London, Ontario, Board of Control "Gives The Thumbs-up" to Open Data

Wednesday, July 21st, 2010: The Board of Control for the city of London, Ontario, has approved the public use of data sets the government has of about 15 to 20 parks and recreation areas. Elaine Gamble, director of corporate communications for the city, proposed the initiative before the Board of Control today. In perhaps a surprising outcome, the Board of Control has given their blessing for the development of a city website which will offer the data publicly for use by other web or mobile applications. This is the first decision made by a branch of London's government to support an #OpenData initiative.

Open Data, though not a common household name, is a philosophy behind a growing movement of techies, scientists and grassroots activists who are pushing for open access to all types of data that governments, organizations and corporations have long kept private. Other Canadian cities have already begun adopting Open Data practices. The city of Ottawa has released the Open Data Ottawa website which "focuses primarily on geospatial data" for public use.

There are already local examples of Open Data initiatives. Local web development company rtraction recently launched eatsure.ca. Utilizing the recent introduction of London-Middlesex Health Unit's Food Inspection website eatsure.ca displays the location of every restaurant in London and their food inspection record on a visual map. Equally exciting is Aaron McGowan's NextStop app for the Blackberry and iPhone. Aaron built the NextStop app to retrieve the data of any LTC bus' current location and display it on a mobile handset.

The decision made by the city's Board of Control is a sign that Open Data might become not just a trend, but a full on movement in London. All that's left now is for City Council to approve the project, a decision that will be made on Monday, July 26th. If approved by City Council, this could be a sign that our municipal government is prepared to embrace the future of public access and transparency that today's technology offers us.