The state of the “open data movement” in Canada was discussed by six public sector officials in a joint panel discussion teleconferenced from two concurrent government conferences in Ontario’s Niagara region this week.
Moderated by open government activist David Eaves, the panel bridged three public sector officials at the Lac Carling Congress in Niagara-on-the-Lake with three at MISA’s annual conference in Niagara Falls.
ComputerWorld Canada caught up with Eaves following the panel, to re-cap where Canadian municipal, provincial and federal government stand and whether Canada overall is leading or lagging compared to other nations around the world.
In the interview below, Eaves also discusses the biggest obstacles to open data in government, whether top-down support is necessary and why treating open data as if it were a new concept causes him concern.
He also points out the distinction between open vs. default vs. common standards. “The one area I would push to move common standards the quickest would be around licenses,” said Eaves.
“Do we release the data in a similar structure as everybody else? My big fear is if we open that can of worms, we are going to spend the next ten years figuring out how we are going to do open data. Do we need to get there? Absolutely. Should that stop us from moving and acting right now? Definitely not,” he said.
http://video.itworldcanada.com/?bcpid=7044989001&bctid=96882412001