EDMONTON, ALBERTA--(Marketwired - April 3, 2013) - The Honourable Tony Clement, President of the Treasury Board, today hosted a roundtable consultation in Edmonton with high tech innovators, researchers and municipal Open Data leaders on the relaunch of the Government of Canada's Open Data Portal.
"Open Data is a global movement that is really gaining momentum across the country. Our Government wants to ensure we are making it as accessible as possible so that innovators and enthusiasts can harness this rich resource," said Minister Clement. "We are getting ready to unveil the next generation Open Data Portal and the input we received from Edmonton's vibrant Open Data community will help us build a user-friendly site that will allow users to capitalize on this opportunity."
The Edmonton roundtable is the second in a series of cross-country consultations with the Open Data community and focuses on the features and content they would like to see on the new Open Data Portal set to launch later this year. The roundtables are hosted by the Government of Canada and moderated by well-known Open Government expert, David Eaves.
"As governments and agencies continue to release more data in an open and accessible way, residents will have greater knowledge of what governments do, as well as assist in developing necessary solutions for our community," said Chief Information Officer for the City of Edmonton, Chris Moore.
"Our research project, Edmonton Pipelines, is directly engaged with citizens. Open data allows our community collaborators to make meaning of their world," said Heather Zwicker, Professor at the University of Alberta, and one of the roundtable attendees.
In the last year, some 273,000 datasets from 22 departments and agencies have been released and are available to upload through the Government Open Data Portal. The next generation Portal, which will use an open source platform, will feature better search capabilities, more Web 2.0 features and interactive tools.
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