This Week in Open Government | March 22, 2013

  • In only one week, we’ve raised over $1,400 for MaMairie.ca in Montreal. In Toronto we’ve raised over $1,200 with 15 days left to reach our goal. We would like to thank all of our supporters so far. You can continue to support our campaign and encourage those who haven’t contributed yet to do so now by sharing this link for Toronto: http://igg.me/at/mycityhalltoronto/x/1598726 or this link for Montreal: http://igg.me/at/mamairiemontreal/x/1598726. Need an idea for a tweet? How about: “I need easy access to City Hall’s policy makers because it’s MyCityHall!”

  • The Knight News Challenge for Open Government is currently in the feedback stage. Open North has submitted a proposal for Legislative Open Government Data Standards, an idea that encompasses the Popolo Project that we announced last month. Be sure to check out the submission and give your feedback on the idea which aims to improve the interoperability and reuse of government legislative data.

  • The Open Knowledge Foundation announced its 2013 Open Knowledge Conference, which will take place September 17th and 18th in Geneva, Switzerland. Tickets are already available for this world-leading conference on open data and open knowledge. Full details are at the 2013 conference website.

  • The Federal Court of Appeal has issued a decision noting that there is no copyright in data. This decision is important because, as Dr. Teresa Scalla explains, it supports the notion often brought up by copyright scholars that copyright in Canada does not apply to a set of facts. This decision, regarding nautical map data, is also important to the debate surrounding postal code data, which we have discussed previously. To restate Dr. Scalla’s sentiments, it is time for Canada’s other courts to recognize that facts cannot be protected by copyright and to not tolerate overreaching data licenses.