City of Calgary on UserVoice

Terms of use [updated]

2011-11-15T12:33:56-08:00

The non-commercial use and other restrictive terms make the data not useful for open, collaborative projects like OpenStreetMap. Data needs to pass the "cake test"... If I want a special cake made that shows some map data as a decoration, then it needs to be allowed to freely share it (with the baker) who reuses it for profit (making a cake) and redistributes it. It's also important to be able to mix data sources (city's data), with crowdsourced data from projects like OpenStreetMap or other sources. But, then as data gets mixed and redistributed downstream, it's impossible to accept "fully responsible for any consequences resulting from any use of the Data" Examples of good terms of use include NRCAN's GeoGratis site: http://geogratis.cgdi.gc.ca/geogratis/en/licence.jsp Seattle's Open Data site's terms of use are very simple (though the attribution text is onerous): http://data.seattle.gov/data-policy

Brent Fraser said:

What is wrong with commercial use? If someone intends to make a profit, that means their use is valuable to others (which is the whole point of making data available). Interesting that the license states "for the purpose of achieving monetary profit", which implies unintentional profit would be ok...

Map data in SVG format [updated]

2011-11-15T12:27:09-08:00

The map (and other path/object) data in the catalog is being supplied mostly in file formats that require specialized tools. Although there are open source tools available for some of the formats, those tools remain relatively specialized and require some specific domain knowledge to be able to use at all. SVG is a graphic/object format that is supported directly by most current web browsers (including mobile devices). As an XML-compatible format, there are a lot of existing code libraries that can be used to work with it. It can also be used directly by JavaScript in browsers (and can be combined with the lastest CSS effects for some powerful visualizations), reducing the need for data format readers/translators when building dynamic web applications.

Brent Fraser said:

I'd consider SVG to be only slightly better than PDF. I'd much rather get the data in a GIS format suitable for integration with other data. A good example of a bad format is the shapes.txt file in the transit dataset.

Complete excel document that would show what parks/facilities, had which activities, addresses etc. [updated]

2011-04-04T10:18:03-07:00

Park/facility name Description Sports offered (comma separated) Street address City Province Latitude/Longitude Contact name Contact phone Contact email Contact address Contact website

The City of Calgary said:

Thanks for the comment and we will consider all suggestions as we move forward with this pilot.

311 call center information, based on time, call type, postal code [updated]

2011-03-26T10:22:29-07:00

Kathryn Blair said:

could we have also like ... the database that the 311 people use to get their info? Or a way to get that data ourselves without calling in?

Complete excel document that would show what parks/facilities, had which activities, addresses etc.

2011-02-11T13:26:07-08:00

Jeff Ferguson suggested:
Park/facility name Description Sports offered (comma separated) Street address City Province Latitude/Longitude Contact name Contact phone Contact email Contact address Contact website

Cily Council sessions Closed Captioning [updated]

2010-12-30T06:30:11-08:00

It is currently creating real-time for accessibility on black boards in Council chamber, and SHAW 89 Closed Captioning. It is not 100% accurate, but it is the ONLY transcript available and is also LIVE. Offer a live feed of this data, and it could allow people to monitor for key words, see what council was talking about for past 5 minutes to get up-to-speed with a live audio or video feed. It could be re-purposed to a Twitter feed.

The City of Calgary said:

Thanks for the comment and we will consider all suggestions as we move forward with this pilot.

Cily Council sessions Closed Captioning

2010-12-29T14:33:10-08:00

gordonmcdowell suggested:
It is currently creating real-time for accessibility on black boards in Council chamber, and SHAW 89 Closed Captioning. It is not 100% accurate, but it is the ONLY transcript available and is also LIVE. Offer a live feed of this data, and it could allow people to monitor for key words, see what council was talking about for past 5 minutes to get up-to-speed with a live audio or video feed. It could be re-purposed to a Twitter feed.

GIS data on all Land & Buildings held by YYCCC [updated]

2010-12-28T08:09:16-08:00

The City of Calgary said:

Thanks for the comment and we will consider all suggestions as we move forward with this pilot.

Data in formats/APIs that can be dynamically referenced by apps [updated]

2010-12-28T08:08:50-08:00

The current data files are offered in static, compressed formats. This means that to use them, they have to be downloaded and decompressed before being integrated into an application. This limits a number of possibilities for web and mobile application development, and means that apps will not necessarily maintain up to date information as the static data files go stale (even if the City updates them in the Catalog). For static files, please make available formats that can be externally referenced (along with fixed, permanent, URLs). For data that may change over time, or be added to, or such, please provide dynamic APIs that can be programmatically linked to. Ideally, this would include sub-set searching and sorting abilities (especially once larger data sets start to be dealt with). I’d be happy to discuss this in detail if you have any questions or want further clarifications. Twitter: @grant

The City of Calgary said:

Thanks for the comment and we will consider all suggestions as we move forward with this pilot.

311 call center information, based on time, call type, postal code [updated]

2010-12-28T08:08:23-08:00

The City of Calgary said:

Thanks for the comment and we will consider all suggestions as we move forward with this pilot.

Map data in SVG format [updated]

2010-12-28T08:07:08-08:00

The City of Calgary said:

Thanks for the comment and we will consider all suggestions as we move forward with this pilot.

A Civic Employee Directory & Org. Chart [updated]

2010-12-28T08:05:55-08:00

The City of Calgary said:

Thanks for the comment and we will consider all suggestions as we move forward with this pilot.

A Civic Employee Directory & Org. Chart [updated]

2010-12-27T19:07:13-08:00

Dave Robertson said:

To provide clarity around who does what and how to contact them. Additional clarity around how the City enterprise is organized and how lines of communication are defined.

A Civic Employee Directory & Org. Chart

2010-12-27T19:05:32-08:00

GIS data on all Land & Buildings held by YYCCC

2010-12-27T17:04:08-08:00

Data in formats/APIs that can be dynamically referenced by apps

2010-12-27T14:41:05-08:00

grantneufeld suggested:
The current data files are offered in static, compressed formats. This means that to use them, they have to be downloaded and decompressed before being integrated into an application. This limits a number of possibilities for web and mobile application development, and means that apps will not necessarily maintain up to date information as the static data files go stale (even if the City updates them in the Catalog). For static files, please make available formats that can be externally referenced (along with fixed, permanent, URLs). For data that may change over time, or be added to, or such, please provide dynamic APIs that can be programmatically linked to. Ideally, this would include sub-set searching and sorting abilities (especially once larger data sets start to be dealt with). I’d be happy to discuss this in detail if you have any questions or want further clarifications. Twitter: @grant

Map data in SVG format

2010-12-27T14:30:34-08:00

grantneufeld suggested:
The map (and other path/object) data in the catalog is being supplied mostly in file formats that require specialized tools. Although there are open source tools available for some of the formats, those tools remain relatively specialized and require some specific domain knowledge to be able to use at all. SVG is a graphic/object format that is supported directly by most current web browsers (including mobile devices). As an XML-compatible format, there are a lot of existing code libraries that can be used to work with it. It can also be used directly by JavaScript in browsers (and can be combined with the lastest CSS effects for some powerful visualizations), reducing the need for data format readers/translators when building dynamic web applications.

transit times [updated]

2010-12-27T14:23:31-08:00

what time (based on experience - not scheduled stop time) do trains arrive at a particular stop? Preferably this would be provided as a live GPS location feed (GeoRSS) or else a table of historical times.

grantneufeld said:

@Tamer Salama: The experience of most Transit users I’ve heard from, and my own experience, has stop times being off by a few minutes or more, in general. Now, that’s probably biased toward noticing off times and not acknowledging the many times stop times are probably accurate, but it does indicate that the schedule cannot be relied on for the utmost in accuracy in actual timing.

That’s why getting the busses equipped with GPSs and making that data available “live” would allow for a very accurate telling of bus timings since any delays or other per-bus timing adjustments would then be available.

Terms of use [updated]

2010-12-27T14:18:38-08:00

grantneufeld said:

This is critical if the “Public Data Catalog” is to be eventually turned into “Open Data”. The unusually restrictive licensing eliminates a significant portion (I’d guess the majority, but that’s supposition) of uses to which Open Data is being put in other jurisdictions.

311 call center information, based on time, call type, postal code

2010-11-18T09:29:06-08:00

Public data license [updated]

2010-10-27T07:47:49-07:00

The city's license attached to the public data that they are releasing appears to be somewhat restrictive, and counter productive given current thinking on governance of data, and in light of recent international court rulings related to the dissemination of data created using public funds. It has now been more than a year since the city started looking at this issue. Is the new license Calgary’s current thinking, or is the city moving towards a philosophy of open data?

The City of Calgary said:

Thanks for the comment and we will consider all suggestions as we move forward with this pilot.

Terms of use [updated]

2010-10-20T09:29:37-07:00

The City of Calgary said:

Thanks for the comment and we will consider all suggestions as we move forward with this pilot.

Public data license

2010-10-19T08:44:55-07:00

andrew suggested:
The city's license attached to the public data that they are releasing appears to be somewhat restrictive, and counter productive given current thinking on governance of data, and in light of recent international court rulings related to the dissemination of data created using public funds. It has now been more than a year since the city started looking at this issue. Is the new license Calgary’s current thinking, or is the city moving towards a philosophy of open data?

transit times [updated]

2010-10-03T22:54:58-07:00

Tamer Salama said:

I thought schedule times are periodically adjusted based on experience. I'm out of the loop so this is purely speculative.

is it/not the case?

Terms of use

2010-10-01T08:00:24-07:00

Katie Filbert suggested:
The non-commercial use and other restrictive terms make the data not useful for open, collaborative projects like OpenStreetMap. Data needs to pass the "cake test"... If I want a special cake made that shows some map data as a decoration, then it needs to be allowed to freely share it (with the baker) who reuses it for profit (making a cake) and redistributes it. It's also important to be able to mix data sources (city's data), with crowdsourced data from projects like OpenStreetMap or other sources. But, then as data gets mixed and redistributed downstream, it's impossible to accept "fully responsible for any consequences resulting from any use of the Data" Examples of good terms of use include NRCAN's GeoGratis site: http://geogratis.cgdi.gc.ca/geogratis/en/licence.jsp Seattle's Open Data site's terms of use are very simple (though the attribution text is onerous): http://data.seattle.gov/data-policy

transit times

2010-09-30T13:14:16-07:00

Mike Spendlove suggested:
what time (based on experience - not scheduled stop time) do trains arrive at a particular stop? Preferably this would be provided as a live GPS location feed (GeoRSS) or else a table of historical times.

Transit stop data [is now none]

2010-09-28T14:32:23-07:00

Transit stop data [is now under review]

2010-08-24T09:46:01-07:00

Transit stop data [updated]

2010-08-23T12:49:00-07:00

The City of Calgary said:

Best idea ever!

[password protected entry]

2010-08-19T14:36:38-07:00