Access

I entered into the discourse on open data to facilitate the production of these types of reports.

Social Justice in the OECD – How Do the Member States Compare?  Sustainable Governance Indicators 2011

I am really interested in public policy issues such as social justice, health inequality and the environment and hope that open data and open government policies will lead to being able to access these types of data, especially at the neighbourhood scales. I hope that apps will open the door to access, but that eventually we will work toward comprehensive access to data for this type analysis and develop new ways to dialogue between citizen and government using data for evidence-based decision-making.

Currently in Canada, it is incredibly difficult to put one of these reports together. The way data are aggregated differ and because one has to try and pry data from multiple federal agencies, multiple agencies in each province and territory and from a number of municipal agencies. Because of staff changes in government offices, contacts are lost and numerous cold calls have to be remade and data renegotiated.

Page 14 of this report shows the model used to create the indices in this OECD report. At a glance there are 29 variables, each consisting between one to 5 data sets suggesting that potentially these data may need to be accessed from more than 50 different public officials at different levels of government, divisions, departments, etc. Then there is the negotiating of use, licenses, costs, aggregation, accuracy, timeliness and formats since no two agencies even within one government department follow the same rule book and in fact, access is often determined by the mood of the public official or what they think the rules are. Doing a time series is even more complex as data are not collected at the same intervals. A follow up report to track trends requires almost the same amount of work since the data gathering process often has to start nearly from scratch. This is a highly inefficient and cost prohibitive process.

To make matters worse, in Canada, we have lost our think tanks and national social policy research organizations who used to do this kind of work as their funding was cut, and of course we have lost the census.

I hope we can think of open data and open government to include apps to get the bus, find a skating rink or remember to take out the garbage, but more importantly, to inform public policy on transit, public health, and the environment. Also, with open data we need the resources to produce information products such as this report. Many things can be crowdsourced, a census and this type of analysis cannot and there is a role for government and non profit organizations to translate the data into meaningful information and then for us to use that knowledge to improve, track and critique or develop new programs to address what the data tell us.

Apps rely on one or two datasets, these reports rely on hundreds. I want the hundreds which requires a broader open data policy in Canada at all levels of government and I would go further to suggest that open data needs to move beyond the institutional boundaries of IT and CIO divisions and into thematic areas, as that is where data for these indicators are produced and owned.

• Report – http://www.bertelsmann-stiftung.de/bst/de/media/xcms_bst_dms_34886_34887_2.pdf
• Report Information Page
• NYTimes Op Ed – America’s Exploding Pipe Dream

I met Alex at the Cybera Summit at the Banff Centre in October and that is where I was  introduced to the WEHUB. There are many interesting ways to do open data, science and to use the cloud to do so.  I invited Alex to prepare the following guest post about how WEHUB  does it.
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Yesterday I had the good fortune to speak on a panel about Open Government with City of Ottawa CIO, Guy Michaud and City Official Mark Faul in the Council Chambers as part of Open Government Workshop - ‘Today’s Open Government ~ A New Approach to Public Service’.  It was organized by Jury Konga and Robert Giggey.  MISA stands for Municipal Information System Association, it is like the Federation of Canadian Municipalities for the IT crowd.

Mark discussed among many other things that Open Government needs to be responsible, and data requires context or a story, particularly data associated with planning or reports.  Guy discussed how it was difficult to convince council at times and that the legal staff at the City are advisers and he as CIO can choose what to do with that advice.  In addition, he mentioned that data and information will make its way out into the public realm and it is better for the City to proactively officially share it .

I talked about how open government is in many ways more difficult than open data, since it requires a deeper cultural and organizational change.  It means changing how we deliberate and that it will take time for city officials as well as citizens to learn how to intelligently work together to meet mutually beneficial objectives.  I provided examples of the work of research, community and government collaboration in Nunavut, the roots of open data coming from research librarians & MADGIC  and the geomatics sector, the work of non profit organizations and their need for open government to better serve their client base which is often marginalized people and the great work of the Community Data Consortium.  In addition I discussed the Resolution endorsed by the Federal, Provincial and Territorial Governments on Open Government, ways to do public participation consultations and provided some useful examples of good open government apps.  Finally, I discussed the fantastic work done in Québec to change the procurement practices around the acquisition of open source technologies and the move toward developing a Québécois coding workforce in lieu of reliance on large US IT companies to provide government services. The links I referred to in my talk are below:

Geomatics and Cartographic Research Centre (GCRC):

• Atlases
• Indigenous Knowledge and Cybercartography
• Northern Research and Cybercartography
• Preservation of Scientific and Geospatial Data

Information Commissioner:

• 2010 Resolution on Open Government, good definition of Open Government

Canadian Council on Social Development (CCSD):

• Community Data Consortium (example of collaboration and data in action at the community)

GeoConnections

• Developer’s Library
• The Dissemination of Government Geographic Data in Canada – Guide to Best Practice

Salon du Logitiel Libre, Québec City

• Treasury Board Minister’s Address at the Salon in 2010 (Video)
• Quebec Open Source Association who led the Court Case : L’APELL est l’Association Professionnelle des Entreprises en Logiciels Libres

Meaningful Public Consultations:

• Transit Camp Toronto, article
• Change Camp, Change Camp Ottawa 2009, 2010

Open Government App Examples:

• Budget Plateau, Gazette Article
• How’d they Vote

Traffic Study held back by a City Official (My case study):

• Open Data Open City? McKellar Park / Highland Park / Westboro Area Traffic Management Study

Social & public policy examples using government data:

• Atlas of the Risk of Homelessness (NOT COMPATIBLE WITH IE)
• FCM, Quality of Life Reporting System

Reading Material:

• O’Reilly Media Open Government: Collaboration, Transparency and Participation in Practice

Wish:

The FCM and MISA collaborate to develop open government and open data indicators as a civic engagement indicator for Canadian Cities as part of the Quality of Life Reporting system.

The document below is a scanned copy of a report that I requested from the City of Ottawa.  I was advised that I could go to the City and read it at the counter.  The copy you see embedded below was sent to me by a friend who received it from a friend who scanned the paper copy they received by mail from the City.  Also below are the responses I received from the City in relation to my request for the document.

Recall the City of Ottawa had passed in Council and Open Government Policy and has an Open Data Policy.  I had made an official request for this document via the Open Data Channel, and also directly with the official involved with the study.  The nice Open Data official that followed up received the same response I did.  Hmmmm.  It seems that the City needs some criteria that is a bit more objective in these instances as it seems that “the document is outdated” and a “community group and the Councilor disagree” does not seem grounds enough to refuse access.  I have therefore chosen to post the document on slideshare and embed it here so that the community groups that want this document can access it and also to demonstrate how harmless it really is to share this type of public information.  I will also be making an access to information request for the minutes and reports to see how that all goes next week.  Enjoy.

“This is related to a McKellar Park / Highland Park / Westboro Area Traffic Management Study that is still on-going.  The specific reference is to notes of a meeting of the Public Working Group for the study.  These notes were not intended as an information source for the general public.  There is no final report available for this study.  Here’s a link to basic website information that is available, which unfortunately is somewhat out-of-date:
http://www.ottawa.ca/public_consult/mckellar/index_en.html

This study has essentially been on-hold since 2009, at the request of the Ward Councillor, pending further input from the McKellar Park Community Association.

Of note, there is a construction project taking place later this fall on Highway 417. The Ministry of Transportation is closing the eastbound ramp on Carling for an 8 week period.  All eastbound traffic will be directed to get off the 417 at Maitland and directed to use Carling Avenue. As a result temporary measures are planned on 4 streets off Sherbourne in the McKellar Park Community to deal with any extra traffic that may not abide by the detour (i.e. using Carling).  This current plan during the construction phase on the 417 has no relation to the traffic study in McKellar which has been ongoing for a number of years.”

In a seperate email from the same official on the topic:

The biggest concerns with this information package is it’s substantially out-of-date.  Significant parts of the information were later updated, and in some cases corrected, as part of an on-going study process.  Having such materials widely circulated within the community at this point would not be particularly helpful for providing them with up-to-date information.  For example, we have an updated version that we shared with the same Public Working Group in 2008, but we are also not comfortable having this widely distributed within the community as some of the Community Association representatives on this committee and the former Ward Councillor were in disagreement with some of the information and the staff conclusions reached.  There are also notes of several notes of on-going meetings with various parties and technical analyses of numerous alternative suggests that were brought forward by community groups for consideration.

We are trying to respect the needs and expectations of all groups, as best we can, but this has proven to be a real challenge for this study.  Until we are able to reach consensus within the public working group for the study, and the Ward Councillor, it would not be appropriate for the City to distribute, or encourage the distribution of, draft materials that may be seen by some as unfair or inappropriate.

What I can offer, as I have done for others recently, is make this information available to you at our office, if you like.  I can also make myself available to answer questions about the study process.  This is not about trying to hide anything secret, but rather our attempt to ensure everyone is treated fairly and respectfully. (emphasis added by me!).

Would it not just be easier to post all the minutes, reports and updates on the dedicated webpage?  In addition there could be a comments section.

Surely, citizens can read the material and make up their own minds, we are grown ups afterall, and  this neighbourhood is off the charts in terms of PHDs, Masters, Medical, Dental, engineers and Legal degrees.  Demographics should not be criteria for who can and cannot access a document, I merely share that piece of information to illustrate the underestimation of a citizen’s ability to decipher reports. 

World Bank Is Opening Its Treasure Chest of Data

Robert B. Zoellick, the World Bank president “argues that the most valuable currency of the World Bank isn’t its money — it is its information”.

The broader release of such data will enable more “scientific” policy-making, cut down on corruption in Kenya and engage more people in government by empowering them with knowledge they can use to challenge political leaders, he says.

“As opposed to some imperious bureaucracy in Washington, we’re making things open and accessible to people,” he says. “That makes for better performance, it makes for a more open system, it makes for people having a different attitude about the World Bank.” (Robert B. Zoellick, the World Bank president).

Some WB Initiatives to look at:

• Mapping for Results
• StatPlanet Apps for Development Contest Winner
• WB Data Catalog
• Sweeden Open Aid
• Apps for Development Winners

The National Science Foundation describe Data as:

numbers, images, video or audio streams, software and software versioning information, algorithms, equations, animations, or models/simulations.

Data, according to the Glossary of Archival and Records Terminology, are also

facts, ideas, or discrete pieces of information, especially when in the form originally collected and unanalyzed.

The art of photograffeur JR could then be data originally collected and assembled in such a way that the viewer can analyze their meaning.  His data are large photographs of regular people in caricatured poses that are displayed on trains, buses, rooftops, elevations of favela homes, the Palestinian/Israeli wall, sunken roads, staircase and surface all over – pervasive art.  His photos include basic metadata, such as the name, age, address of of subjects.  The stories associated / the analysis / the abstract of these data are found in the streets and neighbourhoods where context is, these are posted, told by the subjects and the dwellers.

These are data in action which shape and are shaped by the faces and place from whence they come.  These are embedded in the social scape and in the imaginary of the cultural sphere, one of the many locals of social change.n  “It is not about changing the world, but the changing the way we look at it” JR.

• NY Times: Supercolossal Street Art
• WorldChanging Blog post
• 2011 Ted Prize Write-up
• JR Site
• Entretien avec JR sur le film Women are Heroes

Read this EFF post: Riding the Fences of the “Urban Homestead”: Trademark Complaints and Misinformation Lead to Improper Takedowns!

Urban Homestead Day of Action

This was a message posted on Civicaccess.ca list (also see archive for other great resources) in response to a blog post written by David Eaves.

The Civicaccess.ca list, from whence this blog is inspired, was founded on the discussion of making StatCan data free along with freeing Canada Post Data back in 2005 among many other access to public data Issues. Some on the list have been working toward that goal ever since. The number quoted by David in his article is very low and only reflect a portion of the revenue cost recovered by StatCan. Revenue generated by the sale of the Census alone since 1996 has been over $10 000 000. My ATIP requests

Statistics Canada, 2010, ATIP Request A-2010-00067, Census Revenue Notes, June 29. Indicates that

StatCan recovered $13,642,959 from the 2001 Census

The cycle for 2006 is not yet complete and therefore I do not have those figures. The figure above includes license fees, the sale of standard products, Custom Products, CD Rom fees, and Geography products. For instance the Community Data Consortium alone purchases about $700 000 worth of Census data for each cycle.

David does rightly make the point that revenue figures do not reflect the overhead cost of managing those resources and collecting them.

The cost of the census for 2001 was $432,033,300 or $14.40 per person according to ATIP request A-2010-00068. The cost recovered reflects 3.16% of the actual cost of the Census. Again, we do not know the overhead cost of recovering those moneys.

Most of StatCan’s special surveys are cost recovery projects, often cost shared between federal departments. Which means we also pay for those. Many surveys on topics related to Canada’s most vulnerable were discontinued, the LF Census was canceled and we expect to see more cuts coming down the pipes. It is true, that StatCan uses the revenue generated to fund other surveys.

The real problem however is not with StatCan but with the Treasury Board and Cabinet. There was a submission to Cabinet under the current government regime, offering cost savings by StatCan in order to cover the cost of making the Census Free. The Tory government accepted the proposed cost savings and refused to allow the giving of census data back to Canadians. If the Treasury were to actually adequately fund Statistics Canada then it would be able to give the data back to us. I am still trying to dig up the paper trail on the submission, but alas, memoranda to cabinet are confidential in Canada.

Bref, political pressure needs to be on the current government and also the Treasury. StatCan has little power over its budget beyond the usual mechanics, especially these days. We also need to keep in mind, that we have already lost disability surveys, and we have lost the ability to track the country’s immigrant, ethno cultural visible minorities, the poor, linguistic groups, people with mobility issues because the Census was just Cancelled (read more about lost surveys). More cuts to StatCan will not be about helping those groups and us advocating the abolition of cost recovery and not advocating to cover the revenue lost to StatCan by the Treasury will make us complicit in further marginalizing those groups. We need to lobby for more resources to StatCan to cover the loss of cost recovered funds, and of course to return the Long Form Census and we also need to ensure that it is autonomous from political interference as recommended by National Statistical Council of Canada. (more details available here).

I have not published my ATIP requests yet as I am still trying to validate a few pieces and do the analysis. It is also part of my PHD dissertation and at some point I need to publish officially.

Watching this is a great New Years morning activity, and for Sep Kamvar I fell that data and statistics are the new black!  This is worth the 1 hour of your time!  dam, most online TV shows are 42 minutes and you learn way less…I should know

Merci Karl!