Re: National Statistics section for Canada in the G8 OKFN Open Data Census.

[Tracey P. Lauriault]

Andrew;

Some of Statistics Canada data are under that licence, most are not.  For example, economic division, environment, health, crime and so on are not nor are population projections, death rates, birth rates and so on are not under that licence. If you wish to have cross tabs on the free data, that is at a very large cost, as that is considered a custom order, of if you want data aggregated to boundaries such as wards, neighbourhoods or health districts, that also is a very hight cost.  In addition, our current government cancelled the census, as you know, the free data from the national household survey are considered unreliable and uneven and do not scale down to smaller geographies due to the methodology adapted.  Statistics Canada made the census data free, real census data as they had recovered the costs from earlier sales, what they made free were these NHS which are of much less quality and ealier census data only.

What is available via the portal is a small sample of what the statistical agency holds, and in fact, for real data practioners and users, we do not go to the portal as the search functionality is terrible.  The system in place does not scale well.  Most people still go to the statistics canada website as you have the data with the methodological guides, the surveys and so on, the information surrounding the data.  In theory a centralized portal seems nice, but the reality is, in the case of Canada anyway, there is a distance created between the data producer and the user when the data are centralized in this way, which means you loose context and access to the specialists who can answer questions.  Also, the geographic search for the data are lost in this centralized portal.  So it is not the best way.

Furthermore, that is only one agency, there is citizenship, hrsdc, industry, and so on who all produce statistical data as well as administrative data and their data are not in the portal as they should be nor are they available from their site.  The ranking is not just for Statcan it is for statistical data in general.

I think the score should remain the same, and in fact, if we actually had access to the inventory of datasets produced by the federal government, we may consider lowering this score even more, as only a small sample of actually produced federal data are in that portal.  Finally, with the decimation of Library and Archives Canada, access to historical data are now impeded.

Until which time that all data are open, I think this score has to stay.

Thank you for bringing it up howerver.

Sincerely

Tracey

On Wed, Sep 25, 2013 at 4:58 PM, <[hidden email]> wrote:

Hello Diane, Tracey and Patricia,

 

As you are listed as editors for Canada for the OKFN Open Data Census, we are contacting you regarding updates to the OKFN website.

 

The National Statistics section for Canada in the G8 OKFN Open Data Census has a mark of 3/6. The reasoning for that mark is that Canadian national statistics are not openly licensed and free.

 

This is outdated information, the data on the Statistics Canada website is free and openly licensed since 2012. The licence is available here:

http://www.statcan.gc.ca/eng/reference/licence-eng

 

Also the data is freely available through the Open Data portal data.gc.ca for all federal statistics and is also covered under the Open Government Licence found here: http://data.gc.ca/eng/open-government-licence-canada

 

 

Would you contact or update the OKFN website to reflect these changes and increase the mark?

http://census.okfn.org/contribute/

 

 

Thank you,

Andrew

 

 

Andrew Smith

Unit Head | Chef d’unité

Electronic Solutions | Solutions électroniques

Dissemination Division | Division du diffusion

R.H. Coats Building | Immeuble R.-H.-Coats / Floor | Étage 8 F

Statistics Canada | 100 Tunney's Pasture Driveway, Ottawa ON K1A 0T6

Statistique Canada | 100, promenade Tunney's Pasture, Ottawa ON K1A 0T6

[hidden email]

Telephone | Téléphone <a href="tel:[phone]" value="[phone]" target="_blank">613-951-1152

Facsimile | Télécopieur <a href="tel:[phone]" value="[phone]" target="_blank">613-951-0632

Cellular | Cellulaire <a href="tel:[phone]" value="[phone]" target="_blank">613-897-4230

Government of Canada | Gouvernement du Canada

 

 

 

See below:

 

G8 Open Data Census

 

Which G8 countries release essential public information as open data?

This page shows how G8 countries perform in the Open Data Census, a global index which tracks which countries and cities around the world release essential public information as open data.

It was launched by the Open Knowledge Foundation to coincide with the 39th G8 summit in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland.

Number of countries

8

Number of responses

80

Number of open datasets

32

Percentage open

37%

Sortalphabeticallyby score	Transport Timetables	Government Budget	Government Spending	Election Results	Company Register	National Map	National Statistics	Legislation	Postcodes / Zipcodes	Emissions of pollutants	Total Score
United States	6 / 6	6 / 6	6 / 6	5 / 6	5 / 6	6 / 6	6 / 6	4 / 6	4 / 6	6 / 6	54 / 60
United Kingdom	6 / 6	6 / 6	6 / 6	5 / 6	3 / 6	6 / 6	6 / 6	6 / 6	3 / 6	4 / 6	51 / 60
France	6 / 6	5 / 6	2 / 6	6 / 6	4 / 6	5 / 6	6 / 6	4 / 6	3 / 6	5 / 6	46 / 60
Japan	4 / 6	5 / 6	5 / 6	5 / 6	2 / 6	5 / 6	5 / 6	5 / 6	5 / 6	5 / 6	46 / 60
Canada	1 / 6	6 / 6	5 / 6	6 / 6	3 / 6	6 / 6	3 / 6	3 / 6	4 / 6	5 / 6	42 / 60
Germany	1 / 6	6 / 6	2 / 6	6 / 6	2 / 6	3 / 6	5 / 6	5 / 6	6 / 6	5 / 6	41 / 60
Italy	3 / 6	6 / 6	2 / 6	4 / 6	3 / 6	4 / 6	6 / 6	4 / 6	3 / 6	4 / 6	39 / 60
Russian Federation	2 / 6	4 / 6	5 / 6	3 / 6	2 / 6	2 / 6	3 / 6	3 / 6	5 / 6	1 / 6	30 / 60

The Open Data Census is an initative of the Open Knowledge Foundation and its working groups and local groups.

The census results are contributed by advocates and experts from the open data community around the world. If you think there is something that we should add, change please see the contributor page.

 

 

 

--

Tracey P. Lauriault

http://traceyplauriault.wordpress.com/2013/07/23/moving-to-ireland/

https://gcrc.carleton.ca/confluence/display/GCRCWEB/Lauriault

http://datalibre.ca/

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