Statscan to make "standard online products" free
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Statscan to make "standard online products" free
 
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Via Embassy Magazine (and David Eaves):
http://embassymag.ca/dailyupdate/view/statistics_canada_to_make_all_online_data_free_11-24-2011 The scope of this seems to cover all the Statscan products I've wanted to use in the past, which is fantastic, but I'm not a researcher. Hey researchers -- Tracey? --, how much of the data you use is covered under "standard products readily available on its website—including CANSIM data, census data and geography products"? |
Re: Statscan to make "standard online products" free
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Hey Michael;
Good one! The article does not provide enough detail.
Firstly, CMA data have been available over the net as has census division data and census subdivision data for community profiles and many but certainly not all census variables. But these have been unrully to work with as one could not for instance download spreasheets of all the CMAs or CDs or CSD and instead got to search 1 by one if you actually knew what you were looking for. In short, it will be important to see how they will make these data free.
Secondly, and back to geography and aggregation, the data I work with are at smaller geographies, such as census tracts, and dissemination areas. And this is where things get really tricky, these were never free, and because of the sampling of the national household survey, we predit that data at these smaller geographies will be unreliable. Maybe that is why they will be free if they will be!
Thirdly, many communities want their data organized into geographies they recognize, in Montreal it would be borroghs, in Ottawa and other cities it is neighoubhourhoods or wards, for some sectors such as health it is districts, and for others it is planning areas or economic zones. All of these geographies are special orders and will most likely not be free. The geographies for these are quite stable, but StatCan does not consider these as standard products. Getting access to these geographies is crazy expensive and takes much time. Also, what happens here, is, when a city or a health region order these and pay for them, they are unlikely to re-share them. The former licence government StatCan data was regressive indeed, and perhaps this new license will be more generous on this front and it will be up to us to ensure that our cities, health departments and provinces and territories share back with us, the public. etc
The devil is always in the detail, and I will check out the status with some of my contacts and keep you posted with what I hear.
This is however a good step, and the Court Submission to the Federal Court Yesterday was quite stront, arguing that "all have an equal right to be counted" "asking why some charter groups are counted and not others" and stating that this 2011 census as a institution and legislated instrument of government "is the least inclusive census in the history of Canada" at a time where knowing diversity is more essential than ever.
G'night
t
On Thu, Nov 24, 2011 at 11:18 PM, Michael Mulley <[hidden email]> wrote: Via Embassy Magazine (and David Eaves): |
Re: Statscan to make "standard online products" free
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This is a great breakdown Tracey. I suspect they won't be releasing
data by recognizable geographies - but it would be the next logical
thing to ask for. What is interesting is finding out what license a
custom order will be released under - that is definitely worth
exploring. Really worth exploring.
I know that there is a commitment outside of StatsCan to making all the data free at StatsCan now, this has been in the works for a while... so now is a good time to push the demands you make here, as there is a good audience at the moment for them. Dave On 11-11-24 8:39 PM, Tracey P. Lauriault wrote:
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Re: Statscan to make "standard online products" free
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I concur with many of Tracey’s thoughts. As someone who uses StatsCan data with community groups on a regular basis, this looks like good news, but as Tracey
said, the devil is in the details. The issues of exactly what data will be free, what level of geography will they be available at and in what formats will they be disseminated are all still to be answered. Nice to have free data, but if it is a pain to get
at and really be useful, it becomes a bit of frustrating excerise. Tracey pointed out a very good point about custom geographies. I just spent that last two days holding data workshops in several communities here and the issue
of data available in non-standard geographies came up. While we have some data by a few of the kinds of custom geographies in our community through the Community Data Program, it still can be a long and expensive process. Of course, now it looks like the part
of my presentation that focused on the difficulty on accessing StatsCan data and all the issues surrounding that will now have to be revised! Good thing I had those workshops before this article came out. I am looking forward to seeing/hearing more details on what this all entails. --------------------------------------- From: [hidden email]
[mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of David Eaves This is a great breakdown Tracey. I suspect they won't be releasing data by recognizable geographies - but it would be the next logical thing to ask for. What is interesting is finding out what license a custom order will be released under
- that is definitely worth exploring. Really worth exploring. Hey Michael; Good one! The article does not provide enough detail. Firstly, CMA data have been available over the net as has census division data and census subdivision data for community profiles and many but certainly not all census variables. But these have been unrully to work with as one could not
for instance download spreasheets of all the CMAs or CDs or CSD and instead got to search 1 by one if you actually knew what you were looking for. In short, it will be important to see how they will make these data free. Secondly, and back to geography and aggregation, the data I work with are at smaller geographies, such as census tracts, and dissemination areas. And this is where things get really tricky, these were never free, and because of the sampling
of the national household survey, we predit that data at these smaller geographies will be unreliable. Maybe that is why they will be free if they will be! Thirdly, many communities want their data organized into geographies they recognize, in Montreal it would be borroghs, in Ottawa and other cities it is neighoubhourhoods or wards, for some sectors such as health it is districts, and for
others it is planning areas or economic zones. All of these geographies are special orders and will most likely not be free. The geographies for these are quite stable, but StatCan does not consider these as standard products. Getting access to these geographies
is crazy expensive and takes much time. Also, what happens here, is, when a city or a health region order these and pay for them, they are unlikely to re-share them. The former licence government StatCan data was regressive indeed, and perhaps this new license
will be more generous on this front and it will be up to us to ensure that our cities, health departments and provinces and territories share back with us, the public. etc The devil is always in the detail, and I will check out the status with some of my contacts and keep you posted with what I hear. This is however a good step, and the Court Submission to the Federal Court Yesterday was quite stront, arguing that "all have an equal right to be counted" "asking why some charter groups are counted and not others" and stating that this
2011 census as a institution and legislated instrument of government "is the least inclusive census in the history of Canada" at a time where knowing diversity is more essential than ever. G'night t On Thu, Nov 24, 2011 at 11:18 PM, Michael Mulley <[hidden email]> wrote: Via Embassy Magazine (and David Eaves):
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