Things are moving on the City's open data project, first announced by Mayor Miller at the Mesh Conference in May. I have been asked by City CIO Dave Wallace to help the City engage the wider community around this project, and I feel very excited and privileged to be part of this. The plan is to have the first release of open data available by the end of October.
Each of you have current projects, clients or relationships to communities of interest & practice that might want to develop applications using open civic data, whether that be for commercial, social, or democratic applications. As leaders in the community, I wanted to give you early notice and invite you to help create an important beginning for the open data community in Toronto.
WHAT:
You are invited to participate in a series of sessions at City Hall we are calling the "Open Data Lab".
I will facilitate these sessions as part of the two-day event called the Toronto Innovation Showcase being held November 2nd and 3rd. This event is in part a follow-up to the Toronto Web 2.0 Summit of last November, which began this open data journey as well as January's ChangeCamp event, which helped build momentum.
WHEN:
Open Data Lab
November 2nd, 2009, 1pm to 4pm
City Hall, Council Chamber and Members Lounge
[I ask that you don't announce this publicly until we have a full announcement online for you to link to. :) ]
DETAILS:
More to come soon, including an announcement of a very exciting speaker to help kick things off. I hope you will be able to join us.
VOLUNTEERS:
I am looking for volunteers to help facilitate the Lab sessions and capture the discussions, so please let me know if you are willing and able to contribute.
IGNITE PRESENTATIONS:
Time permitting, I would like to invite community members to do a 5 minute Ignite-style presentation that answers the question: "What is your dream application of open civic data?" Let me know if you would like to submit an idea for consideration. A one paragraph presentation pitch will suffice.
EVENT SPEAKING OPPORTUNITIES:
If you are organizing an event of your own between now and November 2nd, I would welcome the opportunity to speak to your community in order to let people know what is happening and to invite their participation at the City event on November 2nd.
Thanks, and have a great weekend!
___________
Mark Kuznicki
mobile: 416-994-2470
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