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Not all open data is born equal

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Some context• Canadian nonprofit that builds websites and tools to help governments and citizens engage with each other• Follows two main strategies: Improve access to government information via open data Make participation easy and meaningful

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Ongoing projects• Citizen Budget: a online consultative budget simulator for municipalities and civil society organizations• Represent: the largest database and open API of elected Canadian officials with two drupal modules for easy website integration• MaMairie/MyCityHall: an online portal for tracking and interacting with your city hall• Open511: an open data standard for traffic data and basic related tools

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Data = Natural Resources? Source: USGS Source: James St-Jones (cc-by) Value! Meh? Hint: this is bauxite

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Value extraction Diamond Aluminum Extract Discover it’s valuable   Elaborate process Cut  Industrialize process   Tada! …  Cans, Car parts, etc.

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Traffic and Transit data • Sort of case study – Region of San Francisco: 2 leader organizations • Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART): 80+ apps • Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC): handful of apps – Same (full of geeks and startups) region – Same “type” of data (transportation) – Both organizations are innovative Let’s look at “intrinsic” data value

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1. Standardization• Transit data – GTFS & SIRI: open data-oriented standards – Used by 250 transit/transportation agencies• Traffic – Several standards (TMDD, TPEG, etc.), but difficult to use in an open data context⇒ Standard = low barrier to entry,⇒ Tools/apps built for these standards can reach lots of customers

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2. Self sufficient• Transit data – Data can be interpreted on its own. No need for external data• Traffic – Several subsets of related data (accident, constructions, road data, etc.) – Data managed by several jurisdictions (local, regional, provincial, federal)⇒ Managing several sources and several datasets is always… complex

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3. Complexity• Transit – (Quite) simple: some schedules, some fares, some spatial data• Traffic – Complex: networks are wide, intertwined, with lots of rules, lots of “free” actors⇒ Modeling complex data is… complex and more prone to discrepancy

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4. Reliability• Transit – Usually buses and trains follow their schedule – Adding a GPS on each single bus is simple and give almost 100% reliability of the data• Traffic – Impossible to monitor every single road segment⇒ Lack of reliability has a strong, negative impact on data value

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Techno-utopian dream Your iphone 8S Dear smartphone, I need to pickthe kids at schoolas fast as possible, what’s the best choice?

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A wealth of data Road events Gaz price Road data Parking data Crowdsourced data Realtime traffic sensors (gov) Planned trip Car efficiency Realtime traffic (business) Personal data: car, location, habits

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Multiplicative effect• “Diamond” data self-sufficient: a strength for adoption• For all data: real value is in cross-use with other datasets• Some datasets will find their value because of the existence of other datasets• Adding new datasets has a multiplier effects on existing related datasets

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Not only gov data• Usually open data = open government data• But open data can be much more Road events Car, transit pass, bike share Road data Open Open Transportation habits Traffic data Gov personal Planned trip Parking data Crowdsourced data Data data Open (?) Bike share Gaz price data from Traffic data companies Parking data Vehicle efficiency

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Some innovation theoryGartner’s hype cycle of innovation (but it is not only about hype) Stairway to heaven (internet-style) You might …or here be here… Peak of Plateau of inflated expectations productivity Slope of Trough of enlightment disillusionment Innovation trigger Abyssal crash

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Conclusion• Assess your datasets: diamond vs bauxite analogy or any other analysis framework• All datasets are not born equal, some might take more time to show their value• Help discovery and value extraction process• Follow “open” standards when they exist or participate to their elaboration• Improve reliability of data where possible• Be patient… but active!

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Stéphane Guidoin @hoedicTwitter: @opennorth Facebook: OpenNorth.NordOuvert Blog: www.opennorth.ca/blog