Toronto Mayor Announces toronto.ca/open

[Michael Hardner]

At the MESH conference for the web in Toronto, Mayor David Miller announces a new openness:

Eye Magazine Article

Having read through the MESH articles, blog postings and - yes - Twitters, I'm skeptical about what we'll be getting here. Governments are notoriously stingy with information, especially if it can be used against them.

John Geraci of DIY City in New York expresses similar suspicions:

DIY City - Not Convinced They Get It

That site includes discussions, and a tool that allows for projects to be developed.

My guess is that the city will get one shot at getting this right. If they provide truly open data, that allows citizens access to information then it will be one of the first successes in that area.

[Michael Hardner]

Toronto.ca/open now gives you an 'Under Construction' page... and the more I follow these matters, the more I realize that there are myriad islands of folks talking amongst themselves in distinct recognizable groups.

The MESH conference seemed to be populated by wide-eyed techno-utopians...

There is a working group (I'm nominally a member) that is working to create their own data-based reports - compiled from data sources that have been made available to the public.

There is the blogosphere. I don't know who most of the columnists are, but some of them have things of interest to say.

Then there are the web forums - with plenty of political knowledge, and a good number of sharp minds to discuss new ideas. Unfortunately, this group is the most suspicious of new media.

Some sort of crystalization of two or more of these groups could produce something that would motivate politicians to focus on results.

[Michael Hardner]

Hey cyberphiles - great news: Toronto.ca/open is no longer 'under construction':

Some links:

http://www.toronto.ca/open/

http://rocket9broadcasting.com/Webcasts/2009/11/CoT/index.php?Page=Home

http://torontoist.com/2009/11/toronto_exposes_its_data.php

I'll have a look at this over the next week or so. The first thing I notice, though, is the word 'tax' seems to be absent from any of these pages, doing an 'CTL-F' search...

[Michael Hardner]

Ok, I've had a look at what's going on here and it's pretty interesting.

Summary

To summarize: The City of Toronto has started releasing data, in alignment with it's toronto.ca/open initiative. In turn, a group of citizens, organized by Mark Kuznicki have formed a website and a Google group to organize using the data.

City data catalogue page:

http://www.toronto.ca/open/catalogue.htm

Citizens' group:

http://www.datato.org/app/

(the Google group is accessible from their site)

Mr. Kuznicki's website is here:

http://remarkk.com/

The project manager from the city appears to be:

Philip Scott

Project Management Office

I & T Division

City of Toronto

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Pros

This has happened and the initial structure seems sound. There are people signing in to the site and looking at the data and running applications.

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Cons

It's too early to tell, but the first release of data from the city is rather tepid.

See below:

A

Municipal Address Points - Toronto One Address Repository

Point representation for addresses within the City of Toronto.

Apartment Standards

By law infractions against apartment buildings in the City of Toronto.

B

Business Improvement Areas

Boundaries for the active Business Improvement Areas within the City of Toronto.

C

Toronto Centreline

Linear representations of streets, walkways, rivers, railways, highways and administrative boundaries within the City of Toronto.

Licensed Child Care Centres

Licensed Child Care Centres in the City of Toronto including their capacities by age group.

F

Festivals & Events

Real time of festivals and events in the City.

Food Banks

Agencies that provide meals, food, nutritious breakfasts for a variety of clients.

G

Geocoder WSDL

A series of SOAP based s used for validating addresses, streets and other geographic features.

M

Web Map Services

A series of web map services for access to live geospatial data.

N

Neighbourhoods

Boundaries of Toronto Neighbourhoods.

P

Parks

This data set contains the boundaries for the green spaces within the City of Toronto.

Priority Investment Neighbourhoods

Neighbourhood areas designated as priority for investment purposes.

Places of Worship

Religious locations such as churches, synagogues, temples, ashrams, mosques, etc.

R

Rent Banks

Locations of Rent Banks which provide limited, interest free loans to qualified Toronto tenants at risk of eviction.

Rent Bank Zones

Area of operations of the various rent bank offices.

S

Solid Waste Management Districts

Management boundaries for the harmonized waste collection areas within the City of Toronto.

T

Transit City

Approximate areas of planned public transportation improvement corridors.

TTC Routes and Schedules

TTC tables of surface-route schedules by route.

W

City Wards

Boundaries for the City of Toronto's 44 municipal wards.

[Michael Hardner]

It's impossible to tell where this will go, but if I had to guess, I would say that this tiny mouse step this week will cause a major elephant shreik in the distant future.

The more the citizens get comfortable with owning their own [i.e. the City of Toronto's] information, the more they will demand it. And the day will come when we demand information on performance reporting and budgets. It remains to be seen how open toronto.ca/open will be then.