Following the soft-launch of OpenOttawa.org last week (full launch to follow with more volunteers onboard and FixIt Ottawa), I’ve posted on the Mayor’s Taskforce on eGovernment report site regarding open access to public data. Locking away data that is created with public monies behind individual access requests, dissemination fees is no way to encourage a local culture of innovation and experimentation.

You can read up on it at http://ottawa.taskforcereport.ca/blogs/threefunda/openaccess/.

What are your thoughts? I realize the importance of assigning a nominal fee to disseminate data so that city staff aren’t wasting their time fulfilling superfluous requests, but publishing some basic sets of data that can be used for publicly accessible tools and mashups would go a long way in  jumpstarting innovation around community tools and services. The potential value derived from the resulting tools would supercede the negigible costs associated with providing the data to begin with.  I’m getting too far ahead of myself, but perhaps even a documented CityAPI?

I missed this when the City announced it May 9th (there are still no RSS newsroom feeds), the City launched a new web-based service to access the Development applications that are in process with the City. The Development Search feature allows you to search based on area, ward, street, or using keywords for things like:

• Official Plan Amendments, and Zoning By-law Amendments,
• Plan of Subdivision and Site Plan Control applications,
• Cash in Lieu of Parking, Lifting of Holding Provisions,
• and Demolition Control

All supporting documentation is available (Site plans, Environmental Assessments, etc.), and there is also a form that can be used to contact the appropriate Planners. This is a big step forward, and definitely improves the accessibility and access to this information.

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