Information Technology Sub-committee
Sous-comité
de la technologie de l’information
12 August 2010 / le 12 août 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
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Ref N°: ACS2010-COS-ITS-0012 |
SUBJECT:
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OBJET :
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CADRE DU CONCOURS DES DONNÉES OUVERTES |
That the Information Technology Sub-Committee receive the
proposed Open Data Contest framework as outlined in this report.
Que le
Sous-comité de la technologie de l’information reçoive le cadre proposé pour le
concours des données ouvertes tel qu’il est décrit dans le présent rapport.
In a report to the Information Technology
Sub-Committee, dated June 21, 2010, a recommendation
was put forward and approved that the presentation of the Open Data application
contest criteria to the IT Sub-committee be delayed until the after public
consultation event that was initially scheduled for July 10, 2010.
This delay was required for broader public engagement, and to develop contest criteria that accurately reflects the interests and needs of the residents of the City of Ottawa. To date, staff have engaged internal stakeholders on the Open Data initiative and contest criteria, and have worked with members of the public to organize a public consultation event, that took place at City Hall on Saturday, July 17, 2010.
DISCUSSION
Government agencies in many jurisdictions New York City, San Francisco, Washington DC, Toronto, Edmonton have conceived contests focusing on the development of applications that use data made available through Open data initiatives. These contests have been shown to stimulate innovative use of available data sets, increase public engagement and build momentum around open data activities.
Contest Development
The contest was designed by referring to the framework used for the “Apps for Democracy Innovation Contest” used in Washington, DC. and through consultation with other municipalities who have held similar events.
The contest framework defines:
· Rules
· Data
sources
· Categories
· Prizes
· Submission
Process
· Contest
Timeline
Rules
Rules will be designed to
stimulate creativity and innovation, rather than constrain it.
The contest will be open to residents of the province of Ontario. City staff will be eligible to submit applications but will not be eligible for monetary prizes.
Applicants may submit a software application designed for a mobile handheld device, desktop computer, website, or any other software platform broadly available to the residents of the City of Ottawa.
While participants will be encouraged to use at least one data set from the City of Ottawa Open Data Catalogue, they do not have to. The aim of the contest is to generate improvements to the community through the use of applications that use publicly available data; as long as applicants build an application that will enhance the City of Ottawa, they may use any data that is publicly available.
Ownership of software applications will remain with the developer of the application.
Data Sources
Data sources will be defined in advance of the contest to seek maximum benefit to the community. Time will be allotted within the contest timeline to consult with the community to identify, and where possible, make available new data sets. In order to stimulate ideas for applications and to identify additional data sets that might be made available, suggestions for novel software applications will be collected via the contest website. Individuals who submit suggestions will automatically be entered into a random draw to win one of two prizes.
Categories
The five submission categories have been designed to address diverse
aspects of a healthy community.
Prizes
Greater numbers of prizes in other Open Data Apps
Contest have been shown to stimulate more submissions. The prize structure
includes tiered awards (i.e. Gold, Silver, Bronze) for each category and one
prize for “Best Overall Application”.
Eligibility for one prize is limited to the student
community.
The following table outlines the prize structure and
participant categories:
|
Prize |
Count |
Category
1 |
Category
2 |
Category
3 |
Category
4 |
Category
5 |
TOTAL |
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Gold |
5 |
$5,000 |
$5,000 |
$5,000 |
$5,000 |
$5,000 |
$25,000 |
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Silver |
5 |
$2,000 |
$2,000 |
$2,000 |
$2,000 |
$2,000 |
$10,000 |
|
Bronze |
5 |
$1,000 |
$1,000 |
$1,000 |
$1,000 |
$1,000 |
$5,000 |
|
Best Overall |
1 |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
$3,000 |
|
Best Student App |
1 |
_ |
- |
- |
- |
- |
$3,000 |
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People’s Choice |
1 |
|
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|
|
|
$2,000 |
|
Draw Prizes |
3 |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
$1,500 |
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Participant Tokens |
100 |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
$500 |
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Total |
121 |
$8,000 |
$8,000 |
$8,000 |
$8,000 |
$8,000 |
$50,000 |
Judges and Award Criteria
The 7 member judging panel will represent a cross-section
of community and include:
·
1 City official
·
2 Members of the
business community
·
2 Members of the
public
·
2 Members of the
academic community
The award criteria are designed to be easily
understood by participants and easily applied by judges. Winning selection criteria
will focus on attributes including:
·
Usefulness - utility to citizens of Ottawa overall, or any
particular demographic of users in
Ottawa
Submission Process
Submissions will be collected through a contest website. Submissions
will include information including (but not limited to):
Contest Timeframe
The contest schedule will be as follows:
·
September 2010 - Contest opens
·
December 2010 - Contest closes
· January 2011 - Application Showcase and Awards
There are no specific rural implications associated with this report.
On July 17, 2010, the City of Ottawa hosted ChangeCamp Ottawa 2010. One of the main focuses of this public consultation was the cultivation an open data community in Ottawa, and included discussions on how the open Data Contest could be designed in order to yield the highest possible value for the community.
There are no legal/risk management implications
associated with this report.
This information report has no additional technology implications other than those described in the report.
The funding for the Open Data contest was approved by Council at its meeting of May 12, 2010. There are no financial implications associated with this report.
The City Operations Department will action any direction received as part of consideration of this report.