Open datapolicy danmurray_goopendata2015_kitchenersapproachtoopendata
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Open datapolicy danmurray_goopendata2015_kitchenersapproachtoopendata
- 1. City of Kitchener Policy Approach to Open Data May 1st, 2015
- 2. 5 Year Review for Corporate Accountability and Transparency Policy
- 6. What Did We Hear? • Open processes and decisions • Accessibility to information • Open by default • Accountability
- 7. Accountability and Transparency Policy Update: • Open Government definitions • Plain language • Components and commitments • Incorporated consultation feedback • Ongoing review and updating
- 8. Vision: To provide a City government that is transparent and accountable to its citizens, with opportunities for meaningful, accessible public participation, made possible through innovation, technology and collaboration.
- 9. A&T Policy - Open Data Commitments – “Open by Default” – priority for open data influenced by community engagement – strive to make available data machine readable – release public information that helps reveal and inform decision-making – timely updates to data based on the nature of the data – open data is a collaborative community undertaking – must monitor and adapt
- 10. What Have We Achieved? • Consulted on priorities and collaboration opportunities • Developed open data approval processes • Developed open data web portal and catalogue • Launched in May 2014 with 32 data sets - currently have 63 data sets • Promotion of our open data
- 11. Open Data Events
- 12. What Is On Our Roadmap? • Ongoing efforts to identify and release more data sets • “Open by Default” • Implement an open data API • Looking to strengthen collaboration with neighbouring municipalities including possible consolidated data sets
- 13. Thank You! Dan Murray Director of Technology Innovation and Services Information Technology - Finance and Corporate Services dan.murray@kitchener.ca City of Kitchener Accountability and Transparency Policy http://www.kitchener.ca/en/insidecityhall/AccountabilityandTransparencyPolicy.asp City of Kitchener Open Data Portal http://www.kitchener.ca/opendata/
Editor's Notes
- The City of Kitchener’s Open Government story begins in 2013. We had been talking about getting an open data program off the ground in our organization. At the same time, there had been discussions on the scheduled review of the Corporate Accountability and Transparency policy. Our current A&T policy had been implemented in 2007 as required by the Municipal Act. Given the considerable evolution of thought in the areas surrounding Open Government and Accountability and Transparency, we saw this as a great opportunity to incorporate the broader principles of Open Government into the revamped A&T policy.
- We kicked off our open government project in September 2013 with the following project objectives: Undertake research on Open Government concepts Develop an Open Government framework for the City Build support and consensus by involving stakeholder community Review and revise related policies including the Corporate Accountability and Transparency Policy Develop an Open Government Action Plan including Open Data as an early priority We built a project team consisting of folks from various disciplines within the City and secured the CAO as the Project Sponsor. Using the research findings on Open Government and the support of our consultant, we developed an Open Government Discussion Paper providing some background to Open Government, the guiding principles of a number of leading Open Government organizations, an analysis of what areas Kitchener had already made progress in and some areas of opportunity to provide focus. The discussion paper highlighted possible future directions for Open Government at the City of Kitchener and proposed both a high-level OG framework and a vision statement.
- This discussion paper began the conversation with Council on Open Government. We held a strategic session with Council where they provided feedback on the direction of the Open Government initiative. This strategic session was the start of the consultation phase of the project. Stakeholder consultation was a key element of our Open Government efforts with 6 activities to: Confirm the principles, vision and framework for Open Government, Identify potential priority actions, and Obtain advice, innovation and solutions for our Open Data launch, as well as potential priorities and collaboration opportunities.
- This process would not be open and transparent without community participation. The project team consulted with our advisory committees, stakeholder groups and hosted an online survey during the review process. The activities were: discussion at a joint meeting of the City’s 11 Advisory Committees an online survey using the City’s website discussions with several undergraduate and graduate university classes during Local Government week specific questions within the Environics Citizen Survey of 1,002 residents multiple discussions with stakeholders in the open data community; and internal discussions with City staff
- Open processes and decisions: This theme is really about providing better information on City decision-making processes and opportunities for input, greater involvement in decisions and reporting back on how input was used. Accessibility to information: Relates to improving and expanding access to information, again through online/electronics means – while also preserving other methods to ensure equitable access. We also heard some specific input that finding information on the City website, and on City roles vs. other levels of government can be a challenge, as is clarifying roles for the City vs. other levels of government. Open by default: We heard support for the City providing information and data publicly unless there is a constraint to do so. And there is also support for Open data conceptually and for the benefits it will provide Accountability: This is a key priority for the City, largely identified through the Environics survey, as well as through advisory committee input that the City provide a clear statement of what it will do to support this principle. All of these themes were incorporated into the updated Accountability and Transparency Policy and the Open Government Action Plan
- Staff reviewed and updated the 2007 Accountability and Transparency Policy with the following goals: Provide high-level direction and guidance to staff and citizens, Create an enabling Policy to assist the City to further its open government objectives, and Detail commitments the City has in place to support the key principles. There were several key enhancements in the updated A&T policy: Open Government Definitions from our framework are used to define the key terms. Plain Language and a shorter, more readable Policy with content broken out in sections for ease of use. Components and Commitments: the original Policy’s ‘Components’ still provide overarching guidance within the Policy; and a new ‘Commitments’ section states what the City has put and/or will put in place to support Accountability and Transparency. Consultation feedback: was incorporated in a number of ways including: clear statements of City activities and commitments; priority areas of Citizen Engagement and Open Data are highlighted; and Accountability is woven throughout. The Policy retains a statement of intent for review once each Council term for relevance, currency and accuracy.
- Our renewed corporate A&T policy includes our Vision for Open Government. Our vision statement is: To provide a City government that is transparent and accountable to its citizens, with opportunities for meaningful, accessible public participation, made possible through innovation, technology and collaboration. The policy also refers to the Open Government framework.
- Within the A&T policy, there is a number of specific defined commitments to open data. In support of transparency, the City is making its data “open by default”. The prioritization for publishing open data is complemented by community engagement with citizens, businesses and other public sector organizations. The City strives to make this data machine and human readable, and releases public information that helps reveal and inform decision-making as open datasets. The City has created specific requirements, which are evolving, for ongoing updates of open data, and aims to release its data in a timely manner, dependent on the nature of the data. Open data is seen as a collaborative community undertaking to meet the needs of the community, and to monitor changes within the open government data community.
- Since the adoption of the new updated Accountability and Transparency we have been able to achieve the following: We consulted with the open data community prior to setting up our open data catalogue and releasing data sets to gather input for priorities. We developed our internal processes to approve open data set releases We built our open data portal and data catalogue and launched our open data portal in May 2014 with 32 data sets. We now have 60 data sets identified, approved and released. We have promoted our open data through hosting and sponsoring events to get people using our open data and to further gather feedback on potential data sets.
- Communications, collaboration and promotion have already begun in this area and will continue in the lead-up to our launch. Open Data Day 2014: A global event held in Kitchener (Kwartzlab’s Maker Space), hosted by Open Data Waterloo Region. This was a day where citizens gathered in cities around the world for a ‘hackathon’ to write applications, create visualizations and publish analyses using open public data. We were proud to have provided 20 datasets for this event, which also served to provide a preview of our Open Data offerings to the local user community prior to the formal launch of our open data portal and catalogue. Communitech DATA.BASE Challenge event Mar 21: Kitchener sponsored this critical thinking challenge event in which students use open data to develop solutions to real-world problems. We co-sponsored along with the Cities of Waterloo & Cambridge and the Region, and to provide datasets. NSPIRE 24 Hour Startup: Collaborating with a student run entrepreneur organization, we held an event focused on creating a startup company. We used the opportunity to inform the students of the opportunities that open data could provide to an startup business. Many of the proposed companies and products made use of open data in their ideas.
- We are continuing to engage with staff throughout the organization to identify potential data sets for release. A cross functional team has been created to help sell the benefits within their own work areas. “Open by Default” – a program of work to implement systems, training and procedures, such as routine and proactive disclosure is underway. The goal is to instill the operational principle that City data and information, past, present and future will be made available to the public subject to legislative constraints. We want to implement an open data API to enable easier access to the City’s data through various apps and solutions We are also looking to collaborate further with our neighbouring municipalities. Kitchener is a city within the Region of Waterloo. The Region of Waterloo is somewhat unique in that there are 8 municipal government entities in an area that is only 1370 square kms. In order for open data to be useful to the open data community, we need to find ways to streamline access to the data from a regional perspective including potentially creating consolidated data sets.