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The other day the Canadian Government published its Action Plan on Open Government, a high level document that both lays out the Government's goals on this file as well as fulfill its pledge to create tangible goals as part of its participation in next week's Open Government Partnership 2012 annual meeting in Brazil. So what does the... [read more]
So I loath making this the first post of the new year, but here we go. Today Canada.com published a story "Tony Clement vows innovative new open government, but critics point to poor record." In it, Jason Fekete the journalist responsible for the story, quotes a Democracy Watch spokesperson who sadly gets the facts completely... [read more]
For those who missed it, the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) has announced it is launching an open data portal. This is exciting news. On Monday I was interviewed about the initiative by Embassy Magazine which published the resulting article (behind their paywall) here. As (I hope) the interview conveys, I'm cautiously... [read more]
Since Professor Beth Noveck, whose book Wikigovernment I recently covered, is now advising the UK government regarding open government I thought it useful to mention her recent report to the Canadian government which a colleague in the CLG kindly sent me (thanks William!). In the report, Noveck promotes the US version of open... [read more]
I’ve written about Hidden Canadian Government Gems before. Essentially these are government services that I have discovered through my consulting work, which are not always well known, yet extremely valuable. One in particular is a client of ours WorkinginCanada.gc.ca (part of HRSDC). Essentially, they have created an incredible mash-... [read more]
Ok, the title may be a stretch, but I have put together a quick visual presentation of current government mobile apps and websites based on the input I received on my mobile government wiki. Why did I do this? I figured it might help some of you govies strengthen your case for mobile by showing what others have already done. Government... [read more]
I recently spent some time researching the proactive disclosure of federal grants and contributions in Canada; here are some of my key findings about how the data is presented:Each department publishes their own G&C data (i.e. there is no single repository)The actual path to the endpoint data varies considerably across the... [read more]
Be prepared for the most boring sentence to an intriguing blog post. The other night, I was, as one is want to do, reading through a random Organization for Economic Coordination and Development report entitled Towards Recovery and Partnership with Citizens: The Call for Innovative and Open Government. The report was, in fact, a summary... [read more]
Over at Samara, my friend Alison Loat is asking people to answer the question "What was the best moment in Canadian democracy in 2010?" In what I think was a good decision, they've defined the terms pretty broadly, stating: The moment could be one that took place inside or outside of Parliament or other legislative chambers. It... [read more]
With the International Open Data Hackathon a little more the 2 weeks away a lot has happened. On the organizing wiki people in over 50 cities in 21 countries and 4 continents have offered to organize local events. Open data sets that people can use have been posted to a specially created page, a few nascent app ideas have been shared, as... [read more]
This week, I'm pleased to announce the beta launch of Emitter.ca - a website for locating, exploring and assessing pollution in your community. Why Emitter? A few weeks ago, Nik Garkusha, Microsoft's Open Source Strategy Lead and an open data advocate asked me: "are there any cool apps you could imagine developing using Canadian federal... [read more]
Richard Poynder has a wonderful (and detailed) post on his blog Open and Shut about the state of open data in the UK. Much of it covers arguments about why open data matters economically and democratically (the case I've been making as well). It is worthwhile reading for policy makers and engaged citizens.There is however a much more... [read more]
It’s cliché, shallow and fragmented, according to Paul Lavoie, CEO of Taxi. In his speech on Nation Branding in Ottawa last year he said “We need a [political] vision for Canada that clearly articulates the type of country we want to be [in terms of] the near-future economy, social programs, environment, foreign policy, and the... [read more]
Canada’s top bureaucrat wants to retool the federal workplace and change how public servants work, where they work and even what they do. Privy Council Clerk Wayne Wouters sketched his plan for public servants facing “extraordinary times” in his first report to Prime Minister Stephen Harper since he took over the top job last summer... [read more]
I find it interesting that Postal Codes in Canada are not freely available. No our postal service charges a nasty license fee to get them. This means that people who want to explore creating interest apps that might use postal codes to locate services... don't. As one would expect, zip codes in the US are freely available for anyone to... [read more]
Dean Halstead is a Lead Associate with Booz Allen Hamilton and serves on the Advisory Board for the SmartBrief on Social Media. More »
John Kamensky is a Senior Fellow with the IBM Center for The Business of Government. More »
Steve Radick is a Lead Associate with Booz Allen Hamilton and serves on the Advisory Board for the SmartBrief on Social Media. More »
I understand that there's always a need to experiment for new design to make it better but they also keep in mind that the more they add details, the more they make it complicated. The CFPB, which opened up for business last summer, said Wednesday that it will next be going after loan providers ...
By the way, thanks for the useful info's.
Talking about transparency and actually doing it are two different things. It ...