With the retirement of DataTO.org, our friends at the City might miss this
facility for soliciting the community's requests and feedback in a
structured social way. As the City develops the future of toronto.ca/open
and evaluates social and collaborative tool options for data, I'm sure they
will find a solution that works for them and the community.
In the meantime this Google Group is here anytime to facilitate
conversations about data. This Group will continue to provide a space for
Toronto's open data community to find each other and connect about all the
exciting opportunities for data to make our city an even better place to
live, work and play.
While I'm not spending as much of my time on open data and open government
as I have in the past (busy starting up new company The Moment,
http://TheMoment.is!), I will continue to watch and participate as a member
of the community and occasional advocate. There's a big part of the story
yet to be written, and much work to be done.
Best Regards,
Mark Kuznicki
@remarkk
