"Completed" sure beats "eventually" any day ...

The City of Toronto Executive Committee accepted the Open Data Mater Plan last evening (January 24, 2018) and the "plan" now goes to City of Toronto Council. This is a huge step and makes real and tangible a personal plea to move "eventually" to "completed. As a former member of the open data team, and having worked within the City of Toronto, I can tell 'ya this has been a long time coming!

The slow moving nature of governments is something that makes the impatient person that I happen to be very, very frustrated. In my experience "eventually" - as an approach/strategy is the one thing governments just have to stop providing as the number one answer to (and for) delays of, well, almost everything.

There are small victories every once in a while however, and finally having a road map for the open data team to follow is clearly a victory to celebrate. Cheers to the open data team at the city and to the political acumen of Councillor Paul Ainslie for recognizing a "kick in the pants" by an elected official was needed to refresh the open data work at the city.

Here is what I submitted to the Committee for consideration - one of many submissions and in-person presentations and advocacy by members of the local Toronto Open Data community. I think we are all a little happier today:

"Eventually” …

This is a word that resonates over and over again with respect to open data at the City of Toronto. Most recently, it was uttered by Transportation representatives at a Civic Tech Toronto presentation (Jan 9, 2018) — in relation to the data collected for the King Street Transit Pilot: “Eventually, this data will be pushed to the Open Data portal”.

In sum, there has been a discordantly long wait for an on the record vision and plan for the City of Toronto’s Open Data initiative that will finally bring “eventually” to actual delivery.

Having been a City of Toronto staff person directly involved in the city’s open data work — from its beginning in 2009 to my departure/retirement in 2016 — I feel compelled to add my name as a staunch supporter of the Toronto Open Data Master Plan as presented to Executive Committee, January 24, 2018.

The plan reflects what is needed to go forward and, for the first time, notes financial needs and impacts.

This is an extremely significant step in the maturation of the open data work for the City of Toronto and brings to fruition the efforts of the many staff open data advocates — past and present — who believe in the initiative as adding value to how we live, work and play in the city.

The document also acknowledges the efforts of citizens and entrepreneurs who use open data and were involved in the plan consultations. Indeed, this document firmly (and finally) sets the road map for going forward to deliver on the original promise for Toronto Open Data as stated in 2009. I note that the time line from then to now has been nine years. In any time line, that is far too long to be without formal approval and financial support.

For Toronto Open Data to advance, it is absolutely critical that the Exec Committee and, ultimately, City of Toronto Council, approve the report and plan now. The consequences of continued delay will mean continued loss of traction and a further tumble behind other Canadian cities and other open data initiatives around the world. This would be unacceptable to anyone who has been waiting for concrete signs from the City of Toronto that the city is “all in” on delivering citizen paid for data as open data.

I implore all who sit on the Exec Committee to adopt the report and plan and make every effort to ensure Toronto City Council do the same at the Council’s January 31 meeting.

Please do your part to move from “eventually” to the past tense: “completed”.