If you’re in Ottawa this weekend be sure to check out Open Data Ottawa’s Learn Hack YOW hackfest happening tomorrow! The event is open to everyone, including non-programmers, as it hopes to encourage citizens to solve city problems no matter what their skill set is. In Alberta, Alison Redford’s government announced the proactive disclosure of expense claims for all members of cabinet. […]
Read More… from This Week in Open Government | December 7, 2012
We are pleased to announce our partnership with the Participatory Politics Foundation (PPF) on the next phase of development for OpenGovernment.org. Our Executive Director, James McKinney will serve as technical lead on this new endeavour. The partnership will work to bring open government to the local level in the United States and Canada. The PPF has full details on their blog, and we […]
Read More… from This Week in Open Government | November 30, 2012
We are pleased to announce the release of a Drupal module to integrate our Represent API with Drupal’s Webform module. Represent offers the most comprehensive postal code lookup service for elected officials at the federal, provincial and municipal levels of government in Canada. With this module, nonprofits and advocacy groups can easily create email campaigns to elected officials at all levels […]
Read More… from This Week in Open Government | November 16, 2012
Ontario launched their Open Data portal this week, which means that now three of ten Canadian provinces have dedicated sites for sharing government datasets. Some highlights from the release include, planned roadwork data, hazardous waste data, and Ontario’s economic accounts. Check out these 7 apps developed with data from the World Bank. Sanjay Pradhan’s TED talk about the apps exemplifies the […]
Read More… from This Week in Open Government | November 9, 2012
We are pleased to announce that we will be welcoming a team from the Sunlight Foundation’s Boston office next week. Throughout the week we will be working together on open data projects and look forward to learning from each others’ experiences. We will be sure to share the results of our collaboration with you soon! Next […]
Read More… from This Week in Open Government | November 2, 2012
Earlier this week we had the pleasure of meeting with the Hon. Tony Clement, President of the Treasury Board, about our work and the future of open data in Canada. This meeting coincided with the government’s announcement to revamp Canada’s open data portal and introduce a new data license which follows the best-in-practice UK model. We are excited by this connection with Mr. […]
Read More… from This Week in Open Government | October 26, 2012
Open Parliament launched a new email alert feature. Now, whenever something happens in Parliament that matches your interests, an email will be sent to you directly from the website. You can sign up today to try this new feature. The City of San Francisco has appointed a Chief Data Officer. According to the press release, the new CDO […]
Read More… from This Week in Open Government | October 19, 2012
The Open Knowledge Foundation presented to the United Nation Public Administration Network on how to design an open government data initiative. In their presentation, they stress to administrators that open government is about citizen engagement, government transparency and accountability – not mainly about better public service delivery – and that the focus should be on legislative reform and publishing […]
Read More… from This Week in Open Government | October 12, 2012
Last month, the Open Knowledge Foundation blog posted an entry regarding what we can expect from the open data movement. They conclude “that open information and technology will often be complements to institutional change not substitutes,” acknowledging that the release of information from governments is just one step. The next step, they note, is creating action – engaging with […]
Read More… from This Week in Open Government | October 5, 2012
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 […]
Read More… from This Week in Open Government | September 28, 2012