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Tuesday, May 8, 2012

DATA eh? Shout Outs

By the DATA eh? Team

At our May 3 DATA eh? Event we gave shout outs to individuals the Open Data team agreed "went beyond the call of duty" getting toronto.ca/open up and running. We presented 10 Eh's in all. Here are the script notes acknowledging the Eh? winners:

DATA eh? Award photo - small wooden plant with the word: Eh? spelled out in red at top



DATA eh? Shout Outs introduction
For those about to be awarded with an Eh?, it's our way of making you aware of just how much we appreciated your help. I know, I know, this may be kind of corny but it's from our collective hearts. Now, this is by no means an official City of Toronto award. It really is an Open Data Team specific gesture. Maybe someday there will be an official Open Data recognition program. That's something the outside community may want to think about: The Junos, the Genies and the Open Data-iny perhaps? But, for now and from our small team, we offer these Eh?'s as a token of appreciation. We should also note, we restricted our thinking to just toronto.ca/open support. There are many people who assisted Open Data - large picture - going beyond just the City of Toronto - and impacting Open Data across Canada –  but we kept the Eh? to just our own ballpark. That being said, let's get started eh?
 Momoko Price
Momoko is presently working on an initiative called Copy/Cat which is slated to launch this June. Just prior to this she was Communications Director for BuzzData who are one of our exhibitors here today. Momoko actually first made herself known to us just as BuzzData was getting off the ground. She literally buzzed us until we paid attention! Momoko pushed us to share our data and to engage with others on BuzzData. Her energy and enthusiasm are boundless and infectious and we're truly thankful for it! I believe Nick Edward is going to receive the award for Momoko since she wasn't able to make the event in person. Nick – come on down ...
Valerie Higgin
Valerie is a Manager with the Geospatial Competency Centre – GCC. With the launch of the Open Data Web Site in 2009, Valerie gave us the most geospatial datasets to our Open Data Environment. She also assigned resources to make the data available in other map projections so that it is compatible with other geospatial files. Today, Valerie is being recognized by the Open Data Team for her support.  She is clearly one of the early champions of toronto.ca/open. On behalf of the team, we would like to thank her and give her an Eh? Accepting the Eh? for Valeri is Andrew Lyszkiewicz, The Project Director at GCC – Andrew ...
Adam Schwabe 
Adam is a principal interaction designer with IDEO, a San Francisco Bay area innovation and design firm.  Before moving to San Francisco, Adam worked with Teehan+Lax, and with BlogTO as a writer and photographer. But to us, Adam is best known and most prized as the inventor of Rocket Radar, an app that determines when the next streetcar or bus will arrive – from right where you are standing. Rocket Radar is probably one of the best known apps to be created thus far using City of Toronto data. It's also the one we use most often as an example of the worth of opening up City data. It's simple, it's fast and it's good! And it sure beats standing at a streetcar stop and reading the posted ride times that can't account for delays in traffic. Thank you, Adam. Adam couldn't make it today from San Francisco but he wanted us to say thanks and a big hello to friends here in Toronto.
Tamer Mikhail 
Tamer is a Manager in Toronto Buildings. Today, he is being recognized by the Open Data Team for his awesome support.  He is one of the early champions of toronto.ca/open who also made available the most tabular data sets for the toronto.ca/open site. On behalf of the team, we would like to thank him and present Tamer with an Eh? 
Mark Kuznicki 
Mark is Chief Strategy Officer at The Moment, an innovation studio that helps organizations shape their future through turbulent times. Mark helped give birth to toronto.ca/open -- like a midwife of sorts -- and we owe him immeasurably for that!  He really helped provide a bridge for the open data community through connections via his community website, dataTO.org and the dataTO Google group. He also made space for us at changecamp in 2008, and organized a community/City session at our launch in November 2009. He also ran two very popular govcamps in 2010 and 2011. We've benefited tremendously from Mark's help and support and we very much want to recognize him today for all these efforts. Thank you Mark come and get your Eh?!
Ruthanne Henry 
Ruthanne is a Planner with Urban Forestry, Parks, Forestry & Recreation. Ruthanne went beyond the call of duty to support the Open Data Community at large. She took time out of her personal schedule to attend events in support of Open Data and worked directly with the development community to provide much needed data & support.On behalf of the team, we would like to thank her and present Ruthanne with an Eh?
Brian Gilham 
Brian is a web & mobile developer at The Working Group and programming is his career and passion. Here are just a few of the things Brian has built:
  •  Toronto open data - ward information which is overlaid on Google Maps
  •  What Toronto Said - an easy way to browse, and respond to responses to the Core Service Review survey
  •  Doors Open Mobile - three years running
  •   iRescu - Updates on traffic along the DVP, Gardiner, and Lake Shore
In fact, just a few minutes after toronto.ca/open was launched in November of 2009, Brian released the first use of data sets as a ward map. Talk about proof of concept! On behalf of the team, we would like to thank Brian  and present him with an Eh?
Lorene Bodiam 
Lorene is a Program Standards & Development Officer for Parks, Forestry & Recreation. As a Disability Advocate she takes the responsibility of providing knowledge and support to the City of Toronto's Access & Diversity groups and fellow colleagues very seriously. She participated in a number of Open Data events, beyond work hours and made it possible for developers to work with data sets supporting client needs for the disability community. On behalf of the team, we would like to thank Lorene and award her with an Eh?
George Pelekis 
George is a Senior Systems Integrator with Public Health. George always takes the time to provide a superior level of support to toronto.ca/open. He and his team developed the City of Toronto's  'Toronto Beach Water Quality app' plus a City wide 'restful services' app. George is also an exhibitor today of the Open Data Web Service. For all this work and on behalf of the team, we would like to thank him and award George with an Eh?
The Collective Thanks eh? DATA eh? Award 
This last Eh? has no name attached to it, and we'd like it to present it as a collective award, well earned, to all of you! We were unable to personally recognize everyone today. So, please share this award in a collective wide open spirit! Thank you again for all your efforts and ongoing support to the Open Data Program and toronto.ca/open.

 Feel free to add this Eh? Thanks eh? Collective Award to your portfolios!


DATA eh? #23

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