On September 17th/18th, we co-hosted our second civic hackathon with the Toronto Public Library. Lina at the TPL has put together an excellent recap, including chaptered videos of each project presentation (big thanks Sumaiya). We’ve learned a few things that may be helpful if you’re organizing a civic hacking event. To that end, I’m writing […]
Presented in Partnership with the Toronto Public Library, City of Toronto, and Social Planning Toronto. Registration is now open for the TO Prosperity Hackathon on Sept 17/18, a free event that we are co-organizing, hosted by the Toronto Public Library. If you’re not in Toronto, don’t fret – you can participate remotely. The focus of the hackathon […]
Open data in Canada is gaining momentum, and ODI Toronto certainly reflects this energy and excitement. Since joining the Toronto Node in Summer 2015, I’ve been privileged to meet many engaged members of the open data community and to work on a number interesting projects, including a two-part Data Jam at the Ontario Nonprofit […]
The day has come and I’m working my way through our City’s data portal. Starting point of the project has been to assess exactly what we’ve got on the City of Toronto data portal – how to summarize it and how to create a new data set of its metadata. More on that project here […]
The Open Data Society of BC, Open Data Institute Toronto and Open North have teamed up to raise awareness about open data with federal political parties and candidates during the elections. Here is a link to our letter campaign and its signatories thus far. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-VWzsWwt1uTBLkFEeSsogeBEXqeRAN5rjBPArnsKLgE/edit If you would like to add your organization to this […]
A couple weeks back I wrote about how the civic tech and open data community could tie our timing and work to public consultation processes, and why this is a good idea. In discussing this with some colleagues last week (particular thank you to Kevin in Bristol – check out their great data portal), I realized the post […]
In your life and work, you probably know the kind of people that get stuff done. The closers. The owners. The people who send gentle reminders and nudges. They exist everywhere – in all sectors of work, in life, in family. They follow up on things until they get done. They schedule. They are human […]
The open data community is always looking for ways to show the value of open data. We talk a lot about telling open data stories and mapping case studies and so on, and as time ticks on the number of stories is growing. And to this end, there is an opportunity for our community to […]
What is it? Why does it matter? Who should pay attention to it? (Spoiler: Everyone!) What are the technical aspects of open data, and what are the political and human aspects of open data? What kind of stories bring open data to life? – Thanks Girl Geeks Toronto for having me by and for the […]