11 responses so far ↓

• 1 Bill Lee // Mar 11, 2010 at 10:24 am

  It’s actually (geographic) data.

  If I want data, I want all maintenance records of schools, works yards. I want the complete clicker records for the traffic recorders back for 20 years on all routes. I want all expenses and bills over $100 itemized, in detail, for all staff and elected reps. I want to see all the electrical bills, gas and oil bills per month for every building. I want to know the distance to a second egress (not the entrance) from the centre of each city building. (Here I am thinking of the terrible layout of the South Health Clinic on Knight and 48th.

  Geographic data, often called GIS (Geographic Information System), is a sequence of data points and vector descriptions in various formats often with what we will call photo files, the boundaries of which are also accompanied by GIS points.

  There is a lot of talk in the GIS world about getting free data. Much of it comes from the abyssmal Topographics Canada and their degraded maps bunched together with data from a dozen agencies to create the verisimultude of the old lithographic maps. Cities have data of a differnent scale and a lot of cadastral data not noted elsewhere.

  All this is given to the child hackers and their alphabet blocks so that they can play with Google Maps APIs to make odd mashups (Crimes per block, cycle maps etc.)

  It is nice that they are opening it up. Other cities applaud them and are making some effort to do similar things with their GIS data (all in different formats of course, all requiring different rendering software), but it ain’t ‘plain’ data.

• 2 Chris // Mar 11, 2010 at 10:42 am

  It’s a good start. I’m sure GIS data is the easiest to upload originally, and has a lot of quick value to mashup hackers.

  There are two pieces of non-GIS data in there: election results and property tax assessments.

• 3 Bill Lee // Mar 11, 2010 at 11:37 am

  Yes. But election results have polling station numbers that can be geo coordinated.
  Tax Assessment tables have a geo Location code as well as a street address.

  Those two don’t have specific GIS format files in the table, but that is the beauty of GIS. You get points, vectors (lines), polygonal areas, and you attach values from the internal GIS file and from external tables such as street address and assessments.

  The two items you mentioned don’t have DWG, KHL, SHP files in the table.
  Most software for those files are expensive. And ESRI’s ARCview and ArcGIS are the Microsoft’s of mapping software.
  Others will use GRASS or other FOSS software to add them in.

  (One of the few advantages of the Olympics was that we got a second round of street scanning/mapping from Microsoft’s Bing and Google’s Map and StreetView, much like Starbucks first entry in to a foreign country with its trials shops in Vancouver.)

  The City was nice enough that if you click on the table headers at http://data.vancouver.ca/datacatalogue/index.htm you get http://data.vancouver.ca/dataFormats.htm which explains what the new alphabet soup is. And in that they linked to Wikipedia articles in each for newcomers.

• 4 DrData // Mar 11, 2010 at 11:38 am

  Even plain data needs tools to manipulate it. GIS manipulates plain geo-coded data to be visualized on a map. So one needs data , metadata and tools = Manipulated Information.

  In any event much kudos to the City of Vancouver and Open Data. … (Don’t Fence My Data)

• 5 Susan // Mar 11, 2010 at 2:11 pm

  Thanks for this. I’m going to admit that, as a relatively non-geeky, non-tech person, I’ve been meaning to learn more about the advantage of this open data I’ve been hearing about. It’s always sounded like “a good thing” but I’ve never quite got my mind around this topic that’s been on my big, long “learn more about this” list.

• 6 Blaffergassted // Mar 11, 2010 at 3:03 pm

  It’s a great idea for democracy.
  But a bad political move because the data will be manipulated!

  I approve.

• 7 Luke Closs // Mar 11, 2010 at 5:09 pm

  @Bill Lee – have you taken the survey at data.vancouver.ca or otherwise given them your feedback about what data sets you want to see? I concur it’s easier to just grumble on some unrelated blog than to give structured feedback in the manner requested by the city.

  Can you explain why child hackers are any less worthy of using data? Can only cool stuff be done by Grumpy Old Folks?

• 8 Jon Petrie // Mar 13, 2010 at 3:34 pm

  I wonder about Vancouver City ‘data’.

  Some weeks ago, I emailed Vancouver’s Climate Change Program Manager, Sean Pander asking if the claimed North America’s lowest figure of 4.6 metric tons of green house gases (GHG’s) per capita included GHG’a produced in the Port of Vancouver, by the cement plant on Granville Island, by planes at the airport. The question has not been answered. Nor has a follow up question asking for an explanation of the very different ratios of building to transport GHG’s in Seattle and Vancouver per websites. (Road transport GHG is almost twice building GHG in Seattle — in Vancouver road transport is roughly a third less than building GHG.)

  [ Web sites: http://seattle.gov/climate/docs/2008-community-summary.pdf and 2008GHGInventoryMethodologiesDocument20091210.pdf -- an email to Vancouver Councilor David Cadman referencing my unanswered emails to Mr Pender and asking for an answer also has gone unanswered.]

• 9 Jon Petrie // Mar 14, 2010 at 3:50 pm

  CORRECTION re web site for Vancouver GHG’s,
  in last posting

  Should be:

  http://vancouver.ca/sustainability/documents/2008GHGInventoryMethodologiesDocument20091210.pdf

  Also note http://vancouver.ca/sustainability/documents/ghgperpersonglobal2008.pdf

• 10 el chief // Mar 16, 2010 at 11:06 am

  I really wish someone would put up a list of all the buildings in Vancouver (like, office buildings – #floors, height, sq footage etc). Altus Insight and others have some listings but they are expensive.

  Seriously, why is this so hard to come by?

• 11 Bill Lee // Mar 16, 2010 at 12:29 pm

  Light reading on the topic

  Back in May 2009, Dave Eaves promotes his motion, by way of dimwit Andrea Reimer
  http://eaves.ca/2009/05/14/vancouver-enters-the-age-of-the-open-city/

  and then clears up the notion some months later.
  http://eaves.ca/2009/09/25/misunderstanding-and-understanding-the-open-data-hype/

  Early version of the mapping idea in the UK in 2006. That’s about right, Vancouver is infamous for being at least 3 years behind in fashion which is why gurus can appear to be magic at ECCIAD or SCARP or Fashion Week.
  http://www.freeourdata.org.uk/index.php

  Overlong explanation of Free Open Source GIS software. Go to wiki on Grass software
  ” GRASS A (not so) short overview of the Geographic Information System GRASS” By Matteo Dell’Omodarme and Giada Valle
  linuxgazette.net/156/dellomodarme.html

  What the kids with their blocks do with “Open Data.” And note the dates, they don’t maintain it or give revision dates. Light and interesting, even the lacunae.
  http://www.socialtext.net/vandata/index.cgi
  More thoughts on one project as a result of Vancouver Open Data
  http://www.socialtext.net/lukec/index.cgi?reflections_on_a_vantrash_article

  At the root, what the semi-organized public are doing with the OpenData
  http://www.socialtext.net/vandata/

  Last Vancouver Hackathon, and who showed interest. Sponsored by Vancouver Museum.
  http://www.socialtext.net/vandata/index.cgi?open_data_hackathon_december_2009

  Not very good attempt at showing Open data possiblities, beyond maps into genetics, politics, social measures See especially http://www.isitopendata.org/about/
  http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/where_to_find_open_data_on_the.php

  Other issues in Canada and abroad
  http://www.thestar.com/news/article/738305–geist-canada-dragging-its-feet-on-open-data-initiatives

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