Data, Economic Development, Government

Open Data – Real World Examples

This blog post marks the end of Townfolio’s month-long, 4-part deep-dive into Open Data. Previously, we’ve taken the time to introduce ourselves to the concept of open data, compare Canada’s approach to open data on the national stage, and we’ve looked at the breakdown of how federal policy is treated at the provincial and local levels of government.

We hope this series has been informative and as engaging for you as it has been for us. Before we wrap things up and move on, we’ve put together a final post highlighting some real-world examples of open data projects making positive changes in government. 

Without further ado, here we go!

Yukon Open Data 

According to the Yukon’s public works minister, the goal of the Yukon Open Data Portal is to make it easier to learn “just about everything” about the territory.

What does that mean? For starters, you can navigate through 1200 sets of data, ranging from labour to education to crime – although the Yukon is making a point to protect any personal or third party information. All of the data is entirely free to use or re-use for commercial or non-commercial purposes.

Denver Peak Academy

There was a time when we didn’t know much about open data, or how to use it. Being provided with the right resources to educate all government employees on open data is essential to its proper deployment. After all, an initiative is only as strong as the team behind it.

Denver Peak Academy is a training program empowering Denver City employees to learn new tools and resources. The goal is to enable the city to reach “peak” performance in as many open data projects as possible!

Ontario Digital and Data Task Force 

It’s not quite ready for prime-time yet, but Ontario has implemented an official task force to investigate the creation and deployment of a world-class data strategy.

The goal will be to have a province-wide strategy that puts its constituents first, helping citizens and businesses gain a direct benefit from the data economy. As expected, the government will put an emphasis on ensuring personal privacy is protected.

And with that, the Townfolio series on open data comes to an end! But that doesn’t mean our interest in open data will, and we hope this series has helped to show how open data can be used to improve our lives in many aspects. It should also be clear now that the only way to realize the full potential of open data is to educate ourselves on what it is, and how best to deploy it.

RTC Accident Prediction 

Now here’s a first-of-its-kind project I’m sure we can all get behind. 

The Regional Transport Commission of Southern Nevada has designed a platform that hopes to help predict traffic crashes and alleviate traffic congestion before accidents occur. By using artificial intelligence and predictive intelligence, the RTC will take a proactive approach to traffic incidents and provide alternative routes to commuters. 

In Closing

If you’re interested in how Townfolio can help your office put data to better usage, you can email me at shawn@townfolio.ca or you can request a demo of our platform through this link.

Thanks for reading!