RE: CivicAccess-discuss Digest, Vol 14, Issue 5

[Joe Murray]

You can buy the Postal Code to Federal Electoral District file for a first
year fee of $2500, with the annual fee for quarterly updates thereafter
costing $500.

On the site the annual subscription fee is listed as $2900. Mike Gifford,
the principal person behind makethechange.ca along with Phillip Smith and
some others, was offering a fee of 10 cents per lookup earlier this week
when I said orphanvoters couldn't really afford that rate, and likely wasn't
that high volume a site. While there was an investment to making the data
available as a service, it's actually higher performance and easier to use
the data if it is placed on your own site.

It's true, Jennifer, that Mike hasn't locked down the data with security
keys yet, but I didn't want to take advantage of that and have it cut off
mid-campaign.

Alternate solutions are to scrape the data from a site which does not have a
fair use policy excluding that.

Joe

> Date: Thu, 11 Sep 2008 13:22:48 -0700 (PDT)
> From: Jennifer Bell <[hidden email]>
> Subject: Re: [CivicAccess-discuss] RE: CivicAccess-discuss Digest, Vol
> 14, Issue 4
> To: civicaccess discuss <[hidden email]>
> Message-ID: <[hidden email]>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
>
> I was going to use this one to resolve new postal codes as they come in
> from users:
>
> http://www.makethechange.ca/electoral-data-consortium-api
>
> The lookup table itself seems to be pretty expensive.  I've read it's
> covered by crown copyright, but I've always understood that copyright
> doesn't apply to facts, so I'm confused.
>
> Jennifer

[Hugh McGuire-2]

> You can buy the Postal Code to Federal Electoral District file for a  
> first
> year fee of $2500, with the annual fee for quarterly updates  
> thereafter
> costing $500.
> ...
> Alternate solutions are to scrape the data from a site which does  
> not have a
> fair use policy excluding that.
once upon a time this was going to be the first advocacy project of  
civicaccess.ca ... lobby the government to free electoral/postal code  
data. having it cost so damn much (or anything at all) causes problems  
to the most basic of online civic engagement projects. why should we  
have to pay $2500 to get a dataset that tells you what electoral  
district you are in by postal code? it seems like an elemental kind of  
information about our country, that any citizen should have access to  
for free, and yet...

This is a perfect case of why the current system is undemocratic,  
stupid, and blocks effective engagement in our democratic process.

[Ted Hildebrandt]

Another online tool that Statistics Canada has made available is their
2006 Census FED Finder

http://www12.statcan.ca/english/census/index.cfm

September 8, 2008 - Release of the 2006 Census 'FED Finder' (see
right-hand sidebar). In anticipation of the upcoming federal election,
users can access census data related to their Federal electoral district
(FED). Includes definition/information on FEDs, link to Federal
electoral district profile (Internet application) and a new tool
providing users with the ability to enter a postal code and obtain 2006
Census data on the associated Federal electoral district.


---------------------------------------
Ted Hildebrandt
Director of Social Planning
Community Development Halton
860 Harrington Court
Burlington, Ontario  L7N 3N4 Canada
Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
Email: [hidden email]
Web: www.cdhalton.ca
     www.volunteerhalton.ca

Building Community Together

 
-----Original Message-----
From: [hidden email]
[mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of Hugh
McGuire
Sent: September 12, 2008 10:31 AM
To: civicaccess discuss
Subject: Re: [CivicAccess-discuss] RE: CivicAccess-discuss Digest, Vol
14,Issue 5

> You can buy the Postal Code to Federal Electoral District file for a
> first year fee of $2500, with the annual fee for quarterly updates
> thereafter costing $500.
> ...
> Alternate solutions are to scrape the data from a site which does not
> have a fair use policy excluding that.
once upon a time this was going to be the first advocacy project of
civicaccess.ca ... lobby the government to free electoral/postal code
data. having it cost so damn much (or anything at all) causes problems
to the most basic of online civic engagement projects. why should we
have to pay $2500 to get a dataset that tells you what electoral
district you are in by postal code? it seems like an elemental kind of
information about our country, that any citizen should have access to
for free, and yet...

This is a perfect case of why the current system is undemocratic,
stupid, and blocks effective engagement in our democratic process.



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

[Jennifer Bell]

Right now I'm working on a site called 'I Believe in Open', which is going to look like www.change-congress.org.  It will list 4-5 pledges that MP Candidates and, more importantly, voters, can subscribe to.  The site should be up early next week, and MP candidates should be notified of it by the end of next week.

Unlike change congress, the site will collect counts of confirmed email addresses per riding, to show how much voter support the pledges have per province/district.  

The long-list of pledges, which will be narrowed to 4 or 5, is below.  (Note that the pledges for voters start with 'I believe candidates should').  Number 6 was targeted for open data access issues, but the wording might not be compelling enough.  Does any one have suggestions for improving it?

Jennifer

1.      I will support reforms that increase parliamentary transparency and
accountability.

2.      I will make my campaign promises specific and measurable.  I will
report progress on my promises and their metrics at least semi-
annually.

3.      I will publish the content of my daily schedule, including meetings
with lobbyists and special interest groups.

4.      I will make position papers and proposals for legislation changes
available to the public as they are being drafted.

5.      I will keep a blog of my current thoughts and opinions, to better
communicate with the people I represent.

6.      I will support reforms allowing free access to information gathered
by publicly funded surveys and scientific studies.

7.      I will support reforms to the Access to Information Request process
that make it easier for Canadians to obtain government information
they have a right to know.


--- On Fri, 9/12/08, Hugh McGuire <[hidden email]> wrote:

> From: Hugh McGuire <[hidden email]>
> Subject: Re: [CivicAccess-discuss] RE: CivicAccess-discuss Digest, Vol 14, Issue 5
> To: "civicaccess discuss" <[hidden email]>
> Received: Friday, September 12, 2008, 10:17 AM
> > You can buy the Postal Code to Federal Electoral
> District file for a  
> > first
> > year fee of $2500, with the annual fee for quarterly
> updates  
> > thereafter
> > costing $500.
> > ...
> > Alternate solutions are to scrape the data from a site
> which does  
> > not have a
> > fair use policy excluding that.
> once upon a time this was going to be the first advocacy
> project of  
> civicaccess.ca ... lobby the government to free
> electoral/postal code  
> data. having it cost so damn much (or anything at all)
> causes problems  
> to the most basic of online civic engagement projects. why
> should we  
> have to pay $2500 to get a dataset that tells you what
> electoral  
> district you are in by postal code? it seems like an
> elemental kind of  
> information about our country, that any citizen should have
> access to  
> for free, and yet...
>
> This is a perfect case of why the current system is
> undemocratic,  
> stupid, and blocks effective engagement in our democratic
> process.
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> CivicAccess-discuss mailing list
> [hidden email]
> http://lists.pwd.ca/mailman/listinfo/civicaccess-discuss

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