Represent is a web service run by Open North that allows Canadian citizens to find their elected officials by postal code for free. Canadian nonprofits use Represent to help their supporters send letters to their representatives about important issues. In order to provide this service, we need access to accurate information about postal codes. Both the United States and […]
Category: Uncategorized
Use Represent in your online campaigns with two new Drupal modules
As the Represent database of elected officials continues to grow, we want to help civil society organizations and nonprofits across the country benefit from this resource. With Represent, advocacy groups can access accurate information about Canadian representatives based on the postal code or address of their supporters. And unlike other postal code lookup services, Represent is completely free […]
Read More… from Use Represent in your online campaigns with two new Drupal modules
Connecting with your citizens
We’ve been sharing ways to get started with online public consultations, such as with our Citizen Budget tool. Once you have your consultation set up, how do you get citizens to participate in large numbers? The greatest challenge is getting people to visit the consultation website. Once they are there, participation rates are high, from 15% to 35% in […]
Connecting with your citizens | December 5, 2012
We’ve been sharing ways to get started with online public consultations, such as with our Citizen Budget tool. Once you have your consultation set up, how do you get citizens to participate in large numbers? The greatest challenge is getting people to visit the consultation website. Once they are there, participation rates are high, from 15% to 35% in […]
Read More… from Connecting with your citizens | December 5, 2012
Open Data, Standards and Socrata
Last week, Socrata announced “Open Data Standards,” an initiative that led to lively debate on open data mailing lists. In this post, we will dive into the issues around standardization, a core issue for the open data movement. (If you’re already familiar with these issues, skip down to the section on Socrata’s initiative.) The Need for Standards When a technology […]
Sunlight Foundation collaboration kick starts Open 13
We previously wrote about welcoming the Sunlight Foundation’s Open States team to work with us in Montreal. Open States tracks the legislators, committees, bills, votes and legislative events in all 50 states, Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico and makes this data available via an API and bulk downloads for other groups to reuse. Over the past week, Open North […]
Read More… from Sunlight Foundation collaboration kick starts Open 13
Open North on the road!
Open North was in Toronto last week to present at two exciting events, and we want to share our experiences with you. Ellie Marshall, our communications coordinator, spoke about our work in the open government sector on Monday at the Gov 2.0 YYZ meetup at City Hall and on Thursday at the Public Engagement and Consultation Summit. The speakers […]
Citizen Budget Results From Plateau Mont-Royal
This article is only available in French: Budget Citoyen résultats du Plateau Mont-Royal […]
Read More… from Citizen Budget Results From Plateau Mont-Royal
Citizen Budget: The Advantages of Online Budgetary Consultations
This article is only available in French. […]
Read More… from Citizen Budget: The Advantages of Online Budgetary Consultations
Setting up your online consultation
We recently discussed the benefits of holding public consultations online. Tools such as our Citizen Budget simulator provide municipalities with the opportunity to reach their residents in unprecedented ways that save time and money. In this part of our series on online consultation, we focus on what governments should consult citizens about. Choose the right data to consult on […]