Phillip Smith

Busy week for Open Data & Open Web geeks in Canada

Looks like Canada is gearing up to finally "get into the game," when it comes "Open Data" and the "Open Web." Two major events are on the horizon -- Open Data Hackfest in Ottawa and Mozilla Drumbeat in Toronto -- and new initiatives are being launched every week it seems. Last week saw the quiet launch of openparliament.ca and this week David Eaves announced his latest project datadotgc.ca -- a project that seeks to catalogue Canada's open data sets.

All of this is followed up by an article in yesterday's Star where Michael Geist lays out the challenges ahead for Canadian information activists. 

These movements are clearly having an impact, as Tracey P. Lauriault continues to point out on the Civic Access list. The most recent evidence is the Ottawa city council discussion on the topic of adopting "the principles of Open Government" and holding an "open data contest." 

Kudos to the Open Data Ottawa folks and the ongoing efforts of Civic Access to push these ideas forward. 

It's a fun time to be back in Canada, to be sure.  :-)
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About

Hi, I'm Phillip Smith, a veteran digital publishing consultant, online advocacy specialist, and strategic convener. If you enjoyed reading this, find me on Twitter and I'll keep you updated.

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