Report to/Rapport au :
Information Technology Sub-Committee /
Sous-comité de la technologie de l’information
and / et
Corporate Services and Economic Development
Committee
Comité des services
organisationnels et du développement économique
and /et
Council / Conseil
19 April 2010 / le
19 avril 2010
Submitted by/Soumis par:
Steve
Kanellakos, Deputy City Manager/Directeur municipal adjoint,
City Operations/Opérations municipales
Contact Person/Personne-ressource: Guy
Michaud, Director/directeur
Information Technology Services Department/ Services de technologie de l’information Information
Technology Services / Services de technologie de l’information
613‑580‑2424,
ext./poste 12880
|
SUBJECT/ |
|
|
OBJET: |
DONNÉES OUVERTES DE LA VILLE D’OTTAWA |
That the Information Technology
Sub Committee recommend that Corporate Services and Economic Development
Committee recommend that Council
adopt the principles of Open Government, as described in this report, and declare
the City of Ottawa data to be “Open”.
Que le
Sous-comité de la technologie de l’information recommande au Comité des
services organisationnels et du développement économique de recommander que le
Conseil adopte les principes de
l’administration transparente, comme il est décrit dans le présent rapport, et
déclare les données de la Ville d’Ottawa « ouvertes ».
Open data is
a philosophy and practice requiring that certain data are made freely available
to the public, in machine readable format without restrictions from copyright, patents or other mechanisms of control. Most commonly,
Open Data focuses on non-textual material such as
geographic data, schedules, statistics, and demographic data. The Open
Data movement is gaining momentum worldwide with significant steps being taken
by government agencies (at all levels) in Europe and
In the public sphere, the goal of Open Data is to remove barriers to access to information created or managed by government institutions, while respecting privacy and sensitivity concerns. Facilitating access to this information allows entrepreneurs, academics, community groups and others to study communities and develop applications that leverage the data to improve community experience and stimulate economic growth.
The Mayor’s Task Force on eGovernment and City Council and Council have recognized the value and importance of Open Data, and have been key drivers for the City to adapt its policies and practices to embrace this movement.
The City is now investigating concrete
and measured steps to join the ranks of other Canadian municipalities such as
Currently, there is a lack of clear corporate direction for sharing City datasets, which restricts the free sharing of City datasets with the public thus causing frustration within the public, organizational inefficiencies, and reduced opportunities for innovation in our community. Some City data is currently managed under an internal Data Dissemination Policy focussed solely on geographic-based data; while other datasets are managed through other internal processes. Overall there is a lack of consistency in how data is shared. City departments need clear direction and endorsement from council on an approach to sharing data.
The first major Open Data milestone is the creation of a website that will make available, in machine-readable format, approximately 15-20 data sets. The initial release focuses on readily available data sets including (but not limited to) Parks and Recreation information, such as recreational facilities, skating rinks and parks data that is already available on ottawa.ca, but in non-reusable formats. This website will allow for the quick and inexpensive release of initial data sets to the public, measure the usage of the data, gauge public reaction, and better understand which data is most valued by the public. Staff will be working with the public to understand the success of the website. Presenting information in machine-readable format effectively “unlocks” the data allowing it to be more easily repurposed for mapping or other applications. Adopting an Open Data approach will ultimately provide improved information and services for our clients, leading to improved customer satisfaction, a key driver of Service Excellence.
L’accessibilité des données est une philosophie
et une pratique selon lesquelles certaines données lisibles par machine sont
mises à la disposition du public, sans restriction fondée sur des droits
d’auteur, des brevets ou d’autres mécanismes de contrôle. Le plus souvent, les
données ouvertes visent principalement des documents non textuels, comme des
données géographiques, des calendriers, des statistiques et des données
démographiques. Il s’agit d’une pratique de plus en plus populaire dans le
monde. En effet, nombreux sont les organismes gouvernementaux européens et
nord-américains (à tous les échelons) qui publient leurs données.
Dans le secteur public, l’accessibilité des
données vise à éliminer les barrières administratives établies ou gérées par
les institutions gouvernementales et qui restreignent l’accès à l’information,
tout en respectant la vie privée. L’accessibilité de l’information permet
notamment aux entrepreneurs, aux chercheurs et aux groupes communautaires
d’étudier les collectivités et de concevoir des applications grâce auxquelles
on peut tirer avantages des données dans le but d’améliorer la vie
communautaire et de stimuler la croissance économique.
Le Groupe de travail du maire sur le
cybergouvernement et le Conseil municipal reconnaissent l’importance de
l’accessibilité des données et ont été les principaux intervenants à encourager
la Ville à modifier ses politiques et ses pratiques pour suivre la tendance.
La Ville examine actuellement des mesures
concrètes et réfléchies pour emboîter le pas à d’autres municipalités
canadiennes comme Vancouver, Edmonton et Toronto qui ont mis en place des
programmes d’accès aux données. Communications générales et les Services de
l’information et de la technologie ont conjugué leurs efforts pour étudier la
création d’une structure de communication des données, sensibiliser le
personnel et tisser des liens avec le public pour élaborer un programme d’accès
aux données de la Ville d’Ottawa. Dans le but de définir et de valider
l’approche et la vision de la Ville, les membres du personnel ont consulté des
gens qui possèdent une expérience en matière d’accessibilité des données et qui
ont exprimé leur intérêt pour un programme d’accès aux données à la Ville
d’Ottawa.
Actuellement, il n’y a pas de directives
claires à la Ville en ce qui a trait à la communication des données, ce qui
limite le libre accès aux ensembles de données municipaux. Le public est donc
frustré, les pratiques organisationnelles sont inefficientes et les occasions
d’innovation dans la communauté sont limitées. La gestion de certaines données
de la Ville est actuellement régie par une politique municipale de diffusion
des données visant uniquement les données géographiques. Les autres données
sont gérées par d’autres processus internes. Dans l’ensemble, les pratiques de
communication des données ne sont pas cohérentes. Les services municipaux ont
besoin de directives claires et d’une approche approuvée par le Conseil
concernant l’accès aux données.
International interest in the
Open Data movement is illustrated by Data.gov (USA), Data.australia.gov.au (
In addition to the worldwide
focus on Open Data, there are a number of drivers that compel the City of
The City’s current approach to data dissemination is disjointed and lacks consistency and clear direction from Council. The Data Dissemination Policy that staff were directed to review is an internal policy of ITS[1] focused exclusively on geographic data and was developed pre-amalgamation. Other City datasets are managed through various internal processes and procedures, creating inconsistencies in the City’s position on data sharing.
There is an increasing global (and local) awareness of the problems related to restrictive data dissemination practices and of the potential benefits of adopting an Open Data approach. Articles have recently appeared in academic papers, trade publications, and across the blogosphere[2].
Why this is a problem:
One of the fundamental problems in principle of a restrictive data policy is that it limits access to public goods. While some data needs to be protected for contractual reasons, privacy or security concerns, many datasets should be made freely available as public assets. By charging people for access to data, the City is effectively double-charging, as tax-payer funds paid for the creation of the data in the first place.
The current process through which data is shared to the public is costly and inefficient. Staff members spend a disproportionate amount of time and resources to prepare and share datasets based on individual requests[3]. By streamlining the process, and making data freely available with periodic releases through a public access website, some re-deployable efficiencies will be realized as staff will be able to provide data in a raw format directly to the website and allow users to format it as needed.
Charging for data is a practice
that can create barriers to not-for-profit and small organizations or
individuals. It can restrict the ability
of smaller corporations to compete in an open marketplace, and stifles
innovation in our community. By removing
the fees to access data where appropriate, local industry and research
organizations can expand the potential scope of their contributions to local
economic development and innovation.[4] Ultimately this will lead to improved
information and service delivery from the City, and an improved customer
experience for the residents, businesses, and visitors to
Finally, as the global movement
towards Open Data, Open Government, and Government 2.0 continues, there is an
increasing expectation from the local community that the City of
Council Directives:
The Mayor’s e-Government Task Force examined the benefits of opening up data to the public to allow for the creation of value through the involvement of the community. The report highlighted the need to reach out to business and resident community to participate and help provide services such as those that can be created through the public development of websites and applications that promote and ease the access to information about City services and programs.
This importance of this notion has been recognized by Council through its approval of all of the recommendations from the Task Force’s report and as evidenced by Councillor Desroches’ Motion at CSEDC to “review the City’s Data Dissemination Policy and make recommendations to amend the Policy to allow for Open Access to Public Data that will benefit the City and its citizens.”
The International Open Data Movement:
The Open Data movement within
governments has a relatively short history, starting in earnest in
Since that time many other cities have also adopted the “Open” philosophy and launched
Open Data initiatives, including, but not limited to, San Francisco (http://www.datasf.org/), New York (http://www.nyc.gov/data), Seattle (http://data.seattle.gov/#), and Portland (http://www.civicapps.org/) in the U.S.;
Toronto (http://www.toronto.ca/open/),
Vancouver (http://data.vancouver.ca/),
Edmonton (http://data.edmonton.ca/) and
Nanaimo (http://www.nanaimo.ca/datafeeds/)
in Canada; and at the federal level the U.S. (http://www.data.gov/),
Australia (http://data.australia.gov.au/),
and the U.K. (http://data.gov.uk/). Of note, during his first full day in office,
the current U.S. President released an Open Government directive to all US
Federal departments.
Some cities have launched, or
plan to launch, contests to encourage and support programmers in using the
datasets to create applications and websites.
The resulting applications have then been presented back to the
community in the form of “app stores”, e.g. the DC App Store (http://appstore.dc.gov/)
and in
Local
In addition to the worldwide
focus on Open Data, there are a number of drivers that compel the City of
The current Geographic Data Dissemination Policy is an internal policy that focuses solely on electronic Geographic data. Created pre-amalgamation it was designed to deal specifically with digital geographic data sets and was created at a time when computation power was prohibitively expensive and public access to technology was limited. Similar to the experience of other Cities, the current model of fee recovery for GIS data is no longer valid in all circumstances. It serves to restrict access to certain groups, is not cost neutral, and creates a model that keeps staff from more value added activities. By adjusting this policy, and other corporate data sharing practices and policies, to align with the principles of Open Data, as described below, staff will be able to post free data sets in raw formats based on historical data requests and thus serve a larger customer base with far fewer individual transactions. There will likely continue to be data sets that will be either too large to easily share through the website or prohibitively expensive to create in a reusable format, and as such a fee schedule for these data sets will likely continue to be used based on the direction of council. The intent of the Open Data initiative is to make as much information available to the public in reusable format as reasonable, and not to create undue burden, or financially unsustainable practices.
Efforts to support an Open Data initiative would proceed in subject to all applicable legislation and policies, including that concerning privacy, copyright and intellectual property issues, records management, Code of conduct, responsible computing, and any professional or contractual obligations pertaining to data sharing. Data sets posted through the City’s website, and their use, would be subject to the Terms of Use conditions which reflect the principles of Open Data. These Terms of Use have been reviewed and approved by the City’s Legal Department and will be conspicuously posted on the website.
Principles
of Open Government:
To guide City staff in determining what and how data is released, the following principles of Open Data provide good guidelines and are recommended by Staff. Originally created in 2007 through a workshop of concerned organizations, many jurisdictions have used them to guide their Open Data initiatives:
(Source: http://resource.org/8_principles.html)
The movement towards open data has been growing across North America and the world. Cities that have already adopted the philosophy of openness are seen as technologically progressive and politically transparent.
To support the endorsement of the recommendations in this report, an Open Data website will be launched through the Ottawa.ca website. The initial release will include initial small collection of readily available datasets. This initial act solidifies the City’s commitment to Open Data, and opens the doors to broader public engagement and consultation. To measure the impact of the website and to determine whether the site should be further expanded staff will be measuring the usage of the data sets, consult with departments to understand the impact of the site in regards to direct requests for data from the public to the departments, as well as continuing consultation with the public to understand which data sets are of most value, and which ultimately provide the most value to the community.
To date application contests have been used by several Cities to successfully engage the community in the use of their data sets to create applications of social value. The NYC Apps Gallery now has over 80 separate applications ranging from applications such as Bookzee which allows users to search for the name of a book or its author and see where the nearest library location is that has that book available; to an application that maps out all of the available Parks and Recreation facilities; to NYC Way that packages over 30 popular specific NYC applications together in one. The DC App Store has a similar range of applications and they have chosen to list their own popular applications beside the ones created by the public.
To encourage the creation of applications of value to the community, City staff will explore options for public consultations to identify high value datasets and application needs; and explore options for an Open Data contest to reward developers who create applications identified as valuable by the community. Options for public-private partnerships will be explored with the possibility of attracting private sponsorship support for a contest. To ensure neutrality and mitigate liability to the City, a contest website would be hosted by a third-party.
A further illustration of the
social and economic value that can be generated through an OpenData initiative
is the MyStops application (http://mystopsapp.com/) first built using
To ensure that the needs and expectations of the public are met, with regards to the declaration to support Open Data, City staff will review and revise the internal business policies and practices for sharing data to maximize the number of datasets made freely available, while continuing to adhere to existing legislation, regulations, and policies.
There are no implications that are specific to the rural parts of
Ottawa.
Community:
Through the writing of this report staffs have consulted with members of the public who have experience with Open Data initiatives and who have expressed an interest in Open Data at the City of Ottawa[5]. This group has validated the steps taken to date, corroborated the Open Data vision and agreed to continue to participate in the evolution of the City’s Open Data program. Furthermore, local technology programmers, entrepreneurs, academics, and interested residents are organizing an event to take place at City Hall in April 24, 2010 which will gather people from the community together with staff to discuss which data sets would be of most value to the community and what could be developed with those data sets. The intent of the session is to help staff prioritize which data sets should be made available and for developers to showcase what they could create with this data.
Internal:
The City Solicitor and Clerk Department through the Legal branch has reviewed and approved the Terms of Use statement which would govern how data, accessed via the website, can be used. Individuals accessing data through the website will be subject to these Terms of Use. A workshop to discuss plans for Open Data was conducted with representatives from across the organization, including Legal, MFIPPA, IT Security, Surveys and Mapping, GIS, Public Health, Parks and Recreation, and ten other branches. Reaction from participants was positive. As the City proceeds with Open Data it is expected that further consultations will be held with participating departments and branches.
There are no legal or risk management impediments to implementing the recommendation in this Report.
There are no financial implications associated
with this report. The costs associated
with providing the open data information are contained within various
departmental budgets. No incremental
costs are anticipated.
SUPPORTING
DOCUMENTATION
Document
1: GIS Data Dissemination
Policy
Document
2: Mayor’s eGovernment Task Force Report:
http://ottawa.taskforcereport.ca/documents (available online)
Document
3: Terms
of Use
The City Operations Department will
action any direction received as part of consideration of this report.
[1] The policy is now used by Surveys and Mapping, now a unit of Infrastructure Services.
[2] Example: Government Data and the Invisible Hand, Yale Journal of Law & Technology, Vol. 11, p. 160, 2009; The Open Society: Governments are letting in the light, The Economist, Feb 25 2010; Of Government and Geeks, The Economist, Feb 4 2010
[3] In the specific case of the Surveys and Mapping Unit, staffs estimate that the current cost recovery is approximately 75%.
[4] There are some data sets which may be too large to easily share over the web, such as large GIS data sets, or that are difficult to gather, and in these cases current cost recovery methods may still be valid. A review of the current fee schedules is warranted.
[5] Staff would like to thank the following residents for their participation: Ernie Boyko, Wendy Watkins, Tracey Lauriault, Morgan Peers, Steve Janega, Edward Ocampo-Gooding, Bill Joyce, and Chris Taggart.