Stuff We Know Of Page ... Coming From Our Open Data

by the DATA eh? team 
You asked for it and now we respond with a listing of apps and other that leverage City of Toronto data presented at toronto.ca/open.

Fine Print
We present this listing with no editorial or endorsements what-so-ever. It's just a list of what the DATA eh? team knows to be "out there" and attributable to our data. This isn't an exhaustive list - there are some uses we may not have heard of yet - you can help make the list more complete by contributing to it here via comments.

Apps* & Other:

• Bike Routes *
• Bike Routes *
• Budget 
• Budget 

There's more on the list ...

Data on page views

By Keith McDonald 
We've been going on and on about data being able to tell stories. To us, open data is the ultimate, modern bedtime story. That being said, I went to bed last night reading about recent page views for DATA eh? by country.

Page Views:
Canada = 4,624
United States = 2,202
Russia = 1, 254
Netherlands = 615
Germany = 554
United Kingdom = 496
France = 287
Ukraine = 198
Iran = 196
Latvia = 194

Dx3 augment

By Keith McDonald 
Further to the trade show yesterday, overnight and sleeping on it, I thought of another thing that stood out for me. As Trish Garner and I toured the displays at Dx3, we were consistently got asked: "What is the City of Toronto doing here?"

Clearly our attendance was a surprise to the booth hosts. Perhaps, so unexpected, that they didn't know what else to say. I started asking back: "What do you think we are doing here?"

Open For Business ... Dx3 session with Dave Wallace

by Keith McDonald

Fresh back from attending the Dx3 trade show where The City's CIO, Dave Wallace (@CIODave) joined a panel of guests speaking about Open Data. 


The session was: Open for Business: The City of Toronto's Open Data Initiative and presented an opportunity for Dave, and also Phyllis Berck - Director of the Toronto office of Partnerships, to share some thoughts with digital business players.

I wish the session was better attended but c'est la vie. The dialogue was insightful and demonstrated an eagerness for connecting.

Somewhat dark photo of the panelists in discussion

Are you Open?

By Keith McDonald 
We're working up more "Open Data Champion" videos. Here's one we taped just after the interview with 49Pixels Live:

Transcript:

Justin -

So my name is Justin Kozuch and I'm the co-host of 49Pixels Live and we've just wrapped up a show on Open Data. Ah, And I believe that to open data is important to cities because it helps residents understand what's happening within their city and gain a lens into what services governments provide and how they can make things better.

Lindsay -

And I'm Lindsay Munro, Justin's co-host of 49Pixels Live and I think Open Data is important because it opens up the cities to its citizens to allow them to improve city services and their access to them.

---

We use this kind of advocacy when talking to City staff about Open Data. Messages of this kind really help us demonstrate a "cause and effect" from our actions in releasing data to citizens taking advantage of the data.

You too can be an Open Data Champion for us. A great first step would be commenting right here on the DATA eh? blog space. 

Tell us why you are an Open Data advocate ...

DATA eh? #11

Digital City ... Thinking Like The Web

by Keith McDonald
It's amazing how fast an hour can go. Fresh from an evening chat live via 49Pixels and Episode 5 of their Digital Cities web casts, I can say we actually could have gone longer! Not that I wish us on anyone but both Trish Garner and I weren't sure we would have enough to say as we started up.

With thanks to Alan Langford for the photos - 

In this pic, Trish and Keith are live with Justin Kozuch and Lindsay Munroe

49Pixels Live

by the DATA eh? team 
Trish Garner and Keith McDonald guest on 49Pixels Live January 10 (8 p.m. EST).

The duo will talk about Open Data  and: "Creating a City that thinks like the web". Thanks for the invite Lindsay Munro and Justin Kozuch - hosts of the show. Listen in!!!

 DATA eh? #9

New Year Reset

by Keith McDonald
It's not precisely true that you reset all your "gauges" to zero at the start of a new year. Some things have to stick around and carry on as a measurement (we all get a little older every day for example) but the analogy works pretty well all the same. 

Clearly you can start anew, gear up, make the push, get going again, etc, etc as January hits. We're doing that now!  

Have you hit "Reset" yet?

Late last year, I attended a seminar that talked about making "today better than yesterday and tomorrow better than today". When it comes to Open Data, I think that is a real possibility.