[Geodata] Vote for Open Access to Canada's Public Sector Information and Data

[Vivien Deparday]

Hi All,
I thought that some people on this list would be interested so I am
forwarding this email on the behalf of Tracey P. Lauriault. All the
information is below.
Cheers,

Vivien Deparday


Email from Tracey P. Lauriault:

" I submitted the open data piece on the *Industry Canada Digital Economy
Consultation*.

Please take some time to vote and distribute within your networks and
institutions!  It just takes a few seconds.

We are at a tipping point on this issue in Canada and your few seconds could
open up our data resources.

*Open access to Canada's public sector information and data*

http://de-en.gc.ca/2010/06/10/open-access-to-canadas-public-sector-information-and-data/

I created it under the theme of Canada's Digital Content.

Here is the text:

> Create a data.gc.ca for Canada’s public sector information (PSI) and data
> in parallel with the excellent NRCan GeoConnections model (e.g. GeoGratis,
> GeoBase, Discovery Portal).
>
> These PSI & data should be shared at no cost with citizens, be in
> accessible and open formats, searchable with standard metadata, wrapped in
> public domain or unrestricted user licenses, delivered within an an open
> architecture infrastructure based on open standards, specifications and be
> interoperable. It should be governed with open government principles whereby
> data & PSI are shared first and arguments to restrict are made only for
> legitimate privacy and security reasons which should also be disclosed. It
> should have a permanent home and include both the right combination of
> multi-departmental (e.g. CIC, INAC, HRSDC, NRC, NRCan, etc.) inputs,
> trans-disciplinary human resources (e.g. Librarians, archivists, scientists)
> along with IT specialists & engineers. It should be built in consultation
> with Canadians to ensure it is designed with user needs and useability in
> mind. (This is how the GeoConnections program built the Canadian Geospatial
> Data Infrastructure).
>
> The Government of Canada produces administrative data for the purpose of
> program delivery (e.g. Canada Student Loan, location where new Canadians
> land, the number and location of homeless shelters, etc.), and it produces
> data for the purpose of governing for example: the data collected by
> Statistics Canada (e.g. Census & Surveys, National Accounts); Environment
> Canada (e.g. air & water quality, location of brown sites); Canada Centre
> for Remote Sensing (e.g. satellite and radar imagery); Industry Canada (e.g.
> corporate registry); Canada Revenue Agency (e.g. Charities dbase); National
> Research Council (e.g. Scientific data); SSHRC (e.g., social science
> research data) and more. These data have already been paid for by Canadians
> via taxation, and the cost of selling these data back to citizens on a cost
> recovery basis is marginal or more expensive (e.g. Cost of government to
> government procurement, management of licences, royalties, government
> accounting and etc.) relative to the benefits & reduced overhead of
> delivering these data at no cost. Furthermore, Canadians often pay multiple
> times for the same data, since each level of government also purchases the
> same data, federal departments purchase these data from each other and there
> are examples where municipalities purchase the same data multiple times from
> Statistics Canada. This is not only a waste of taxpayer money it goes
> against the principle of create once and use many times and of avoiding the
> duplication of effort.
>
> Data & PSI are non rivalrous goods where sharing and open access to these
> does not impede other from doing so. Open access stimulates research and IT
> sectors who will have the resources they need for the creation of new data
> R&D products (e.g. Applications) and services (e.g., web mapping), evidence
> based decision making (e.g. Population health), and informing public policy
> on a number of key Canadian issues (e.g. Homelessness, housing, education).
> In addition, evidence from Canadian City Open Data Initiatives (e.g.,
> Vancouver, Edmonton, Toronto, and Ottawa) have demonstrated that the cost
> and time to find and access data & PSI within government have been greatly
> reduced since finding these are easier and negotiating access becomes a non
> issue, which in turn brings savings to citizens and greater efficiencies
> within these institutions. Finally, participatory and deliberative
> democracies include the active engagement and inputs from citizens, civil
> society organizations, the private sector, and NGOs along with their
> government. Making these data available increases the collective knowledge
> base of Canadians and stimulates public engagement, improves efficiencies,
> and fuels innovation.
>
> These are already our (citizen’s) data & PSI, why not share share them with
> us and enable citizens and the government to work together to stimulate
> Canada’s economy, create innovative industries and formulate evidence based
> public policy.
>

I will also prepare a formal submission.  Do you have anything to add to a
formal submission.

There is under that theme a research data item that is related that could
also use some votes.

I will post the text and the urls at datalibre.ca

Cheers
Tracey
-- 
Tracey P. Lauriault
613-234-2805
https://gcrc.carleton.ca/confluence/display/GCRCWEB/Lauriault "
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