Open Data in the Province of Ontario, Canada Bahrain International eGovernment Forum Samantha Liscio Corporate Chief Strategist Government of Ontario, Canada April 8-10, 2013

Ontario: Quick Facts Population: 13M, 39% of Canada’s population Nominal GDP: $655B, 37% of Canada’s GDP 400+ municipalities Toronto is 4th largest city in North America Diverse population, 28% born outside of Canada 93% of Ontarians have Internet access 27% deal with an Internet-only bank

Ontario: Federated IT Shared Services Model 8 Permanent annual savings since 2007/08 Business ‘clusters’ serving similar ministries $ $989M Spent in 2011 on IT 1 200+ 7 Consolidated infrastructure Websites consolidated 79 63 4,728 95% 001100  High-risk legacy systems remediated Data sets published on Ontario.ca/opendata IT staff serving the Ontario Public Service Customer satisfaction rate with IT Service Desk

Ontario’s IT Evolution: Open Government Emerging imperatives for governments: transparency, innovation, productivity, sustainability. Public expectations – same level of service and ease of use from government as from private companies

Open Government Driver: Legal Obligations Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act to provide a right of access to information to protect the privacy of individuals with respect to personal information

Open Government Driver: Benefits The European Commission quantified the economic potential of data release at over €33 billion a year. Open Data White Paper. UK Cabinet Office Open weather data in the United States is supporting a $1.5 billion industry. Jay A. Clayton. “The Information Diet: A Case for Conscious Consumption”

Open Government Driver: Expectations “Policy development should be more evidence-based – with clear objectives set based on sound research and evidence – and relevant data collected and used to evaluate programs.” Commission on the Reform of Ontario’s Public Services, February 2012

Our Call to Action: Ontario ‘behind’ others Ontario is following fast in key initiatives but lagging behind UK, US and other leaders in Open Government

Ontario Open Government: Information + Data Open Information Open Data Web modernization & consolidation Routinely and actively releasing government information Open information & consultation portals Social media policies & guidelines Modernized information management policies & practices FOI Modernization Initiatives Open Data Portals: High value data A centralized catalogue Open license Visualization & web mapping Tools Engagement: Online engagement to increase use Hackathons/ Application Development events

Where We Are Today: Ontario.ca/opendata

Where We Are Today: 5 Steps to Publishing Data 1 2 3 4 5 Step 1: Identify Data Step 2: Assess Data Step 3: Prepare Data Step 4: Get approvals Step 5: Publish! But… Nervousness about risk On-going dialogue on open licence Only non-contentious, ‘easy’ data published so far – need to determine data value

Where We Are Today: Use of Open Data Two days after the Open Data catalogue was launched, a data journalist used Ontario data to inform citizens on the quality of drinking water by analysing and overlaying the data on Google maps.

Challenge: Assuring Value Currently available data sets are non contentious and have been used, but… Demand for government open data is focused on economy, demographics, and employment* Local consultations to identify and support local demand Engaging data community (researchers, computer developers) to identify high-value datasets Initial feedback indicates high demand for environment, health, transportation and education data. * Research by Deloitte on the UK Open Data catalogue

Challenge: Common Licence

Challenges and Mitigation Strategies Publishing challenges (data accuracy, privacy, security) Mitigation: Ontario data sets are assessed by each ministry and centrally to ensure they do not undermine privacy, security, copyright or government credibility and that they uphold commonly accepted standards for data quality Common Open Government licence Mitigation: Ontario working with the Federal government, Alberta and British Columbia to reach an agreement on a common national licence template Risk of ‘harm’ (data used for nefarious purposes) Mitigation: Addition of “no harm” clause as part of licence; mandatory acceptance of ‘Terms of Use’

Program Status Phase 1 Phase 2 April 2012 November 2012 December 2012 Develop Supporting Materials & Process Open Data Publishing Guidebook Develop Open Data License New Open Data Terms of Use Launch Open Data Catalogue 63 datasets Phase 1 Consult Internal & External Stakeholders High-value datasets identified Internal advisory committee and community of practice Publish High-Value Content ~ 200 high-value datasets from multiple ministries Evolve Platform/ Catalogue Functionality Data visualizations and web-mapping functions Common National Licence Template December 2012 Spring 2013 Phase 2 16

What’s Next: Addressing Challenges Additional functionality, including search and data visualization Updated Policies to support a culture shift towards a “share first” philosophy New Partnerships across sectors (government, academia, business)

Open Data in the Province of Ontario, Canada Bahrain International eGovernment Forum Samantha Liscio Corporate Chief Strategist Government of Ontario, Canada www.ontario.ca/opendata Samantha.liscio@ontario.ca @sliscio