About

Who is datalibre.ca?

datalibre.ca is a loose collection of data activists, who wish to collect, disseminate, and discuss issues around access to government data in Canada. datalibre.ca is an open collaborative project, inspired by civicaccess.ca.

If you would like to participate, please send an email to: contact AT datalibre DOT ca

Reasons for Free Data

Here are some reasons why we believe the government should make data available for free, in open formats, to citizens:

  • We paid for the data collection with our taxes
  • Access to tax-payer funded goods should not be limited to those who can afford the exorbitant fees
  • Citizens can do all sorts of useful things with the data – and help solve problems
  • Aslo: we paid for the data collection with our taxes

An Example

Here is a quick example of what we are talking about, when we say that government data should be available to citizens for free:

  • you would like to start a web site promoting democratic engagement among kids
  • you would like implement a feature that allows someone to type in their postal code and find what federal/provincial riding they are in
  • you contact the government to get the dataset with this information (which is implemented on a number of sites, including Elections Canada, and Parliament of Canada)
  • after many inquiries, you are told to contact Statistics Canada to get the data
  • Statscan tells you that the dataset will cost $9,000 and will have a restrictive license

Posting policy

datalibre.ca is supposed to be a group blog, so if you are interested in participating, send us a ping. That probably means we need some editorial policies, so here is a first stab:

  1. posts should relate to data, open data, government data, in canada and elsewhere
  2. it’s OK to promote your own project related to data access (even if it has a commercial side to it), but be reasonable and don’t overflog it
  3. posts should be civil and reasonable and legal – this is a soapbox, but a sensible one
  4. comments should be civil and reasonable and legal as well

That should cover it for now.

People

datalibre.ca is a loose collective inlcuding: