Dear Ward 24 Residents,
I thought I would provide a bit of an update on what the City of Toronto has been doing with Open Data……..
- January the Toronto City Council unanimously voted to support the City’s first Open Data Master Plan to provide a framework and roadmap to guide the City’s next phases of open data.
- Throughout the year there was a deliberate focus to launch a new Open Data Visualization Portal on Toronto.ca, realized in May 2018. The portal improves overall accessibility to both technical and non-technical audiences.
- The City’s work and investment in open data is a key contributor to the success of Smart Cities, Civic Innovation, and Open Government.
- The open data movement, and increased engagement partnership building through initiatives like the Civic Innovation Office and Toronto Civic Hall have broadened collaborations around open data are thriving.
- These efforts have led to nearly $200,000 savings in development costs by focusing on open source and collaborative development in the creation of a new Open Data Visualization Portal, and the development of an automated dataset publication process that will increase the speed and quality of open data publishing.
- City Divisions and Agencies are releasing high-value datasets – over 30 new datasets (including 145 new data files and numerous updates to the catalogue) were published in 2018, bringing the total to 292 datasets and 1326 data files.
- Partnerships with Agencies and Corporations are being enhanced, like the Rocketman App
that uses TTC Next Arrival Open Data, the most widely used open dataset in the City of Toronto. Accessed approximately 1.5 million times per year and powers an entire ecosystem of apps and products around transportation and mobility throughout (and around) the City.
- Waze App: An app that identifies Road Restrictions throughout the City, enhancing mobility for drivers on City streets.
- Recyclewizard: Enhances smartphone optical recognition through Open Data to identify whether an object is waste, recycling, organics, or electronics.
- The City continues to be a recognized leader and trusted partner in the Open Data community participating:
- OneEleven’s Safer Neighbourhood Hackathon – CodeAcross2019 CivicTech Hackathon and ElevateTO’s Smart Connected Communities Hackathon
- In addition to these events the Open Data program continues to be recognized at Awards Events and has received an:
- Open Data for Democracy Award from Public Service Digest; a Small Team award at Technicity
- and a Grass Roots Marketing Award for their engagement work on the Open Data Master Plan.
- Toronto embraces and nurtures innovation, known as an international centre for innovation and technology a reputation that has been growing and expanding.
- The Toronto Region is drawing international attention demonstrating that it is a disruptive force and fertile ground for emerging technologies and opportunities.
- Toronto’s richness in post-secondary institutions, computer science advancements and financial institutions are key to our Innovation Ecosystem.
- We have a growing number of powerful incubators & accelerators:
- Ryerson’s DMZ (Rated #1 in North America)
- the Toronto Stock exchange
- and big hospitals and research networks that all contribute to this innovation ecosystem.
- In 2019 the Open Data Program will continue to evolve and focus on community engagement and collaboration activities as it continues to implement the Open Data Master Plan through to 2022.
All my Best,
Paul
