Posted by
Glen Newton on
Jul 07, 2011; 2:17pm
URL: http://civicaccess.416.s1.nabble.com/Toronto-Sun-Toronto-s-data-open-but-almost-useless-tp3414p3417.html
The Toronto Open Data is not an open data license, so it doesn't even
get one star.
"The City may, in its sole discretion, cancel or suspend your access
to the datasets without notice and for any reason, including anything
which the City, in its sole discretion, believes is a breach of these
Terms of Use or is otherwise unlawful or harmful to others." -
http://www1.toronto.ca/wps/portal/open_data/open_data_fact_sheet_details?vgnextoid=59986aa8cc819210VgnVCM10000067d60f89RCRDSo if you make an app with their data that pisses-off the Mayor or
some other city apparatchik they can use this catch-all to shut you
down.
More info:
http://zzzoot.blogspot.com/2010/07/its-not-open-data-so-stop-calling-it.htmlThis clause is also problematic:
"Future Changes to Datasets/Terms of Use
The City may at any time and from time to time add, delete, or change
the datasets or these Terms of Use. Notice of changes may be posted on
the home page for these datasets or this page. Any change is effective
immediately upon posting, unless otherwise stated."
It is problematic as it is not clear whether the TOU changes would be
retroactive or not. If they are retroactive ("arbitrary
retroactivity"), then this is not an open license as it imposes
onerous limitations (the limitation that the ability to use the data
in an app could be pulled after the data has legaly downloaded and an
app created around it). A good example of this:
http://ottawa.openfile.ca/ottawa/file/2010/12/friendly-hackers-unite-ottawas-common-good-Glen
On Thu, Jul 7, 2011 at 9:56 AM, Karl Dubost <
[hidden email]> wrote:
>
> Le 7 juil. 2011 à 09:22, Tracey P. Lauriault a écrit :
>> However, I am not sure which format the article's author wants the data in,
>> xls is probably the lowest common denominator and many of the City's data
>> are in those formats.
>
> But not always an accessible format. And not an open format (owned by MS).
> There is an act of balance to maintain in these choices and indeed in the first steps, there is can the data be reused. Frank is making a good point about it, specifically when you are advocating for open data.
>
> Le 7 juil. 2011 à 09:40, Frank Warmerdam a écrit :
>> In my opinion it is best to release data in close
>> to the working format within the organization
>
> It is tied to understand first how the organization is working. The workflow of information, the tools used, the people into this workflow to see where you can put hooks that will make the life of people easier. Anything that disturbs the established workflow and/or requires more work from people will fail. Abruptly.
>
>
> The Linked Data crowd has created a scale for data publishing. Discover the 5 stars of publishing linked Data
>
> ★ Available on the web (whatever format),
> but with an open license
> ★★ Available as machine-readable structured data
> (e.g. excel instead of image scan of a table)
> ★★★ as (2) plus non-proprietary format
> (e.g. CSV instead of excel)
> ★★★★ All the above plus, Use open standards from W3C
> (RDF and SPARQL) to identify things,
> so that people can point at your stuff
> ★★★★★ All the above, plus: Link your data to other
> people’s data to provide context
> —
http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/LinkedData>
>> How does a
>> city decide on formats? Should they be releasing data in the way that they
>> use them in the formats used as part of a city's business processes or
>> should they re-format the data for the public?
>
> It depends… :)
>
> --
> Karl Dubost
> Montréal, QC, Canada
>
http://www.la-grange.net/karl/>
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