How Open Data is Used Against the Poor

[Tracey P. Lauriault]

How Open Data is Used Against the Poor - 

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/when_open_data_is_bad.php

The Case of Bangalore is very specific, and that may not be the case in all countries in all cities.  We can however safely say that in Canada, people on a fixed income such as social assistance, disability assistance or seniors, the must use the bus users, do not have i-phones phones.  It is great to have an i-phone app that tells you where the bus is and when it will arrive.  It is a whole other matter to open up social data that can be used to map out the social inequality of who cannot afford to get on the bus, or to assess transit access and schedules in relation to the location of social housing, and how that access affects access to other services such as school, work, libraries or recreation.  

I love the app enthusiasm, that is where new ideas come out, the Montreal Bixi app for instance makes moving in the city so much easier and that interaction makes you feel part of the pulse of how the town works.  But what I am passionate about are access to those socio-economic data and environmental data that I and others can use to influence public policy more broadly.  Along with that I am really excited by the work of data visualizers that are using those data to effectively communicate those issues.

I estimate a first batch of apps that will be centrered around making city services easier for the user, and I hope that it will then shift to the more complex problems that can be informed by using open data.

Cheers

t

--
Tracey P. Lauriault
613-234-2805

[john whelan]

This is a major concern of mine about Open Data and the App side of
things.  However it is possible to use Open data in more low cost user
friendly ways.  For example in Ottawa NCC, Gatineau, and City of
Ottawa all have bike lanes, paths etc, but there is no single map that
shows them all.

Ottawa has 325 kms of bike paths on its map printed in 2007 but has
added another 200 kms since then.  OpenStreetMap has most of these and
is certainly the most up to date.  If we can get the licensing
straightened out we should be able to pull in most of the GIS data the
city has.

This may not be the most sexy use of open data but it builds to the
momentum to get the more complex data out and gives a low cost way to
analyse the data in GIS terms.

Cheerio John




On 25 September 2010 09:46, Tracey P. Lauriault <[hidden email]> wrote:

> How Open Data is Used Against the Poor -
>
> http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/when_open_data_is_bad.php
> The Case of Bangalore is very specific, and that may not be the case in all
> countries in all cities.  We can however safely say that in Canada, people
> on a fixed income such as social assistance, disability assistance or
> seniors, the must use the bus users, do not have i-phones phones.  It is
> great to have an i-phone app that tells you where the bus is and when it
> will arrive.  It is a whole other matter to open up social data that can be
> used to map out the social inequality of who cannot afford to get on the
> bus, or to assess transit access and schedules in relation to the location
> of social housing, and how that access affects access to other services such
> as school, work, libraries or recreation.
> I love the app enthusiasm, that is where new ideas come out, the Montreal
> Bixi app for instance makes moving in the city so much easier and that
> interaction makes you feel part of the pulse of how the town works.  But
> what I am passionate about are access to those socio-economic data and
> environmental data that I and others can use to influence public policy more
> broadly.  Along with that I am really excited by the work of data
> visualizers that are using those data to effectively communicate those
> issues.
> I estimate a first batch of apps that will be centrered around making city
> services easier for the user, and I hope that it will then shift to the more
> complex problems that can be informed by using open data.
> Cheers
> t
> --
> Tracey P. Lauriault
> 613-234-2805
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> CivicAccess-discuss mailing list
> [hidden email]
> http://lists.pwd.ca/mailman/listinfo/civicaccess-discuss
>

[Tracey P. Lauriault]

The City of Ottawa is looking at their license.  We should hear something soon.

Cheers

t

On Sat, Sep 25, 2010 at 11:55 AM, john whelan <[hidden email]> wrote:

This is a major concern of mine about Open Data and the App side of
things.  However it is possible to use Open data in more low cost user
friendly ways.  For example in Ottawa NCC, Gatineau, and City of
Ottawa all have bike lanes, paths etc, but there is no single map that
shows them all.

Ottawa has 325 kms of bike paths on its map printed in 2007 but has
added another 200 kms since then.  OpenStreetMap has most of these and
is certainly the most up to date.  If we can get the licensing
straightened out we should be able to pull in most of the GIS data the
city has.

This may not be the most sexy use of open data but it builds to the
momentum to get the more complex data out and gives a low cost way to
analyse the data in GIS terms.

Cheerio John

On 25 September 2010 09:46, Tracey P. Lauriault <[hidden email]> wrote:
> How Open Data is Used Against the Poor -
>
> http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/when_open_data_is_bad.php
> The Case of Bangalore is very specific, and that may not be the case in all
> countries in all cities.  We can however safely say that in Canada, people
> on a fixed income such as social assistance, disability assistance or
> seniors, the must use the bus users, do not have i-phones phones.  It is
> great to have an i-phone app that tells you where the bus is and when it
> will arrive.  It is a whole other matter to open up social data that can be
> used to map out the social inequality of who cannot afford to get on the
> bus, or to assess transit access and schedules in relation to the location
> of social housing, and how that access affects access to other services such
> as school, work, libraries or recreation.
> I love the app enthusiasm, that is where new ideas come out, the Montreal
> Bixi app for instance makes moving in the city so much easier and that
> interaction makes you feel part of the pulse of how the town works.  But
> what I am passionate about are access to those socio-economic data and
> environmental data that I and others can use to influence public policy more
> broadly.  Along with that I am really excited by the work of data
> visualizers that are using those data to effectively communicate those
> issues.
> I estimate a first batch of apps that will be centrered around making city
> services easier for the user, and I hope that it will then shift to the more
> complex problems that can be informed by using open data.
> Cheers
> t
> --
> Tracey P. Lauriault
> 613-234-2805
>
>
>

> _______________________________________________
> CivicAccess-discuss mailing list
> [hidden email]
> http://lists.pwd.ca/mailman/listinfo/civicaccess-discuss
>
_______________________________________________
CivicAccess-discuss mailing list
[hidden email]
http://lists.pwd.ca/mailman/listinfo/civicaccess-discuss

--
Tracey P. Lauriault
613-234-2805