Local Open Data Census via Open Knowledge Canada

[Jury Konga]

Thought some of you might be interested in this.  We're looking for comments via the Google Group/sheet by next Monday.  Here's the original post sent out to the Open Knowledge Canada and Civic Access listservs.  Look forward to your thoughts.

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Hi folks,

I was happy to announce on Friday, at GO Open Data 2015 conference #GOOD15, that we are launching an Open Knowledge Local Open Data Census in Canada.   This will allow current open data cities to compare their degree of openness and consider what additional data sets they should consider making open.  As Canada has another level of government between local and federal, we are also going to develop a census for the Provincial/Territorial level.  Discussions with the provinces have begun and we should have a parallel conversation in the community.  There is an Australian regional census and a US state level version is currently under development.  Some additional background may be found here http://census.okfn.org/

The first task is to define the top twenty data sets – the OK UK version has a set of default data sets and we need to come up with the made in Canada version of this.  Relevant datasets for an open data census could be viewed from several perspectives:

• Transparency and Accountability;
• Demand driven; and
• Societal value.

Yes, I’ve chatted with Herb and the prior top 10/20 should obviously be a consideration for this project.

As I’ve been told, there is no magic formula to define what datasets we should be looking at.  As such, I’ve started a Google Group that’s open to all to contribute their thoughts and suggestions   https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/open-knowledge-canada----local-open-data-census  .  As always, I’d love to hear from anyone who would like to assist in moving this initiative forward.

Cheers

Jury Konga, Local Open Data Census Lead
Open Knowledge Canada