Open North Blog

Globally and Locally, Open Data Matters for Democracy

March 7, 2018

The first in an ongoing series, this post investigates the role open data plays in democracy. Transparency, freedom from disruption and participation in policy making are all advanced by open data and will continue to be in the future.

Webinar Roundup

March 2, 2018

A roundup of OpenNorth’s latest webinars. Be sure to watch these in our webinar archive.

AI in government: for whom, by whom?

March 1, 2018

While AI may make cities’ planning and governance more efficient, it needs to be regulated to ensure it complies with legal rights and protections.

CodeAcross: Fostering Collaboration Between the Open Data and Civic Tech Movements in Canada

February 19, 2018

The upcoming CodeAcross hackathons held in Toronto and Calgary were civic hackathons that bring together the open data community, civic tech practitioners and government innovators.

OpenNorth 2017 Year in Review!

December 21, 2017

Ring in the new year with our annual organizational review!

From Development to Adoption: Lessons from Three Open Standards

December 21, 2017

The Open Data Institute (UK) launched their new R&D programme to advance data innovation, framed under six themes. We were selected as one Canadian organization among a group of organizations, including W3C, Porism, Open Data Services Coop, to undertake documentation of our respective experiences in creating or maintaining data standards.

Leading the Way in Budget Engagement in 2017

December 19, 2017

We led the way in budget engagement in 2017 with Citizen Budget. Over 100 cities from 1,000 to 1 million inhabitants in size have used the online platform to boost and broaden their budget engagement.

Open Data Standards Will Improve Public Information

December 13, 2017

As private and public bodies become digitally connected, we need data standards to allow technologies to be shared across systems and jurisdictions.

The Challenges to Inclusive, Open, and Smart Cities: Speed, Opacity, and Outsourcing

November 27, 2017

Do smart cities increase the speed and opacity of government decision making, while control over the tools and processes remain outside of government? This post examines three problematic factors: Speed, opacity, and outsourcing.

Open government: Canada's new soft power?

November 2, 2017

Canada is at its most significant juncture in its open government initiative since its inception in 2011. Having been elected to the Open Government Partnership (OGP) Steering Committee and accepted the position of co-chair, Canada will helm the world’s foremost open government network for the next two years.

Introducing The State of Open Data

October 31, 2017

2018 will mark 10 years of active and growing open data initiatives. From a political perspective, 10 years might be considered a moment in time, but from a technological point of a view, a decade may represent multiple generations of innovation. In the open data context, where tech and politics meet, we hope that a decade means that open data is no longer a buzzword, but rather a powerful tool to create positive social change all over the world.

Do-It-Yourself Open Data Toolkit

October 31, 2017

Many cities want to open up their data but are not too sure where to start. To support these efforts, OpenNorth, and the Government of Canada have piloted the development of a do-it-yourself open data toolkit for municipalities.

Toronto's Open Data Master Plan and Data4Impact Report

August 28, 2017

Drawing on our strategic planning, maturity modelling, and stakeholder engagement expertise, OpenNorth is supporting the City of Toronto in developing its Open Data Master Plan, and we’re going about this in a very engaging and collaborative way.

Open Smart Cities in Canada: Situating Canadian Cities within an International Smart City Ecosystem

August 14, 2017

Smart cities, intelligent cities, sustainable cities, sentient cities, cities as platform, the next city, innovative cities, programmable cities, connected cities, and hackable cities are among the list of labels observed by the Open Smart Cities in Canada project’s Environmental-Scan (E-Scan) and Gap Analysis to describe data-driven and networked urbanism.

Open smart cities in Canada: ideals versus reality

April 1, 2017

An environmental-scan (e-scan) and gap analysis of Smart City practices and strategies at the Cities of Montreal, Ottawa, Guelph, and Edmonton disentangles the web of digital media to elucidate how these cities imagine and deploy their vision of a Smart City.

Where you can find us in coming months

March 10, 2017

A roundup of where OpenNorth worked in 2017.

Final Report: Aligning Canadian Open Data Programs with International Best Practices

January 30, 2017

In our role as Open Data Charter Stewards and in collaboration with the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC)-funded research partnership, Geothink, we researched the potential benefits and challenges to Canadian provinces and municipalities in adopting the Open Data Charter.

What Could Open Data Programs Gain from Aligning with International Best Practices? Mapping open data practices in Canadian sub-national governments to the international Open Data Charter

December 2, 2016

Established in 2011, OpenNorth is Canada’s leading open data non-profit organization, committed to promoting government transparency and accountability, and public participation in democracy. In our role as Open Data Charter Stewards, and in collaboration with the research partnership, Geothink, we are researching the potential benefits and challenges to Canadian provinces and municipalities adopting the ODC.

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