One of the things that I would love to get changed at work (and across all gov) is to have all public information provided in formats that are easy to mashup. It's nice that gov sites have a consistent look, but that only helps if people are looking at a page. It does not make it easy if you want to transform the data into another format. The part that makes it a bit more difficult is that it's another output that an app would have to be tested to make sure that it will support the new format. More code, more testing, more cost. Not necessarily a large cost, but a non-zero cost.
It's funny - I just did a search for open data and I found Open Data in Canada. It looks like I have some reading to do.
I'm not sure if you heard, but OC Transpo released their GPS data, and then pulled back, and it is no longer available. There's all sorts of reasons people are saying they did it. Some people said it could be used to verify just how late/early the buses arrive from their specified schedule. Although they are citing quality problems with the data. Yay Ottawa. Anyway, here's one of many articles about the problem.
ReplyDeletehttp://communities.canada.com/ottawacitizen/blogs/greaterottawa/archive/2011/02/14/the-open-data-battle-continues-with-oc-transpo.aspx
Ya, I had heard that. It's too bad that they did that, but I can understand them *slowly* starting to release new data.
ReplyDeleteOne of my biggest gripes is when the data is already released, but in a shitty format (like html). I guess that there are worse formats. Flash: I'm looking at you.
I guess that it's just a mentality that needs to change, but that will be an uphill battle. We'll get there though. ;-)