We’re off to Ottawa next week to meet with leaders regarding our new civic engagement initiative, Citizen Voice, which we hope to launch early 2013. We look forward to sharing the results of these meetings with you in upcoming posts on this blog. Until then, here are some updates and interesting stories from this week in open government and open data.
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Our budget simulator tool, Citizen Budget, will be featured next week at the Library Innovators Community Technology Fair in Washington, D.C. This event introduces “library champions” to the basics of international development, advances library-government partnerships, and nurtures innovative project ideas.
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The Open Government Partnership has posted a summary of B.C.’s Information Summit, reminding us that, while new technology is helpful, it is political will that will bring about truly open government.
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Beth Noveck, former White House deputy Chief Technology Officer for open government, has compiled a list of great TED talks about open government on her blog.
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In response to Opening Parliament’s declaration on eParliaments, DemWorks, the National Democratic Institute’s blog, posted a comparison of open parliament initiatives around the world. If you haven’t had the chance to look at how some other countries are approaching open parliament tools, like Canada’s own OpenParliament.ca, we suggest checking this out!
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Halifax’s city council has voted unanimously in favour of instituting a municipal open data initiative similar to projects in Vancouver, Toronto, and Edmonton. The city has not announced a timeline for this new initiative yet but their council notes suggest the decision will go into effect very soon.