A quick follow up to a previous post about my Open Data inquiry. The inquiry response report came to Executive Committee yesterday and was well received by the mayor and other councillors who attended. In essence, the report says the City is working hard on opening up as much data as it can in keeping with the Open Data/Open Government trends that are taking hold.

Matthew Dance, a Grad Student in Geography at the University of Alberta spoke eloquently to the possibilities, academic and otherwise, that having more civic information readily available could lead to, especially using locational information. Blogger extraordinaire Mack Male was there too, blogging and live-tweeting away.

In my mind, Open Data fulfills some of what I called yesterday ‘our noblest democratic instincts’.

First, open Data is all about transparency; not simply putting information out, but making it truly accessible and barrier free. To this end, the City took the opportunity to launch its open data catalogue yesterday, which will grow as more data sets are adapted. What’s different about this data is that it’s in generic formats: think of the difference between a Word document (for which you would need Word) and a plain old text file that can be opened on any computer.

The other inspiring democratic opportunity is for collaboration. This kind of information can be used by industries like utility companies and developers, by groups who advocate to the city such as the Edmonton Federation of Community Leagues or the Canadian Federation of Independent Business. I mean collaboration with the city, and among users of data, all of which is quite empowering for the public.

Good facts are still the bedrock of good debate, and the more information that the public has, the better debate will be. Many people who have expressed frustration with government to me have felt in some way disempowered by a lack of information or barriers to information. I think only good can come from making government data as transparent as possible.

I want to acknowledge the leadership of Chris Moore, the City’s Chief Information Officer, who really gets it and is driving this initiative hard within the City, as well as his staff who’ve been instrumental. I should also thank David Edey, the General Manager of Corporate Services and Mr. Moore’s boss, for seeing the democratic potential in all this as well.

Today I submitted the following formal inquiry to city administration. It will likely come back to Council’s Executive Committee early next year. Mack Male and others connected to Change Camp and Bar/Demo Camp have been advocating for this and I’ve been reading about other Canadian projects, like Vancouver’s.

In local, national and sub-national governments around the world there is a trend toward making up-to-date government information freely available on-line in generically accessible data formats as so-called ‘Open Data’.

1) What level of awareness does the City Administration have regarding Open Data in municipal government?

2) What current initiatives are underway within City Administration that might qualify under the spirit of Open Data?

3) What further initiatives are under consideration within the city, and on what basis are they being evaluated?

4) Is Administration monitoring any successes and or challenges with this trend in other jurisdictions, especially large Canadian cities, and if so what can be shared with Council?

5) What would City Administration’s recommendation be on next steps regarding Open Data plans or strategies?

This inquiry process gets the issue on the agenda and we’ll go from there. Chris Moore with IT at the city has been very interested in this and I look forward to the report his group will provide.

[UPDATE Oct 19: Mack Male has posted further salient thoughts after a Change Camp session on this topic this past weekend.]