Posted by
Hugh McGuire on
Feb 09, 2007; 4:17pm
URL: http://civicaccess.416.s1.nabble.com/front-de-liberation-de-codes-postal-tp884p889.html
it's on the wiki, if interested, please visit the site and edit as
you wish:
http://civicaccess.ca/wiki/PostalCodessee below for the 1st draft text.
"Free the Postal Codes"
In order to vote in a democracy, you need to know who you can vote
for. To know who you can vote for, you need to know your electoral
district, so you can find out who the candidates are. Linking
electoral districts with other information (say, government grants to
corporations or organization in that district, how many hospitals are
in that district, how many government jobs are in that district etc)
is an important way citizens can analyse how their democracy is
functioning.
The Canadian government has data about postal codes linked with
electoral districts, that allow citizens to find out who they can
vote for. At least four government organizations make this data
available: electionscanada.ca, canadapost.ca, statscanada.ca, and
parl.gc.ca. But it is available for free only district by district.
You cannot access and use the whole database, unless you pay for it.
Currently the cost of this data is prohibitive for citizens and
citizen groups, however, it is well withing the reach of marketing
companies and other commercial entities willing to pay for the data
for the purpose of making profits.
CivicAccess.ca believes that this data should be made available to
Canadian citizens for FREE in an OPEN data format. The government has
collected the data on our behalf, not on behalf of marketing
companies. We wish to make this data available in order that citizens
may use it and share it for the prurposes of increasing our
understanding of how our democracy is working, and how we can improve
our political process.
We demand that the Government of Canada mandate that postal code/
electoral district data be made available for free to all Canadian
citizens in an open format.
We are seeking support for this demand from:
*elected members of parliament
*federal political parties
*editorial boards of newspapers in Canada
*non-profit citizen and democracy groups
*universities
*digital rights and copyright activist groups
*citizens of Canada
On Feb 9, 2007, at 10:55 AM, Tracey P. Lauriault wrote:
> Excellent!
>
> For myself and others who are just learning how these things all come
> together i hope we can all leave a few breadcrumbs on the wiki soz we
> can find our way around and build on that knowledge later and for
> other
> initiatives.
> t
>
> Hugh McGuire wrote:
>> of course it's a civicaccess action ;-) !
>>
>> actually thinking about this... and this is how I envision
>> CivicAccess progressing... as a central place where the spokes of
>> many different projects all join with a shared belief in free data
>> access. but we really need the projects (some exist already, eg:
>> howdtheyvote.ca, openpolitics.ca, netizen-news.ca etc; some could be
>> new initiatives of/inspired by civicaccess ... or just related to the
>> mission).
>>
>> h.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Feb 9, 2007, at 10:34 AM, Tracey P. Lauriault wrote:
>>
>>
>>> I think this is a great idea and I would really like it if could be
>>> considered as as CivicAccess or COACID action.
>>>
>>> For those who might be able to get something like this off the
>>> ground.
>>> There is tons of great information here:
>>>
http://civicaccess.ca/wiki/CensusAction>>>
>>> It was an activity primarily aimed at the CENSUS however some of the
>>> documentation can be used for the Free the Postal Code Data as well
>>> and
>>> there was some good discussion.
>>>
>>> I created a spot for people to collaborate here:
>>>
http://civicaccess.ca/wiki/Actions, I did not know how you
>>> wanted to
>>> call it or what the tagline should so edit away.
>>>
>>>
>>> Hugh McGuire wrote:
>>>
>>>> I suggest in addition to data cracking/hacking work, we consider
>>>> writing an open letter to the government agencies & ministers,
>>>> opposition MPs, and journalists, and try to put some pressure
>>>> on. And
>>>> get an online petition going (I don't think they do much, but they
>>>> give something for bloggers to link to). This should be accompanied
>>>> by a concerted attempt to get specific organizations to support the
>>>> project (NGOs & universities, but also, say, the Bloc, the NDP,
>>>> maybe
>>>> even the now-oppositional Liberals).
>>>>
>>>> perhaps a url? FLCP.ca ... Front de Liberation Code Postal ... it's
>>>> available! ;).
>>>>
>>>> Again, this "tiny" little data project demonstrates so clearly the
>>>> dunderheadedness of Canada's govt data policies, in a way that many
>>>> people could understand.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
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>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
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>>
>>
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>
>
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