Tags, Geocoding, Ontologies

A common theme of discussion was providing ways to organize the data. In particular:

• geocode,
• geocode by tag: e.g. “the annex”
• tagged by topic; i.e. that this is an orthogonal axis to geocoding
• metadata
• we should look to how other cities have organized data to find a common vocabulary

A common concept was that we could use tags / geocodes to:

• spontaneously form communities around ideas
• track related issues
• form feeds on related information
• use to query related information that would generally be spread widely

Information Dissemantion

• be able to track issues through the system; this is a very common theme
• have access to historical information
• feeds for everything
• Please see the idea for an open source grant/contributions system as to an approach to build the infrastructure for open data

Crime and Public Safety

• Police reports (geocoded)
• Public health services
• Emergency information
  • Info (like about SARS)
  • Releases
  • Public health

Scheduling

• Pools
• Skating rinks
• Ferries
• Public meetings

This is related to the concept discussed that any information that goes into a PDF should be available in raw form.

Politician Information

• Voting records
• Expenses
• Finances

Service Information

• Power grid disruptions
• Critical incident
• Zoning (i.e. what’s the zoning information for this location)
• Density / population / demographics
• Parking information (e.g. what’s the parking rules; how do I get a parking permit, etc.)
• Real-time polution:
  • Water quality
  • Air quality
  • Tagged, available as feeds
  • Historic information
• Traffic
  • Roads
    • street conditions
  • Trains
  • Utilization rates
• Sewer / waterflow data; i.e. that apparently sensors are already in place for

Complaints

• be able to add data into the system
• be able to track that information

Tourism Information

• event dates, locations, price; e.g. Nuit Blanche
• standard information for tour operators

Budget Information

• spreadsheets
• all the raw data in PDFs should be available as XLS/CSV
• be able trace evolution of data from its source; follow back up the chain

Tendering Information

• What is up for tender
• What tenders have been awarded
• Make interaction with city more efficient and open

311 Information

• Track whether services were successful
• Raw feeds
• Ticketing system (i.e. issue tracking)
• Turnaround time

Community Group Information

Information to empower groups, enable spontaneous community formation…

• Mayor’s initiatives
• Bike lane’s
• Deal with language issues
• Schools
  • What assets are available (pools, gyms)
• Parks & rec
  • Open spaces
• Comunity centres
• Commity health centres