New Brunswick making open data 'baby steps'

The New Brunswick government is inching toward an open data portal that will allow citizens to click through public information that has been previously locked inside government servers.

The commitment to opening up public data sets came when Premier Brian Gallant announced a digital government initiative earlier this month.

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Governments across this country, and many other countries, have long embraced open data, a policy where governments post public information in usable formats that can be freely used by citizens.

But New Brunswick has, until now, dug in its digital heels, refusing to budge.

Shawn Peterson, a Saint John developer, has built a website that allows people to view and compare property tax assessment information.

But he's done that by scraping data already posted online and he's repeatedly run into problems with the provincial government trying to limit his ability to get data.

Getting access to that basic information in an open, useable format would be a major victory.

"I don't think anybody is expecting them on Day 1 to release everything in a perfect format. But nothing is stopping us from taking some baby steps," he said.

Digital strategy announced

The provincial government's digital government announcement contained very few details on how the new system will work.

The digital lab project will have provincial employees being pulled in from different government departments, who will act as open data advocates.

Citizens can make requests to these employees for data sets that they want to be freed up. The digital lab officials will then go to departments to see how the data sets can be released.

Data sets would then be posted on an open data portal that anyone would be able to use.

But these requests would be different than formal applications under the Right to Information and Protection of Privacy Act. There is nothing that compels governments to post the information.

There are also no rules in place yet on how long it takes to post data or what happens if this new office is deluged with requests.

But Peterson said these are expected digital hurdles that will need to be overcome. While some eyes may glaze over at the idea of an open data commitment, Peterson said it can be very beneficial to citizens.

"The question, if you are asking people if they care about open data, you are asking for a terrible answer from them," he said.

"If you can show them some applications, you can see a much higher rate of interest on that topic."

The possible applications are only limited by the creativity of those clicking on the data sets.

There are already websites set up that show off interactive maps and charts that are fuelled by government data.

Citizens Code shows off some examples of New Brunswickers using open data.

Open data opportunities

But there are other opportunities.

Ed McGinley, the chief executive officer of TechImpact, which is a group that represents 22 technology companies, said data put in the hands of creative and curious people could generate useful applications.

For instance, he said websites could start tracking garbage trucks, transit buses or snowplows.

"What if students, people who don't have access to cars … if you as a single mother or a student and you are rushing off to school, and it is snowy and miserable, and you didn't have to stand in line and you could get on the phone to see if it was coming to you," McGinley said.

"That adds value."

For Peterson, he said there needs to be a culture shift inside the New Brunswick bureaucracy.

Instead of governments waiting for citizens or companies to come up with ideas, request data sets and then wait to see if they can have the information, he said a new mindset must take hold.

The Saint John developer said if the data is not private, governments should make it open to the public.

Peterson said governments should also reassess their digital role.

"In terms of the IT work that government itself is doing, a lot of times I feel like we are almost competing, either as an individual or the private sector, competing with government to do work that I know that we can do better, we can do faster, and we can do cheaper then government can do," he said.

"I want to see more opportunities where the private sector can get involved in delivering these things. I feel like there is a lot of competition where government departments are doing all this weird work building websites."