Hello everyone.
I would like to introduce myself. My name is Harvey Low and I am the Manager of the Social Research Unit here at the City of Toronto, responsible for the City's social research mandates. I have also been actively engaged in the open government field in both the municipal and non-profit sectors nationally, including the Canadian Council on Social Development's Community Data Program, Federation of Canadian Municipalities Quality of Life Reporting System, as well as locally here in Toronto (e.g., Open Data Toronto, Wellbeing Toronto, City's Open Government Committee).
I am honoured in being selected by the Open Government Partnership to represent Canada at the upcoming 2012 OGP meeting in Brazil this April. The Open Government Partnership is a new multilateral initiative that aims to secure concrete commitments from governments to promote transparency, empower citizens, fight corruption, and harness new technologies to strengthen governance. Along with other key representatives, I hope to contribute in these discussions and to bring the outcomes of those discussions back to Canada and help infuse them into the operations of civil society and public sector institutions in the area of open government.
As a representative of the Canadian Council on Social Development's Community Data Program, I seek your input for best practices, challenges, and opportunities. I will conduct broad inclusive consultation and offer opportunities for you to provide feedback. The CivicAccess list will be one place where I will be soliciting input. In addition, a centralized portal will be established on the CCSD website for content and feedback. As well, other linked sites will include datalibre.ca (http://datalibre.ca/ogp/) as another conduit to seek input and share knowledge. Your contributions will of course be fully attributed and will no doubt be invaluable.
In the meantime, should you wish to contact me, my email is [hidden email], while my phone is 416-392-8660. Please do not hesitate to call me. There will be a conference call within the next two weeks to start the discussions rolling. Again I hope to represent the collective Canadian perspectives at this important forum.
Sincerely
Harvey Low
Canadian Council on Social Development
Community Data Program
Representative
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