All;
I just updated the Principles section of the Open data page -
http://datalibre.ca/links-resources/#Principles.
When reviewing these it is striking to note that the following are
absent in most of the principles:
Interoperability
Preservation and Archiving
Framework data w/ standard geographies
Standard geo aggregation (i.e., neighbourhoods, wards, cities, health
districts, planning areas, economic zones, electoral districts, postal
geos and so on)
Data quality
Metadata
Standards
It would seem to me that these are imperative. Open formats help with
interoperability but apps are by no means designed and disseminated
with interoperability in mind, not with code, the application of
standards & specifications. Metadata also help in this area as do
quality parameters. Preservation and archiving are related to long
term access and as far as I can see, although some cities/regional
governments in Canada are making some strides, this is not at all a
plan for most open data strategies (W3C includes this). In terms of
geography, data comparability is key, for example if you want to
compare a health sector variable, with a planning and a socio economic
variable then these must be aggregated in the same way, if not then
results are less reliable and this is in part why so many indicators
in Canada are reported using non administrative geographies, namely at
the level of the Census Metropolitan Area, which means it is hard to
act on the outcome as no jurisdiction administers at that geography
albeit Metro Vancouver and the Communaute Metropolitaine de Montreal
(CMM) come pretty close.
It is true that some of these are principles for open government and
some are more data related, irrespective, if formats are to be
mentioned then so can these others.
If I missed any important principles, or if cities have developed any
local ones it would be great to add them to the list.
Cheers
t
--
Tracey P. Lauriault
613-234-2805
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