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
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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
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Ontario: Federated IT Shared Services Model
$
$135M
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Permanent
annual savings
since 2007/08
Business
‘clusters’ serving
similar ministries
$989M
Spent in
2011 on IT
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Consolidated
infrastructure
79
High-risk legacy
systems
remediated
001100
63
4,728
Data sets
published on
Ontario.ca/opendata
IT staff serving
the Ontario
Public Service
200+
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Websites
consolidated

95%
Customer
satisfaction rate
with IT Service
Desk
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Ontario’s IT Evolution: Open Government
Ontario, 2013
Emerging imperatives for
governments: transparency,
innovation, productivity,
sustainability.
Public expectations – same
level of service and ease of
use from government as
from private companies
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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
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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”
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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
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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
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Ontario Open Government: Information + Data
Open Information
Open Data
 Web modernization &
consolidation
 Open Data Portals:
 Routinely and actively
releasing government
information
 Open information &
consultation portals
 Social media policies &
guidelines
 Modernized information
management policies &
practices
 FOI Modernization
Initiatives




High value data
A centralized catalogue
Open license
Visualization & web
mapping Tools
 Engagement:
 Online engagement to
increase use
 Hackathons/ Application
Development events
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Where We Are Today: Ontario.ca/opendata
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Where We Are Today:
5 Steps to Publishing Data
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2
3
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Step 1:
Identify Data
Step 2:
Assess Data
Step 3:
Prepare Data
Step 4:
Get approvals
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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
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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.
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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 highvalue datasets
 Initial feedback indicates high demand for
environment, health, transportation and
education data.
* Research by Deloitte on the UK Open Data catalogue
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Challenge: Common Licence
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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’
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Program Status
April 2012
Phase 1
November 2012
Develop Supporting
Materials & Process
• Open Data Publishing
Guidebook
Develop Open Data
License
• New Open Data Terms of Use
Consult Internal &
External Stakeholders
• High-value datasets identified
• Internal advisory committee and
community of practice
• 63 datasets
Spring 2013
December 2012
Phase 2
Launch Open Data
Catalogue
Evolve Platform/
Catalogue Functionality
• Data visualizations and
web-mapping functions
• Common National Licence
Template
Publish High-Value
Content
• ~ 200 high-value datasets
from multiple ministries
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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)
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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
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