Montreal Tech Watch

MontrealOuvert wants open data for the region of Montréal

By Heri Aug 23rd 2010 in Open Source

MontrealOuvert, announced a couple of weeks ago, is a new promising initiative promoting open access to public data. In an ideal world, data produced or monitored by different municipal or government bodies in Montréal would all be made available freely to citizens and businesses.

This would lead to data re-use, data mashups, new applications used by citizens and taxpayers, possibly in ways never imagined or never seen before. In a way, open data apps will be then a democracy tool, empowering citizens with new visions of their city. Open data thus promises better governance through better understanding of what’s happening in Montréal, and at the same time, it can also be seen as a business opportunity for entrepreneurs and businesses.

Potential applications could be for instance maps of real-time availability of bixis, crime maps in Montreal, productivity graphs of city employees and contractors … or even an interface like simcity‘s if we push the concept far enough… and if MontrealOuvert is successful, since there isn’t actually any open data policy or awareness in Montréal. The 4 instigators behind MontrealOuvert, namely Jonathan Brun, Jean-Noé Landry, Michael Lenczner, Sébastien Pierre, decided to do something, when they saw all what’s being done in other cities and in Montréal.

I met Jonathan, Jean-Noé and Sébastien a couple of times, and recorded them last friday so that they could explain in their own words what they wanted to do with MontréalOuvert.

Jean-Noé Landry is inviting all interested Montréalers to their 1st open meeting, aug 26th. If the concept of re-using data interests you, either you’re a data mashup and data visualization specialist, or someone keen on connecting the web and democracy, head over to Station C this upcoming thursday

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