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It seems that open data does not mean access to information reports
that contain data.
I made a request for a community group last week for a traffic
circulation study which contains data and some analysis of the traffic
redirect issue in a neighbourhood in Ottawa. This group has a copy of
a report that is all dog eared and stained with coffee mug imprints.
This group is making a blog about their issue and wanted to have a
digital copy of this document available to interested members of their
group. I made the request to the Open Data Ottawa of the City and was
informed that this type of 'data' is beyond the scope of the open data
project and that this report was not intended to be public,
irrespective of the paper copy being in circulation. I was advised
that this would fall more into a mandate on transparency and open
government and not open data.
I had requested a link to the document of a pdf copy and also asked
what would happen if the community group PDF'd the doc and shared it
on slide share. The answer to the former is above and I am waiting
for the response to the latter.
If open data does not include documents that contain data not
available anywhere else should these then not be open data documents?
Should data from these reports be made available seperately from their
reports? A catalog can contain data in any format, including data in a
pdf document such as a study report or meeting notes. A satellite
image as a jpeg is also data.
If open data is so narrowly defined, then I would argue that we
broaden the definition. In my mind it Open Data was always about
access to reports and documents and not just organized facts in
accessible formats.
How is this in your jurisdiction?
It is also odd since Ottawa did adopt and open government policy!
Cheers
t
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