My blog has moved!

You will be automatically redirected to the new address. If that does not occur, visit
http://www.kdmcgregor.wordpress.com
and update your bookmarks.

Friday, July 23, 2010

Open data comes to town (London,Ontario)

On July 21st 2010 The London Board of Control voted in favor of opening parks and recreation data. This is seen as the first step in the support of an open data initiative in London. What this means is that machine readable data will be made available to be used for web and mobile applications.

I imagine getting an e-mail alert a day before my garbage pickup. Many mornings I have got up to see the back of the garbage truck to realize that I did not put out my garbage. The potential for applications are huge. With data also comes the use of predictive analysis for you data mining geeks. Other Canadian cities like Toronto and Vancouver have embraced open data.

One current example of open data application is the website eatsure.ca website which displays health unit restaurant inspection information onto a clickable map. I look forward to more applications in the future.

For more information on open data you can check out this wikipedia's entry . Also, check out Tim Berners-Lee's TED conference on examples of using open data.

No comments: