Hi Everyone,
Here are the latest Canada Open Gov timeline spreadsheets:
Canada_Open_Data_Timeline-v2.4 CSV
Canada_Open_Data_Timeline-v2.4 XLSX
<reposted from BePublic.ca >
A few years ago, the City of Nanaimo started a grand experiment by publishing some of their city’s data on the web, thereby becoming the first Canadian city to embark upon Sir Berners-Lee vision of the next evolution of the web. This Open Government pioneer has since joined by the City of Vancouver, the City of Edmonton, City of Toronto, City of Calgary, City of London, City of Ottawa, City of Windsor, City of Hamilton, City of Medicine Hat and the township of Langley. These activities have grown beyond the municipal community to the broader Canadian government community with the Canadian Access to Information and Privacy Commissioners passing an Open Government resolution at their Sept 2010 annual meeting and the President of Treasury Board, Minister Stockwell Day announcing the Federal Government’s Open Data Portal shortly thereafter. These government led activities rely on the strong and active support of a passionate community that is able to take the government’s publications and recast them into even more meaningful services. It would be impossible to list out all of the great open government applications developed by the community. A few representative community driven projects include openparliament.ca, datadotgc.ca and how’d they vote. Each of these services seeks to build out additional insight and value from the information traditionally published by governments. But to do so often required some energetic data contortions and magic to extract the information into a usable format. It seems that there often wasn’t a great deal of conversation between the different communities on how they could jointly pursue the goals of Open Government. Enter the ChangeCamp, GovCamp, DataCamp, DemoCamp, Hackfest and other community get togethers.
These camps are often held in an unconference format where participants are given the opportunity to propose and lead individual sessions. Other participants select the sessions they wish to contribute to and are free to move between sessions if they don’t meet their expectations. Variations on the theme can have a more structured approach, but continue to rely on community driven topics and themes. A reoccurring theme that is raised at these events is that of “reaching the right audience” to make a difference. The GovCamp model seeks to bring together the right people so that the goals of collaboration and community driven development can be realized. This year’s GovCamp 2011, held during NetChange Week at MaRS DD in Toronto brought together over 200 people from both private and public sector, across all three levels of government in addition to other passionate individuals. Through discussions on a wide range of subjects and focused workshops, communities came together to exercise their innovation muscle and imagine a new relationship between government and constituents. There was also a great demonstration of the vision becoming a reality in the DemoCamp which showcased the digital wizardry of the application developers building upon the foundation provided by Canadian open data efforts.
Ultimately, open government is about engaging individuals, empowering businesses and driving efficient connections between governments. GovCamp provides a venue for the various communities to come together, often putting a human touch to the raw data or faceless organizations, to reach a common understanding of the respective challenges each faces and to find a common ground for action.
Well, it has been a very busy week and I am pleased to note that we have secured our venue, panelists, keynote speakers, webcasting, host and worked out many of the finer details for GovCamp.
On the 31st of May we have our Welcome Reception from 4PM to 6 PM at University of Ottawa, 12102 Desmerais building, 55 Laurier East, Ottawa, Ontario.
Jerry Mechling of the Harvard Kennedy School of Government will be keynoting.
On the 1st of June, our day gets started in Colonel By Hall, Auditorium C03, with a fantastic panel of experts. We have:
Following this exciting panel, participants will have the opportunity to propose and pursue conversations in an unconference format under the stewardship of Mark Kuznicki, principle of Remarkk Consulting and the thought leader behind ChangeCamp.
After an afternoon of discussion, groups will report their ideas back to the plenary. The day will be wrapped by David Eaves, after which everyone will be able to relax with a beverage at the event.
We are pleased to be able to webcast the event and provide simultaneous translation and will get the details out soonest.
Remember to register @ govcamp.eventbright.com
Canada Gov Camp
It’s happening May 31 and June 1 2010 at Ottawa U and You’re Invited.
What is this?
It’s a gathering of local citizens, public sector employees, service delivery leaders and policy people with an interest in having a conversation on engaging citizens, empowering business and increasing internal efficiencies through transformational government activities across all levels of government (municipal, regional, provincial and federal). This gathering is not a trade show or product oriented discussion, rather a workshop style unconference where participants establish the agenda and explore the themes that are of most interest to them.
We’ve seen a number of great communities spring up across Canada to think about, discuss and build a new relationship with their local governments, often through the use of technology. These activities are accelerated by bringing the community together at workshop style unconferences, ChangeCamps, BarCamps and unconferences. Having participated in these local activities and experienced the creative energy first hand we began to think about how the ideas and enthusiasm behind them from these local events could be shared in a broader context. So we thought that it would be interesting to bring together communities across camps, a sort of Jamboree, to explore opportunities to work together on open government activities across multiple levels of government.
To Talk about What?
These are the types of conversations we are looking to have.
Who else will be there?
We are reaching out to a number communities including key departments like Industry Canada, Treasury Board Secretariat, Public Works and Government Services, Public Safety Canada, The Information Commissioner of Canada, Office of the Federal Privacy Commissioner, Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada, City of Ottawa and Open Government, ChangeCamp community leaders.
Who is this event for?
IT People –Technology is one way that governments are transforming how they deliver services externally and internally. Technology people are needed to explore the art of the possible for these new services. Mash-ups, Open Data, social media are but a few of the possible areas for discussion.
Policy People – We need you in the conversation so that you can share your expertise on the realm of the possible from a policy perspective. Privacy, Security, Access to Information, Information Management are all key considerations for successful government transformation. Come share your knowledge on how to make these policies enable new services.
Government Services leaders – Ultimately, government delivers value through the many services that are provided. Gov Camp is about exploring the realm of the possible for service to individuals, services to businesses and services to other departments. You voice is essential to inform the community and to guide those ideas that the community may have for you!
Community – We are fortunate that there’s a passionate and creative community with vibrant ideas about how they can help create a closer connection between governments, individuals, businesses and even among government itself. Your participation at the Canada gov camp will provide you with a venue to share your great ideas and, if all goes well, interact with some of the people that can take your idea further.
Who’s behind this Event?
Canada Gov Camp is being hosted by the Canadian Association for Information Technology Professionals, sponsored by Microsoft Canada on behalf of the community.
I’ve had the opportunity to connect with a number of innovative thought leaders across Canada and engage in many of the local Open Gov activities that they are leading across the country. Since many of these activities have been focused on specific local regions, I’ve been thinking that perhaps it’s time to broaden the conversation and include all three levels of government. This Canada Gov Camp will follow the successful changecamp model and seeks to foster a dialogue between thought leaders in the community, government and industry in an un-conference format. Here is a brief synopsis:
Date: early June 2010, (Welcome keynote – evening prior)
Location: TBD – Central Ottawa Location
Précis:
A number of municipalities have embraced the concepts of open government and government 2.0. There have been a number of community driven events where interested individuals have come together to progress the thinking in this area and explore tangible activities under the umbrella of change camps or citycamps. While interested individuals have travelled across the country to participate in these unconferences, the focus of the events have been local or community oriented. We think that these discussions are of critical importance to the future and are keen to support and encourage the conversation at a broader level. We feel that by providing an environment for a discussion at the national level, to explore the interactions between cities, provinces and the federal level, these conversations can expand and bring together all jurisdictions that support Canadian individuals and businesses. We expect that participants will explore the role of provincial and federal governments in cultivating the growth and prosperity of Canada’s vibrant communities.
Watch for more info once the location has been fully secured.
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