8.             City of Ottawa Open data

 

DONNÉES OUVERTES DE LA VILLE D’OTTAWA

 

 

COMMITTEE RECOMMENDATIONS

 

That Council:

 

1.                  adopt the principles of Open Government, as described in this report, and declare the City of Ottawa data to be “Open”; and

 

2.                  approve that the City fund an application open data contest to be funded from the City’s one-time and unforeseen account with prize money and incentives totalling $50,000; and

 

3.                  approve that Information Technology Services and Corporate Communications be encouraged to involve members of the public and others knowledgeable about open data applications in assisting the City in the contest, particularly in developing the criteria and website for the City.

 

 

RECOMMANDATIONS DU COMITÉ

 

Que le Conseil :

 

1.                  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 »; et

 

2.                  approuve que la Ville finance, à partir du compte des événements ponctuels et imprévus, un concours d’applications libres qui comprenne des prix et des incitatifs d’une valeur totale de 50 000 $; et

 

3.                  approuve que les Services de la technologie de l’information et les Communications générales être encourager à inciter les citoyens et toute autre personne compétente dans le domaine des applications libres à aider la Ville dans la création de ce concours, particulièrement en ce qui a trait à l’élaboration des critères et des pages afférentes du site Web de la Ville.

 


 

Documentation

 

1.                   Deputy City Manager's report City Operations dated 12 April 2010 (ACS2010-COS-ITS-0005).

 

2.                   Information Technology Sub-committee Extract of Draft Minutes of 19 April 2010.

 


 

 

City of Ottawa Open data

 

DONNÉES OUVERTES DE LA VILLE D’OTTAWA

 

 

information technology sub-committee recommendations, as amended

 

That the Corporate Services and Economic Development Committee recommend that Council:

 

1.                  adopt the principles of Open Government, as described in this report, and declare the City of Ottawa data to be “Open”; and

 

2.                  approve that the City fund an application open data contest to be funded from the City’s one-time and unforeseen account with prize money and incentives totalling $50,000; and

 

3.                  approve that Information Technology Services and Corporate Communications be encouraged to involve members of the public and others knowledgeable about open data applications in assisting the City in the contest, particularly in developing the criteria and website for the City.

 

 

recommandations modifiée du sous-comité de la technologie de l’information

 

Que le Comité des services organisationnels et du développement économique recommande que le Conseil :

 

1.         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 »; et

 

2.         approuve que la Ville finance, à partir du compte des événements ponctuels et imprévus, un concours d’applications libres qui comprenne des prix et des incitatifs d’une valeur totale de 50 000 $; et

 

3.         approuve que les Services de la technologie de l’information et les Communications générales être encourager à inciter les citoyens et toute autre personne compétente dans le domaine des applications libres à aider la Ville dans la création de ce concours, particulièrement en ce qui a trait à l’élaboration des critères et des pages afférentes du site Web de la Ville.

 


 

Documentation

 

1.                  Deputy City Manager's report City Operations dated 12 April 2010 (ACS2010-COS-ITS-0005).

 

2.                  Information Technology Sub-committee Extract of Draft Minutes of 19 April 2010.


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

 

12 April 2010 / le 12 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

 

City Wide/À l’échelle de la ville                                                    

Ref N°: ACS2010-COS-ITS-0005

 

 

SUBJECT/

 

City of Ottawa Open data

OBJET:          

 

DONNÉES OUVERTES DE LA VILLE D’OTTAWA

 

REPORT RECOMMENDATION

 

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”.  

 

 

Recommandation du rapport

 

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 ».  


EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

 

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 North America.

 

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 Vancouver, Edmonton and Toronto who have instituted Open Data programs. Corporate Communications and Information Technology Services have partnered to explore how to create a data sharing infrastructure, raise awareness internally, and connect with the public in the development of an Open Data initiative for the City of Ottawa. Staff members 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, to help inform and validate the City’s approach and vision. 

 

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.

 

RÉSUMÉ

 

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.

 

La première grande étape à franchir consiste à créer un site Web pour y publier environ 15 à 20 ensembles de données lisibles par machine. Nous y publierons d’abord des ensembles de données disponibles et utilisables facilement, notamment (sans s’y limiter) des renseignements sur les parcs et loisirs, comme les installations récréatives, les patinoires et les parcs. À l’heure actuelle, ces renseignements peuvent être obtenus sur ottawa.ca, mais seulement en format non réutilisable. Ce site permettra un libre accès rapide et peu coûteux à des ensembles de données, de mesurer l’utilisation des données, d’évaluer la réaction du public et ainsi de mieux comprendre quelles sont les données auxquelles le public veut avoir accès. Le personnel travaillera avec le public pour évaluer le succès du site Web. La présentation des données en format lisible par machine permet un accès efficace aux données en permettant le mappage des données ou la création d’autres applications. Grâce au libre accès aux données, la Ville pourra offrir de meilleurs renseignements et de meilleurs services à ses clients et, par conséquent, la clientèle sera plus satisfaite, une importante variable de l’excellence du service.   

 

 

BACKGROUND

 

International interest in the Open Data movement is illustrated by Data.gov (USA),  Data.australia.gov.au (Australia) and Data.gov.uk (UK), websites created to release government data. At the municipal level, cities such as San Francisco, New York, Washington DC in the United States and Toronto, Vancouver and Edmonton in Canada have adopted the “Open” philosophy. These cities are benefitting from improved transparency of local government, creating economic opportunity and leveraging new technologies to provide improved public access to municipal information.

 

In addition to the worldwide focus on Open Data, there are a number of drivers that compel the City of Ottawa to embrace the concept. The Report from the Mayor of Ottawa’s Taskforce on e-Government speaks of the importance of enhancing resident participation in civic matters through improved use of technology in providing information and opportunities for participation, including a suggestion that all material used to educate staff and Councillors should be made available to residents.  Open Data initiatives support these goals and can be further enhanced with the addition of push technology such as RSS (real simple syndication) which would tell subscribers when a data set has been updated.  The report states that “There is a large community of companies and people who would gladly commit time and effort to making the city an information technology showcase, if only the city would open up to allow it to happen.”   Indeed, the notion has been recognized by Council as important, 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.”  Further, since the release of the report and the Councillor’s motion City residents have been inquiring about the City’s position on Open Data and requesting that data sets be opened up and published on the web.  Adopting the principles of Open Data can help show residents that the City is still committed to maintaining its reputation as a technology leader.

 

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 Ottawa.

 

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 Ottawa take a leadership role in supporting Open Data in Ottawa.

 

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 Washington D.C. during 2008.  Having already compiled a dataset collection of approximately 100 datasets (which now includes over 400 datasets - http://data.octo.dc.gov/), the City of Washington D.C. announced a contest called “Apps for Democracy” (http://www.appsfordemocracy.org/) to encourage programmers to create websites or applications using City data that would be useful and valuable to the local community.  The resulting applications illustrated the potential value in releasing datasets freely, and spurred the current Open Data movement.


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 New York City the NYC Big Apps Gallery (http://www.nycbigapps.com/application-gallery). Currently application development contests have also been announced in Edmonton and Seattle.  Contests can include prizes, prize money, recognition, and other incentives.  They can also be developed to encourage participation by a number of communities, including entrepreneurs, students, and community groups. 

 

Local Ottawa Community Movement:

 

In addition to the worldwide focus on Open Data, there are a number of drivers that compel the City of Ottawa to embrace the concept. City residents have been inquiring about the City’s position on Open Data through the administration and Councillor offices.  A group of local programmers is preparing to come together to create applications using City of Ottawa datasets; and in parallel a local group organized around the “Change Camp” initiative (http://changecamp.ca/) is aiming to bring together City staff members, local programmers, and citizens to discuss how to create applications and tools that will serve a community need, and provide valuable community assets.  City staff members are working in close collaboration with members from both groups.

 

 

DISCUSSION

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:

  1. Complete All public data is made available. Public data is data that is not subject to legal or otherwise valid privacy, security or privilege limitations.
  2. Primary Data is as collected at the source, with the highest possible level of granularity, not in aggregate or modified forms.
  3. Timely Data is made available as quickly as necessary to preserve the value of the data.
  4. Accessible Data is available to the widest range of users for the widest range of purposes.
  5. Machine processable Data is reasonably structured to allow automated processing.
  6. Non-discriminatory Data is available to anyone, with no requirement of registration.
  7. Non-proprietary Data is available in a format over which no entity has exclusive control.
  8. License-free Data is not subject to any copyright, patent, trademark or trade secret regulation. Reasonable privacy, security and privilege restrictions may be allowed.”

(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 Edmonton transit data already being supplied in an open format through their partnership with Google Transit.  MyStops was built by an Edmonton company and has now expanded to two other Canadian cities, 18 US cities, and Perth Australia. 

 

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.

 

 

RURAL IMPLICATIONS

 

There are no implications that are specific to the rural parts of Ottawa.

 

 

CONSULTATION

 

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.

 

 

LEGAL/RISK MANAGEMENT IMPLICATIONS

 

There are no legal or risk management impediments to implementing the recommendation in this Report.

 

 

FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS

 

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

 

 

DISPOSITION

 

The City Operations Department will action any direction received as part of consideration of this report.

 



 

information technology

sub-committee

extract of draft Minutes 6

19 april 2010

 

sous-Comité de la technologie

de l’information

extrait de l’ébauche du Procès-verbal 6 - le 19 avril 2010

 

 

CITY OPERATIONS PORTFOLIO

Portefeuille Opérations Municipales

 

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY SERVICES

Services de technologie de l’information

 

City of Ottawa Open data

DONNÉES OUVERTES DE LA VILLE D’OTTAWA

ACS2010-COS-ITS-0005                                           City Wide/À l’échelle de la ville

 

Guy Michaud, Director, IT Services & Chief Information Officer recapitulated the Committee’s discussion of this item from its meeting of March 1st and he introduced Mark Faul, Manager, E-Media & Service Integration, Corporate Communications, who provided a demonstration of the Open Data Beta site.

 

Mr. Faul explained the main page of the site would have a section to provide new updates, noting that any changes to data sets or announcements could be provided here and could be shared through a Twitter account and through RSS (real simple syndication).  The main page would feature links to a Data Catalogue, Glossary of Terms, Frequently Asked Questions and Answers, and Terms of Use.  He noted there are currently 17 data sets available in SHP format that could be downloaded.  The Q & A section would be expanded as more information is available to add.  The Terms of Use have been reviewed by Legal Services.  He noted the site would also be available in French.  He advised that Members of Committee and Council would be sent the URL to view the site, which is only accessible internally at this point.

 

Mr. Michaud added that staff are currently investigating how to add additional data sets that have been requested to the Beta site.

 

Chair Wilkinson asked when the site would go live to the City’s public web site, which Mr. Michaud advised would be as soon as possible after Council approves the policy.

 

Councillor Legendre inquired about the French title of the site.  Mr. Michaud explained that the title and all other wording on the site would be properly translated before its public release.

The Councillor noted that one of the questions in the Q & A section pertained to Transit data not being available.  Mr. Faul explained that staff has identified 17 data sets for the initial release of the initiative – very low risk, easy to share data sets that are already available on Ottawa.ca  - with the intention of releasing other data sets as they are requested by the public and investigated by the City.

 

The Councillor suggested that Transit data could be made available simply by providing the link to the main site.  Mr. Michaud replied that although the data is available it is not in a user-friendly machine-readable format.  The Councillor countered that a link to the standard format information should at least be provided until it has been converted.

 

The Councillor questioned whether data pertaining to such things as policies and bylaws would be available on the live site.  Mr. Michaud said that additional data sets are being investigated and will be made available upon launch if feasible.

 

Chair Wilkinson followed that additional data will be made available as it can be put into the format required, noting that it would be gradual so as not to demand additional staff resources.

 

The committee heard the following delegation.

 

Edward Ocampo-Gooding provided an update on the open data Hackfest to take place on April 24th.  He advised that pre-meetings over the last few weeks have seen 30-50 people in attendance at each and they have been discussing which data sets and applications are of most interest.  For example, he noted there is a lot of interest in things like travel planners and event calendars.  He displayed the opendataottawa website and the associated application showcase.  He noted there is some interest in creating augmented reality tourist maps once greater data sets are available.  He anticipated attendance would be in the order of 50-100 participants at the Hackfest event, including developers, designers and artists, among others.

 

Councillor Legendre questioned whether the opendata site, or the links to applications contained therein, is linked to the City’s site.  Mr. Ocampo-Gooding indicated they are not linked and he is not asking that the City feature such a link.  Mr. Michaud explained the opendata site demonstrates some of the Apps that can be developed using City data, which could be of interest to residents, and clarified that making the City’s data Open would make it easier for developers to create such Apps.  Mr. Ocampo-Gooding enlightened that without the open data, a developer would have to read through pdf calendars and transcribe information into a machine-readable format in order to create Apps.

 

The Councillor inquired whether the Apps would be available in choice of language.  Mr. Ocampo-Gooding replied that would be up to the developer of each App, but he noted there has been some interest in that regard from Gatineau.

 

Vice-Chair Desroches advised a motion would be coming forward to initiate an Apps contest to help spur interest, but after hearing from the delegation that there is a great deal of interest in this already, he questioned whether there is a need to hold a contest.  Mr. Ocampo-Gooding suggested a contest could push interest and participation to a higher level because these sorts of applications require hosting and manual labour, and a cash incentive might encourage more people to become involved.  He noted the New York City Apps contest received some 75 entries.

 

The committee also received the following correspondence on this item:

Ø  Email from Charles Akben-Marchand dated 16 April 2010 in support of the report recommendation.

 

Vice-Chair Desroches assumed the Chair in order that Councillor Wilkinson could introduce the following motion, which would serve as an addition to the report recommendation:

 

BE IT RESOLVED THAT the IT Committee recommend to Council through the Corporate Services and Economic Development Committee that the City fund an application open data contest to be funded from the City’s one-time and unforeseen account with prize money and incentives totalling $50,000.

 

AND BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED THAT Information Technology Services and Corporate Communications be encouraged to involve members of the public and others knowledgeable about open data applications in assisting the City in the contest, particularly in developing the criteria and website for the City.

 

Councillor Wilkinson acknowledged the contest would require some criteria and she advised she had preliminary discussions with Mr. Michaud about ensuring one of those criteria would be that any application would have to be useful for the City and not simply commercial based.  She stated staff would work on the proposed criteria and attempt to have them ready for consideration of the Corporate Services and Economic Development Committee at its meeting on May 4th.  She concluded that the idea of the contest is to encourage the City in its provision of Open data, so that more information would be available to the public faster and in an easy to use format.  She noted this proposal had been a collaboration that included Mr. Michaud and Chris Day, Chief, Corporate Communications.

 

Councillor El-Chantiry questioned what this incentive would net the City and whether it could be managed in-house by IT staff.  Mr. Michaud explained the idea of the contest is to promote entrepreneurship and raise additional interest.  He pointed out that the Apps demonstrated by Mr. Ocampo-Gooding are ones that have been done on a volunteer basis without compensation (to his knowledge).  He stressed that the IT departmental budget and resources could not accommodate the creation of Apps as a City priority, and this contest would allow the City to tap into a pool of huge resources so that residents could develop applications for fellow residents.  He noted that other cities have estimated a return on investment (ROI) of $2.5-3M for similar initiatives.  He felt this would not only provide value to the City, but also improve its image.

 

The Councillor questioned who would be responsible for managing and updating information.  Mr. Michaud explained that staff will update data on the website as required and could likely send alerts of such updates to the App developer.  He did not believe there would be significant incremental costs or efforts required of staff to do this.

 

Councillor El-Chantiry asked whether staff would return to the IT Sub-committee with a report detailing the ROI for the $50K proposed.  Mr. Michaud pointed out that some further discussion about the contest criteria is required and noted that the $50K for the contest would be used for prizes, possibly to 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winners.  He suggested the contest Review Committee could be made up of representatives of the IT Sub-committee, IT staff and the public.  The Councillor recommended that the IT Sub-committee could take on the responsibility for the process and that another committee need not be created.

 

Councillor Legendre inquired how many other cities had held such contests.  Mr. Michaud cited Washington, New York, Vancouver and Edmonton as examples.

 

The Councillor thought that $50K was a little high given that there already seems to be a fair amount of enthusiasm for voluntarily creating Apps and given that Ottawa is not among the first to take such initiative.  He suggested the criteria should put a lot of weight on innovation, i.e. an App that is useful for the City and has not been created elsewhere.  He also suggested the motion be clarified to note there would be multiple prizes and not just one winner.  Mr. Michaud remarked that those details are still open for discussion.

 

The Councillor suggested the criteria should not be overly restrictive and recommended, for example, that the contest should not be limited to residents of Ottawa.  Mr. Michaud suggested that once staff have drafted the criteria they would share it with the Committee members for input.

 

Acting Chair Desroches also thought that $50K was a little high and questioned where that number had come from.  Mr. Michaud responded that Councillor Wilkinson had suggested the amount, noting that other cities had offered prizes in the range of $25-50K. 

 

Rob Collins, Technology Advisor spoke in support of the contest and agreed the focus should be on an app that is new and unique.  He suggested that Council could help motivate developers such as Mr. Ocampo-Gooding and his colleagues by setting up criteria that directs them in certain areas; e.g. prizes would not be awarded for Apps that are very similar to those already in use by other cities; or Apps should be useful to meet a specific need, such as for new immigrants to the area.  He said by offering a monetary incentive it gives Council a way of influencing where the developers would spend their time and energy in developing Apps.  As for the amount of the incentive, he noted that $50K would only allow staff to buy half a year of a consultant’s time or one app, whereas the contest could promote the development of 20 or more Apps that could be used by the community, only one or two of which the City would be awarding money for.  He stated that regardless of the amount of the incentive, it would net multiple returns.  He added that once the City starts doing these types of things, momentum will build in the community and will likely continue without having to be refunded on a regular basis, which is a significant ROI.

 

Acting Chair Desroches expressed uncertainty about the funding source proposed for the initiative and he questioned whether it could be accommodated within the department’s ‘works-in-progress’ budget.  Mr. Michaud replied there is a substantial amount of works in progress throughout the City and that the contest could not be accommodated within the IT Services budget.  He offered to provide a detailed breakdown of the IT budget and its allocations. 

 

The Councillor pointed out that certain IT projects have been suspended, e.g. within the Transit portfolio, and questioned whether that provides some flexibility to fund this initiative.  Mr. Michaud expressed his understanding that the City has an account for one time, unforeseen events, for which this contest would qualify.  The Councillor advised he would raise the issue as an official Inquiry.

 

Councillor Wilkinson responded to some of the previous comments, explaining that she’d had considerable discussions about this initiative with Mr. Michaud and previous delegations on the matter.  She advised the amount proposed for the incentive was based on the amount offered by the City of Edmonton in a similar contest, adding that the City of Ottawa could choose to offer less but the idea is that amount would cover the award of at least three monetary prizes as well as some token appreciation prizes for applicants.  She stated she would follow up with Mr. Michaud and Mr. Collins to draft the contest criteria in time to send it forward to the Corporate Services and Economic Development Committee and Council with this report for consideration.  She articulated that this incentive would help provide requested information to the public in a usable format and would demonstrate that the City is Open.  She also pointed out that other cities that have offered $50K have profited from $2.5-3M worth of resulting applications. 

 

Councillor El-Chantiry requested confirmation that staff would report back to the IT Sub-committee on the criteria and contest details, including the decisions surrounding the award of prizes.  Mr. Michaud confirmed.

 

Moved by Councillor M. Wilkinson:

 

WHEREAS the IT Sub- Committee is recommending to Council the principles of Open Government and a declaration stating that  City of Ottawa data is to be “Open;”and

 

WHEREAS this requires the removal of barriers for accessing  information created or managed by the City, while respecting privacy and sensitivity concerns; and

 

WHEREAS several other Cities have hosted application contests to successfully engage the community in the use of their data sets to create applications of social value; and

 

WHEREAS it is in the City’s interest to encourage participation by a number of local communities, including entrepreneurs, students, and community groups in developing Apps to improve access to City data;

 

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT the IT Committee recommend to Council through the Corporate Services and Economic Development Committee that the City fund an application open data contest to be funded from the City’s one-time and unforeseen account with prize money and incentives totalling $50,000.

 

AND BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED THAT Information Technology Services and Corporate Communications be encouraged to involve members of the public and others knowledgeable about open data applications in assisting the City in the contest, particularly in developing the criteria and website for the City.

 

                                                                           CARRIED with Councillor R. Chiarelli dissenting

 


The committee then considered the report recommendation as amended.

 

That the Information Technology Sub Committee recommend that the Corporate Services and Economic Development Committee recommend that Council:

 

1.                  adopt the principles of Open Government, as described in this report, and declare the City of Ottawa data to be “Open”; and

 

2.                  approve that the City fund an application open data contest to be funded from the City’s one-time and unforeseen account with prize money and incentives totalling $50,000; and

 

3.                  approve that Information Technology Services and Corporate Communications be encouraged to involve members of the public and others knowledgeable about open data applications in assisting the City in the contest, particularly in developing the criteria and website for the City.

 

                               CARRIED as amended with Councillor R. Chiarelli dissenting



[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.