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What is Open Government?
• Open Government reflects a commitment to open,
accountable and transparent government practices.
“ Open Data, Open Information, Open
Dialogue”
• It is founded on democratic principals and The Local
Authority Freedom of Information and Protection of
Privacy Act (LAFOIP).
• Emphasis on citizen engagement and participation.
• The City’s Freedom of Information Process, use of
social media, regina.ca and even designregina.ca are
all examples of open government practices.
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What is Open Data??
When a government institution posts
internal data sets, in a machine-
readable format, for free public
consumption.
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Objectives:
1. Increase internal efficiency by reducing duplication and
allowing for enhanced information sharing across
departments.
2. Demonstrate leadership in public transparency and
accountability.
3. Encourage citizen engagement and participation in
municipal government through knowledge sharing.
4. Drive innovation in Regina with easy, self-serve access
to information commonly used by application developers
and businesses to provide enhanced citizen
experiences.
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City of Regina’s Open Data Journey
• Internal Survey for ‘readiness’ to move to Open Data
• large majority response … Open Data is a good thing
• many of our data sets ready to go.
• Talked to other cities (Ottawa, Vancouver, North District of
Vancouver, Edmonton) with various approaches but similarities:
• get something out there and build from it
• ensure commitment from business areas to maintain data before
posting
• technology started with was Microsoft’s Open Government Data
Initiative (OGDI)
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Data – Good, Bad, & Ugly
• Good:
• GIS data sets in multiple formats (CSV, SHP, KML)
• Data existed in all formats with maintenance processes already
in place
• Quick start!
• Bad:
• Data ready-to-go was not the most popular internally or
externally.
• Ugly:
• Some ready-to-go data was not actually ready-to-go.
• All the City’s data inaccuracies are now out there for all to see.
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Technology – Good, Bad, & Ugly
• Good:
• Contacts with other cities, Microsoft offer to help
• OGDI - open source & pay-as-you go service
• Quick start!
• Bad:
• Microsoft OGDI ‘out-of-the-box’ does not handle SHP files.
• Ugly:
• Customization we had not expected
• Need to purchase SAFE software’s FME tool to upload SHP
to OGDI
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Data Portal - what now?
• Adding ‘popular’ & requested datasets as part of regular refreshes.
• Tweaking for performance, fixing some of the bugs
• Exploring other Portal toolkits
• Exploring the expansion of the Open Data portal to include other
formats such as PDF documents, DWG and web mapping services
(WMS)
• Ongoing engagement with external stakeholders to continuously
improve the City’s Open Data Portal.
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What is a Hackathon and App
Development?
• One-day events for application developers
and those interested in open data
• Builds on open data that’s available
• Opportunity to “mash” with other data
• Creates innovative ideas for how to serve
citizens and new ways of using information
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Other Opportunities
• Application development
• ReCollect – Collection Reminder Service
• Ottawa Fun – Explore the City
• HBus – Plan Your Trip (Halifax Metro)
• City Forward - They store city data & make it available for
other cities to use free of charge. It is often used by city
planners to obtain info about what other cities are doing.
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Questions??
Alyssa Daku
Manager, Corporate Information Governance
Twitter: @AlyssaDaku
Email: adaku@regina.ca
Andrea Weston
GIS Coordinator
Email: aweston@regina.ca
