Tech leaders embrace open data movement

"Federal Treasury Board president Tony Clement called it 'Canada’s 21st-century resource.' Open Text chief executive officer Mark Barrenechea described it as the 'great leveller' and the 'great democratization of data.' Government and high-tech officials rushed to voice their enthusiasm Thursday for a new initiative by the federal government called 'open data.' It all springs from a federal announcement in June of a new website, data.gc.ca, which opens the flood gates on a 'rich trove' of government information that wasn’t available to the public before. Up to 25 government departments are involved. The announcement follows a commitment made by Ottawa last year when it joined an open government partnership in Brazil involving 60 countries, Clement told a forum at OpenText in Waterloo. More recently, Canada endorsed an open data charter at the G8 summit that not only commits it to making more information available, but ensuring it is easy to use and comparable with other data sets, said a federal news release. The decision by governments to suddenly embrace “open data” is driven by a desire not only to inform citizens and improve accessibility to government services, but to foster innovation by providing data to entrepreneurs and companies in the private sector, Clement said. The new portal already features government-sponsored apps on drug recalls and border wait times, he told the audience of about 220 people. Data is also available through enhanced search capabilities on issues such as air quality and energy use, the release noted. The site will allow software developers in the private sector to create their own apps using a 'developers’ corner,' equipped with software tools, the minister said. One of the portal’s best features will enable users to compare federal budgets from the past and present in a user-friendly format, Clement said. Previously, 'you needed a master’s thesis' to find this information, he said. Government data can also be shared on social media, and the new open policy will boost government accountability, he noted ..."