All right. Sorry about that.
Open government, as I said, is more than a trend: it has become a global movement. The governments of New Zealand, Australia, the United States of America, and the United Kingdom have demonstrated how new technologies have enabled national governments to become increasingly open and accountable to their citizens.
Leading by example, Edmonton has greatly contributed to both the open government and open data movements in Canada. In March of 2010 we were invited to the Australian capital territory in Canberra to meet with the Australian Government 2.0 task force and also to meet with senior staff working on the implementation of their national Government 2.0 direction.
There have been a number of articles published in Canada, France, and the Asia-Pacific area regarding our strategies and practices. In 2009 we spent time reviewing the use of information and technology within the City of Edmonton. Our review guided us to our new strategic direction, which is to balance between meeting the needs of our city departments as they deliver service to citizens and business and developing sustainable technology solutions for the corporation as a whole.
In order to meet both those needs, it was imperative that we reviewed the possibilities of what we call an “open ecosystem”. In our open ecosystem we're developing solutions using open data, open source, open systems, and open networks. To achieve this, we invited Edmonton-based companies as well as other orders of government and other public organizations into this ecosystem.
We determined that our first opportunity was to develop an open data catalogue. While the City of Edmonton provides information on our website in PDF and text formats, these are not the most accessible formats for people who want to use our data to develop software. Our open data catalogue provides the information in a machine-readable format, and in doing so has increased the usefulness of our municipal information.
In October 2009 city councillor Don Iveson tabled an administrative inquiry requesting the city administration to respond to the following questions:
What level of awareness does the city administration have regarding open data in municipal government?
What current initiatives are under way within city administration that might qualify under the spirit of open data?
What further initiatives are under consideration within the city, and on what basis are they being evaluated?
Is administration monitoring any success or challenges with this trend in other jurisdictions, especially large Canadian cities, and if so, what can be shared with council?
What would the city administration recommend on next steps regarding open data, plans, or strategies?
On January 13, 2010, the city administration responded to this inquiry and launched our open data catalogue. Through innovation and creativity, the city's open data catalogue was developed in three weeks. Initially it contained 12 data sets. The data catalogue has now expanded to over 40 data sets, including data from school boards and other organizations.
Releasing the data in an open format continues to prove how tangible and useful data can be when repurposed. On October 18, 2010, once the polls were closed during the 2010 election, up-to-date election result information was provided every five minutes via the open data catalogue, with the results visualized using an application developed by a local Edmonton software developer. The same developer used the same application to create election visualization for open data during the Ontario municipal elections the next week, so thanks to open data and the enterprising spirit of one Edmontonian, the cities of London, Ottawa, and Toronto also benefited on election night in Ontario.
As part of our open ecosystem in 2010, the City of Edmonton ran an applications competition. This was a contest in which software developers were challenged to develop useful programs for citizens using the open data from the City of Edmonton. Edmonton was the first municipality and the first government agency in Canada to run such a competition, and $50,000 in prizes were awarded to six companies or individuals, with 32 applications developed and 86 ideas submitted by the public. Apps4Edmonton was a huge success. It was an example of how open government can be extremely practical for citizens and also provide economic development opportunities.
In October of this year the City of Edmonton was the showcase municipality at the government and technology event in Ottawa known as GTEC. The city showcased the work of the Apps4Edmonton winners, with two of the winners recreating their apps for the citizens of Ottawa during GTEC.
These are just a few examples of how the City of Edmonton is taking advantage of open government and leveraging technology to increase public engagement in the provision of information.
What's next for Edmonton? The City of Edmonton has been working with the cities of Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, and Ottawa to establish a working relationship to advance the work on open government and open data. By partnering together on items such as revisions to our data licence and data catalogue format, we can all advance more quickly and develop a standard approach across all cities.
The City of Edmonton is currently developing further strategies on open government by considering which policies and bylaws need to be in place to ensure sustainability of the work already completed. The information technology branch is working with business units across the city to liberate data and integrate open data catalogue feeds as a standard feature in city business systems. In 2009 and 2010 the city hosted workshops that were open to city staff, the public, and the technology sector. At these workshops the city worked collaboratively to build the open government direction. This approach of community engagement will continue in this critical component.
The city has also hosted a workshop on open government for municipalities in the capital region, encouraging them to consider the benefits of open data and providing access to our information, knowledge, and experience. A number of municipalities in the capital region are working on open data initiatives.
The City of Edmonton has also worked closely with the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Alberta and the commissioner's office. The City of Edmonton is supportive of the September 1, 2010, resolution of the federal, provincial, and territorial information and privacy commission entitled “Open Government Resolution”. The city is working with the provincial Information and Privacy Commissioner in 2011 to further develop open government solutions and opportunities at both the municipal and provincial levels within Alberta.
The city's investment in and commitment to open government contributes significantly to building a great city.
Again, I'd like to thank the Honourable Shawn Murphy, committee chair, and the honourable members of the standing committee for this opportunity to present the value of open government for the City of Edmonton.
Thank you.