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![Our Plan [sort of]
• Tunnel, leapfrog, pole vault, learn to crabwalk.
• Twinkle! Stay agile, nimble, swift.
• Take chances. Be opportunists.
• Talk the talk, walk the walk.
• Team up, pool skills, horse trade.
• Have fun. Get it done.
6](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/misaodlowhangingfruitfinal-120601093135-phpapp01/85/Misa-od-low_hangingfruit_final-6-320.jpg)
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Misa od low_hangingfruit_final
The document discusses the City of Toronto's open data initiative and journey from 2008 to present. It describes how the city has progressed from initially releasing low-hanging fruit data to developing processes, policies, and licensing around open data. It also outlines the city's plan to remain agile and opportunistic in its open data approach. A key part of the plan is the use of Open311, an open standard for civic issue tracking that allows citizens to report non-emergency issues using mobile apps connected to the city's backend systems.
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Misa od low_hangingfruit_final
- 1. Open Data Moving beyondlow hanging fruit MISA Ontario 2012 Annual Conference | Hamilton | 29 May 2012
- 2. City of Toronto/ open Yesterday, Today + Tomorrow •How we got to where we are | Trish Garner •Struggling, learning + flying| Nancy Isozaki •Open for business | Kevin Porter 2
- 3. How we gotto where we are 3
- 4. Plucking low-hanging fruit • 2008… open what? • 2009… 0 to 60 in 3 • 2010… uh, we need more data + a process • 2011… and a policy + a better licence • 2012… now what? 4
- 5. toronto.ca/open A city that thinks like the web Opening up Crowdsourcing Asking for help changecamp | googlegroups | govcamps | hackathons interviews | talk shows| twitter | buzzdata | interventions communities | colleagues | data stewards | influencers | advocates DATAeh blogs | events | panel jams | map jams | vendor jams 5
- 6. Our Plan [sortof] • Tunnel, leapfrog, pole vault, learn to crabwalk. • Twinkle! Stay agile, nimble, swift. • Take chances. Be opportunists. • Talk the talk, walk the walk. • Team up, pool skills, horse trade. • Have fun. Get it done. 6
- 7.
- 8. Struggling, learning +flying 8
- 9. Lessons Learned Open Government| adopt a broader framework People | leverage champions + interested parties Expectations | culture change: information management + open by default Not New | reuse, reduce, recycle Data | you’re only as good as your data Accountability | staff are responsible for the data Technology | open data to open platforms Act | act now, plan incrementally 9
- 10. Open for business| Open311 10
- 11. Open311 http:// open311.org/ A Collaborative Model and Open Standard for Civic Issue Tracking Coordinating a standardized, open-access, read/write model for citizens to report non-emergency issues Open311.org is facilitated and supported by OpenPlans, a New York City based non-profit dedicated to making cities work better 11
- 12. Open311 API isthe “plug” to connect 311 Toronto with 3rd party apps 12
- 13. Mobile Apps -Open311 Solution - Advantages • Ability to utilize existing mobile apps • Avoid reinventing the wheel – leverage Self Serve Development • Available on many platforms (iPhone, BlackBerry, Android) • Flexible solution – keeps pace with a rapidly changing marketplace • Easy to add new topics (service request types) • Not tied to one vendor 13
- 14. Open311 - Advantages • Acceptance from user community • Cooperation with citizens and private industry. • Innovative – cutting edge solution. • Reductions in sustainment efforts. • Govt2.0 solution – open source government • Add-ons – twitter feeds – widgets etc. • Possible integration with other municipalities. 14
- 15. How we utilizeOpen Data • All Get Requests are open Data – from all channels – phone, mobile and online • - refreshed nightly – allows for visualizations on maps etc. • Approved apps are given an API key which allows these apps to automatically post service requests to 311 Toronto which are sent to the backend systems (Transportation, MLS) 15
- 16.
- 17. Great excitement andfeedback from social media 17
- 18. SeeClickFix: Issues viewableby list or on map 18
- 19. Issues also viewableon desktop: seeclickfix.com 19
- 20. TDOT 311 –locally developed app 20
- 21. TDOT 311– recentservice requests (last 3 days) 21
- 22. Thank you forattending Questions for us???? Us Kevin Porter | kporter@toronto.ca | @porter_kev Nancy Isozaki| nisozaki@toronto.ca Trish Garner| tgarner@toronto.ca | @trishgarner The City|toronto.ca toronto.ca/open | opendata@toronto.ca @open_TO | #DATAeh | DataTO Google Group | @G4Open toronto.ca/311| 311@toronto.ca | @311Toronto toronto.ca/open311| open311@toronto.ca 22
Editor's Notes
- #2 Open Data—Moving beyond low hanging fruit Open Data is now Big Data and it is “truly a gold mine,” to quote Tim McGuire , Kinsey + Company, Consumer + Marketing Analytics Centre who defines Big Data as “the use of massive sets of data – typically transaction data, motivation data, environmental data, social data – to make better decisions.” McKinsey’s data whiz mines the social media motherlode , The Globe and Mail, Report on Business, Friday, May 25, 2012 http://m.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/rob-magazine/mckinseys-data-whiz-mines-the-social-media-motherlode/article2441507/?service=mobile And if Open Data is now Big Data, then 2012 is turning out to be the year of Big Data and Open Government Governments are being challenged to “democratize data,” make it actionable, set it free “ Making government data digestible” Clay Johnson, co-founder of Blue State Digital (built + managed Obama’s online campaign), former director of Sunlight Labs, author of The Information Diet mesh’12 Talk: Conscious Consumption with the Information Diet , May 23, 2012 The semantic web: Linked Open Data -- make data public, in predictable formats, as links David Weinburger Mesh”12 Talk: The Need for Networked Knowledge , May 24, 2012 Data strategist -- emerging new role “ Data journalism is the new punk” – meshing words + data to tell a story Simon Rogers, The Guardian Datablog, Anyone can do it: Data journalism is the new punk , posted Thursday, May 24, 2012 http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2012/may/24/data-journalism-punk?INTCMP=SRCH “ You don’t get to fail to anticipate the impact of social media.” [—and its impact on government and government data… big data] Michael Geist, Canadian academic, the Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-Commerce Law at the University of Ottawa Mesh’12 Vignette: The Year the Internet Fought Back , May 24, 2012
- #3 Presentation by: The City of Toronto Trish Garner, Manager, Web Strategy, City of Toronto, Information + Technology Division Nancy Isozaki, Director, Corporate Information Policy, City Clerk’s Office Kevin Porter, Project Manager, 311 Toronto Service Office Trish will talk a little about how we got to where we are today… Nancy will take you through the lessons we’ve learned along the winding road to Open Government and… Kevin will demo Toronto’s recently launched Open311 API
- #4 Trish Garner
- #5 Plucking… 2008 November: Web 2.0 Summit: Mark Surman’s Keynote; Twitterverse 2009 April: mesh’09: Mayor’s Keynote promise November: Innovation Showcase: Open Data Proclamation + Launch 2010 Building toronto.ca/open catalogue Putting processes in place Lac Carling: Ottawa, Edmonton, Vancouver + Toronto CIOs form the G4 Building the G4 Open Data Framework – Jury Konga 2011 More datasets, a policy + a better licence, based on the UK + BC licence
- #6 2012: Almost 90 datasets DATA eh? sandbox, blogspace, link to performance measurement data, neighbourhood wellbeing indices, apps DATA eh? Day – May 3 | MapJam! – June 20 | VendorJam –July 11
- #7 Get involved, be invested, innovate, be passionate Goals Enable + empower our own staff to better use data, to build apps Enable developers, designers + data journalists to build apps Enable everyone to mash City of Toronto data with other data Messy but done Biggest challenge: internal: mindset Some apps out there: theirs + ours Toronto Bike Map Homezilla Finder (uses childcare centres data) Rocket Radar DineSafe Beaches InspecTOR Uproot Public Leaf’s TO Waste
- #8 Rocket Radar This is a short video about an app launched in December 2010 and its inventor, Adam Schwabe iPhone app lets you know when the next transit vehicle will be arriving where you’re standing Today, there are Rocket Radar apps for Boston, LA, San Francisco + Davis, CA Tom Dekker, a blind community activist + teacher, developed an iPhone app which buzzes when a streetcar is approaching TTC inspector was once observed standing on a street corner, using Rocket Radar to find out when the next streetcar was due And now over to Nancy…
- #9 Nancy Isozaki
- #10 Open Data @ the City has reached a new level of maturity. Today it is a more ‘repeatable’ program than an ‘ad hoc’ initiative . But we are still struggling and learning. Open Data is not institutionalized as ‘just part of doing business’ . However, some areas of the City are ‘flying’, innovating to the next level of maturity as Kevin will demonstrate. This afternoon, we offer 8 areas of learning from our experience. O PEN GOVERNMENT Adopt a broader framework As Trish identified, it is important to frame Open Data within a broad open government and broad governance platform. OPEN GOVERNMENT : Open Data must not be perceived as just a technology initiative. Nor can it be championed by a single business unit. Like other jurisdictions, Toronto promotes Open Data as one vehicle to support Open Government. The open approach includes promoting all avenues for information Proactive and Routinely disclosed information or 'open information', legislated Freedom of Information requests and Open machine-readable data. For example, you saw the Toronto Transit live data underpinning the Rocket Radar ap. But Toronto Transit also publishes static transit schedules because not everyone has an iphone. Making data open supports Open Government. It Supports access to service information Contributes to the transparency of government and Illustrates our accountability for data quality. Open Data builds public trust and confidence in local government by releasing quality data that is uninterpreted and fosters civic engagement when developers build aps for citizens or offer them a fresh way to interpret government data GOVERNANCE: Open Data requires strategic and operational oversight that fits your environment. Based on our culture, we chose to nurture Open Data through a low-key administrative approach vs a political approach. Yes we launched Open Data based on a strategic commitment by the Mayor. But there was no Council minute or New York style legislation. Instead we published an administrative policy. No explicit capital funding ‘ask’. No big operational budget ‘ask’ in our constrained economy. No Chicago style new job titles or positions. Open Data reports under an administrative senior management committee, ‘Open Government Committee’ – a consultative body that promotes Information Management concerns. Open Data articulates the Info Mgt principle of Openness. Info Mgt has organizational traction at the City – the City Clerk has the mandate for corporate IM policy and implementation Open Data is sponsored by the City Clerk and the CIO. The two organizatons jointly lead Open Data P EOPLE Leverage champions and interested parties Find Sponsors who walk the talk: in our case, the CIO and City Clerk eek out resources to support Open Data lead and promote strategize how to move forward Champions who demonstrate success (or no risk) e.g. Toronto Transit Commission Make use of the public interest in Open Data e.g. 2 Open Data speakers invited to address an City Standing Committee in 2011 Build relationships as Trish mentioned [community, the public, technology, businesses, media} E XPECTATIONS Culture change to information management and ‘openness as the default’ Do not underestimate the magnitude of the culture change to bring about collaboration and information sharing (which is a City Info Mgt goal) For example, significant transitions: change from a ‘data owner’ (hugging or selling data) role to ‘data steward’ or move to ‘openness as the default’ and planning for openness You need to Manage Risk and the Perception of Risk – Have we ever had a dataset that caused anything undesirable to happen? No. Are we doing a good enough job interpreting the data ourselves and communicating our perspective of the information alongside the open data? Probably not. Goal: Be prepared : We alert senior management & strategic communications about data releases that may be ‘trending’ in the media and open data community - so the City is prepared to comment, to celebrate 45 lines of business, multiple organizational cultures – balanced approach Build grassroots support through staff data champions Top down direction given by City Manager who approved and communicated Open Data Policy N OT NEW Reuse, recycle, reduce Open Data is not new. Reuse, recycle and reduce wherever you can. REUSE: blend national/international best practices with what works in your jurisdiction We offer 3 areas of reuse: Data, Policy, Licence. DATA : We chose our initial datasets based on : Checking other open data sites – What did they release? What data did their community want? City technology risk profile: ‘just behind early adopters’. When we started, Open Data was fairly new, so we focused on Politically neutral data Just datasets. Not databases, not exchange platforms. ‘ open-ready’ or ‘low hanging fruit’. These are datasets that already met Sunlight Foundation principles: Features atomic or granular data, authoritative source data contains no personal information poses no security risks owned by the City e.g. not be constrained by fees or licencing issues already described with metadata can be refreshed easily etc. LICENCE: We ‘reused’/patterned our first Terms of Reference after City of Vancouver. As Trish mentioned, our latest Licence was patterned after the UK and BC Province. We adapted it and offered our version to the G4. POLICY: We adapted Sunlight Foundation Principles e.g. reflecting City language. Our Licence and Policy are on our website and now will be included in O’Brien legal precedents database so others can ‘reuse’. RECYCLE: recast what you already have in use but build in an Open Data element to it. E.g. loo k at existing organizational mandates for best fit to operate Open Data ‘off the corner of the desk’ latch onto existing and willing projects (311) modify existing processes to incorporate open data as ‘part of doing business’ e.g. our capital budget business case template includes planning and budgeting for project mgt, architecture, privacy impact assessments. Modify it to remind projects to include the cost of outputting a sustainable open data dataset REDUCE: promote the efficiency benefits of Open Data e.g. May reduce the volume of Information requests (formal FOI or informal) that business units respond to by pushing out more data openly to complement your open information reports, dashboards etc. D ATA You’re only as good as your data City uses a repeatable process to vet dataset quality and describe the dataset. We only post with authorization from the senior business steward, the City Clerk and CIO e.g. we will not scrape data because we want comprehensive, current source data a refresh schedule business who can articulate the business value of the dataset We do take the Sunlight Principles to heart. But the Open Data program’s data maturity is dependent upon the pace of the City's broader Information Architecture program and Information Management program maturity . A CCOUNTABILITY All staff are responsible to manage information. Open Data is set within this broader Info Mgt principle The Open Data Policy: Sets the expectation with staff that the City will share datasets Defines roles and responsibilities of senior mgt and staff Our policy is a municipal ‘first’ Open Data Licence declares City’s commitment and the sets out the obligations of data users. T ECHNOLOGY Open data to open platforms Started with a web site presence. Now we (Trish) maintain a strong social media presence . We are investigating visualization and reporting techniques to support end users who initially were confounded by raw data when they expected open information that could be manipulated like Toronto’s Neighbourhood Well-being Indices Our technology platform is developing depth. We are exploring open platforms, open standards and open databases. A CT Act now. Plan incrementally The last 'learning' we offer focuses on action. ACT NOW. Open Data is a necessary component of Open Government. So make a start with a small footprint. But remember that whatever the size of your commitment, you must be prepared to sustain and grow it. You must refresh the datasets respond to social media queries engage in meet-ups and hackathons promote internally to expand your inventory engage with the media and community groups evergreen your processes, terms of reference etc. so they continue to reflect your technology advances & maturing roles and responsibilities PLAN INCREMENTALLY. Outline your way forward as Trish mentioned Align your plans with other strategic planning initiatives (e.g. Info Mgt, Technology strategic plan, City strategic plan) Take advantage of innovations happening around you And now Kevin will expand on one of our technology innovations: Open311.
- #11 Kevin Porter
- #12 Back a year ago, when we were doing an environmental scan, we saw that many cities already had mobile apps and that they were all pretty similar: – present the user with a list of available problem codes – like Potholes and Graffiti – and ask some pertinent questions We came across Open311 – developed with San Francisco – open source, moving towards a model where the same app could work in any city. – don’t reinvent the wheel – designed to work in any city – meant to be available in North America and beyond – in Europe and south America, Dominic Republic, etc. Meant for public (non-private) issues, including graffiti, potholes, street light out, litter in the park, etc.
- #13 311 Toronto decided to incorporate this model and use this Open API: – service requests created on the mobile devices with automatic GPS coordinates. – verified using a web service from City of Toronto’s Geospatial Competency Centre to get the closest valid address – eliminate problem of Googles “ranged addresses”. – allows the visualization and slick front end of Google maps but maintains the exact city address – service requests come into our ECM and are transferred to integrated back end systems without customer service representative [CSR] intervention
- #17 Promotion Press releases done in coordination with the Mayor’s Office – one for Graffiti and one for Potholes – the one for Potholes became the lead story for 680news
- #18 This happened during our soft launch phase starting in January 2012 – before our press release issued with the Mayor’s Office.
- #19 SeeClickFix – already existing apps used throughout North America – worked with SeeClickFix to call 311 Toronto through our API to automatically create service requests We control the list of problem codes – current problem codes: Potholes and 5 Graffiti [Graffiti on road, bridge sidewalk, litter bin, private property] – control the list of questions – more questions for certain problem codes – easy to add new problem codes – flexible Allow the inclusion of pictures – we take only the URL – images stored in the cloud
- #20 Display by map, picture – sort filter, also show in Facebook, have concepts of watch areas, widgets, etc. – get all this functionality for free by using the plug – used to send us emails – inefficient
- #21 TDOT311 iPhone app – locally developed
- #22 TDOT311 Uses our open data feed to present recent service requests on a map – shows service requests from phone channel, online and mobile – updated once a night – click on the pins to show details including location, status date – pin colour shows the status Open data available without an API key for mashups, visualizations, etc. Also allows the user to see if a service request also exists for this location – i.e., has the graffiti or pothole already been reported Great uptake – 22% of potholes and 37% of graffiti requests received through Open311 in the first 3 weeks or so since launch (April 18 for graffiti and April 26 for pothole) Next steps – testing some other apps (one is specifically for potholes) and expanding list of problem codes. Also great potential to work with other city depts to be able to share data through the API