Change we can believe in

Jennifer Bell's post on Canada's VisibleGovernment blog describles a great speech given earlier this year by Suzanne Legault, Canada's Interim Information Commissioner, to a Parliamentary Committe. The speech - described as a "blockbuster" - outlines 5 open government principles required to "lead the paradigm shift from reactive to proactive disclosure, and ultimately to open government". 

The 5 priciples include:

• There must be commitment at the top to lead a cultural change conducive to open government. At a minimum, this involves issuing a declaration on open government with clear objectives. The commitment also entails assigning responsibility and accountability for coordination, guidance and deliverables. It requires prescribing specific timeframes.
• There should be ongoing and broad public consultations. Citizens should be encouraged to participate using electronic means. It is critical to determine what government information the public wants and how they want to receive it.
• Information should be made accessible in open standard formats and rendered re-usable. Information should be derived from various sources and integrated to reduce the silos inherent in bureaucratic structures.
• Privacy, confidentiality, security, Crown copyright and official languages issues need to be addressed and resolved.
• Open government principles should be anchored in statutory and policy instruments.

Along with these principles Legault acknowledges the work done by municipalities and engaged citizens in creating practical applications from open government data:

In municipalities, there are a significant number of practical applications being developed by both the cities and citizens. For example, Edmonton, Nanaimo, Toronto and Vancouver, have mounted online data catalogues containing information regarding council meetings, fire and rescue response reports, garbage collection and public transit schedules and building permit statistics. Many of these, such as property searches and restaurant sanitation reports, are supported by online search engines that allow the public to retrieve and manipulate the data. Ottawa is also moving forward to capitalize on new technologies to expand its service offerings. 

It is at the grassroots level where many of the most innovative initiatives are occurring. These initiatives are an indication of the types of information Canadians actually want. In a recent Globe and Mail article entitled “if you won’t tell us about our MPs, we’ll do it for you”, David Eaves, an internationally recognized open government guru, described new websites mounted by what he called “digital democratic activists”. He cited, as an example openparliament.ca, which enables the public to see what Members of Parliament say, explore how they vote, and search related press stories. Another example is howdidtheyvote.ca. This site provides a breakdown of Members of Parliament statistics, including the number of words spoken in a session, the frequency with which Members vote against their parties and Members’ attendance records.

Along with these Canadian efforts, Legault referred to ongoing open government initiatives in the UK, US and Australia as examples of international leadership in this area.

She ends with:

In 2010, democracy, government efficiency and national prosperity share the same core requirement. Citizens, experts and entrepreneurs must be able to easily access, interact with and reuse current and relevant public domain data. To quote from an excellent report compiled by Deloitte entitled Unlocking Government: How Data Transform Democracy:

Government leaders have before them an opportunity to combine the resourcefulness of online citizens and entrepreneurs with the power of factual data to more effectively achieve their mission. In an information-driven age, the ability of governments to seize this opportunity may ultimately determine whether a government fails or succeeds.

(H/T VisibleGovernment.ca)

Jirka Danek, Canadian Government’s CTO (Public Works) - on a strategy for Cloud Computing within the Canadian Government.

Cloud Computing and the Canadian Environment

There is a tremendous opportunity for Canada to position itself as a world leader in Cloud Computing and to benefit from the economic, environmental and technological returns of this new public utility.

Why Canada?

Due to its geographical characteristics, cooler temperatures and low-density population (particularly as one moves farther north in Canada), IT expertise, quality construction standards, legislative framework (including the Privacy Act and the Personal Information  Protection and Electronic Documents Act) and low-cost green energy, Canada is considered a prime location for Cloud Computing.
 
Canada has a reputation of being a highly desirable outsourcing location for companies from around the world because of factors such as our well-educated talent pool, multicultural population, geopolitical stability and relatively low cost of conducting business.

Gov IT

The Government of Canada spends approximately $5 billion annually on information technologies (IT) and Budget 2009 has set aside $12 billion to accelerate and expand federal investments in different infrastructure projects, including:

• $225 million over three years to develop and implement a strategy on extending broadband coverage to unserved communities to close the broadband gap in rural and remote communities.
• $1 billion over five years for the Green Infrastructure Fund to support projects such as sustainable energy;
• $500 million over the next two years for infrastructure projects in small communities;
• $750 million for leading-edge research infrastructure through the Canada Foundation for Innovation; and
• $500 million to Canada Health Infoway to encourage the greater use of electronic health records.

Moving forward

Recent research indicates that 75% of Chief Information Officers (CIO)indicated that they will need and use Cloud Computing in the near future.  Research also identifies that the US Government would save US$6.6B over the next three years through Cloud Computing.  Just on the energy front alone, it is estimated that $5B in electrical power could be saved in the US through Cloud Computing.

The move toward Cloud Computing is inevitable and it is happening across the globe and Canada has a definite advantage on other countries around the world.
 
Canadians can benefit through prompt, coordinated and sustained action within Canada, across jurisdictions, and through private-public partnerships.
 
Canada also needs to show leadership on the international scene, starting with its southern neighbour, the United States, who could become one of Canada’s best allies and supporter since Cloud Computing supports the President’s agenda and Corporate America’s next step.
 
There exists an opportunity for the Government of Canada to show leadership through the development of a broader Cloud Computing vision.  A coordinated effort with Canada’s private sector leaders in the field would be beneficial. The Government of Canada could also engage provincial, territorial and municipal counterparts in defining Canada’s Cloud Computing position through a comprehensive Canadian Cloud Computing Strategy.

(H/T BasicGov)

Open Data Lab Report

DataTO.org is a community site setup to allow citizens request datasets for the new Toronto.ca/Open site. A request can be created and then commented and voted on by other members of the community. The objective is that the top requests then feed into the Toronto datasets available at http://www.toronto.ca/open/.

The current Hottest requests on the site include:

1. toronto.ca/open RSS Feed
2. Version control and bug tracking
3. Complaints about Police Officers
4. Meeting Monitor Data
5. Energy Consumption by Location

For more information and to request a dataset see dataTO.org.