E D M O N T O N

November 2010

Jason Darrah, Communications

Open DataNew community

opportunities through raw data

E D M O N T O N

Outline

• Be afraid!

• Open Government, Sushi and Mo’s

• Open Data– What we did

– How we did it

– Why we did it

• Tips, things to consider– Mixed messages

– Leadership to make it happen

– Opportunities

E D M O N T O N

Be afraid – Run away!

• We will lose control …

– of how our stuff is used, interpreted, misused

– and we will be blamed when it all goes to *%$@!

• We will lose revenue …

– We have direction for cost-recovery

– We have units surviving through cost recovery

• Taxpayers don’t care so don’t waste tax dollars…

E D M O N T O N

Open Government

• We’re focusing on how technologies are enabling new opportunities

• Sometimes known as Gov 2.0

– Parallel to new user-driven nature of Web 2.0

– Some resist term “Gov 2.0” because they don’t want concept only perceived as for technologists

– Complements more citizen-involvement in government, regardless of technology

E D M O N T O N

Open Government in 3 Parts

• Initiatives in all parts exist without technology

• InterWebs increase potential

• Areas overlap

• One part not needed for other parts

• One part helps potential of another part

– Each has benefits and challenges for gov

CollaborationParticipation

Transparency

E D M O N T O N

Open government

Means different things to different groups…

• Democracy advocates seek more input in decisions

• Government critics seek transparency to keep elected officials honest and bureaucracy open

• Citizen advocates seek info about them, for them

• Entrepreneurs seek data to build tools that support consumers with useful info/data

• Academics seek information about populations for policy development…

E D M O N T O N

Part 1: Transparency• Openness about

government business and decisions

• Keeps gov’t honest

• info about services info as a service

• info helps better discussion, input, advice, decisions

• Access to government data (vs. info)

• Shift “need to know” to “need to share”

TransparencyFinancial statements

Live/ archived video of council

Voting records

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There is an inverse relationship between control and trust

All strategies relating to web interactions should consider the relationship-building potential

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Benefits• Communicate to many rather than 1x1

• Collaboration as lines of communication grow exponentially with size of group (internal and external)

2 5 20 100 10 000

Size of Group

1 25 200 5000 50 000 000

Lines of Communication

E D M O N T O N

Part 2: Collaboration• Between orders of gov’t or

jurisdictions (regional coordination)

• Between agencies (school/city)

Collaboration

• Government as platform (vs vending machine)

• Citizens’ DIY Gov’t

School locations

Transit connections

Snow Shoveling

E D M O N T O N

Part 3: Participation

• New tools enable participation

• Online consultation

• Spectrum of engagement

• Input in operations

• Input in policy or decisions

Participation

Blog with Bob

Report a pothole

Arena input

E D M O N T O N

Generating Shared Understanding

Organizing

Delivering Services

Decision Making

Terms of Citizen Engagement

Discussing/

Educating

/envisioning

Dialogue

Boards / Juries

Problem-solving

Deliberating

Service assessment

Co-production/ Volunteers

Joint campaigns

Action networks/

Neighborhood associations

Public input

Sharing info

Community development

E D M O N T O N

Communicate to audiences where they want to interact

Go where your target is

Transportation

ETS

Roads

LRT

Sushi

Jobs?

Get others in an online community to answer questions for us

Movember

E D M O N T O N

Open Data – convergence of opportunities

• Not info (not interpreted)

• Machine-readable raw data

• Mashable and portable

• But which data?

CollaborationParticipation

Transparency

E D M O N T O N

How we did it Why we did it?

• Changecamp

• OpenCity

• OpenData

– What do you want

– What do you have

• Apps Contest

• See Open Gov:

– Transparency

– Participation

– Collaboration

• Crowd-source service

• Save Tax $

• Nurture innovation culture & help economic development

www.edmonton.ca/OpenData

E D M O N T O N

E D M O N T O N

E D M O N T O N

Be afraid – Run away!

• We will lose control …

– of how our stuff is used, interpreted, misused

– and we will be blamed when it all goes to *%$@!

• We will lose revenue …

– We have direction for cost-recovery

– We have units surviving through cost recovery

• Taxpayers are already paying for data collection

E D M O N T O N

Tips to consider

• Work with legal, IT, Communications, Clerk… champions of Open gov in the organization

• Work with citizen gadflies

• Work with our protectors

• 3-tiered approach: “It has to start at the top, it has to start in the middle and it has to start at the bottom.” – Tim Berners-Lee

• “What is needed?” “What could be open?”

E D M O N T O N

Hierarchy of needs – for Citizens

• Safety and security

• Access to essential services

• Additional civic services

• Information about services

• Information as service

• Responsiveness

• Transparency, trust and confidence

• Engagement on Issues

• Humanizing government

Sometimes one objective trumps others based on the tool…