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Open at last

David Miller was elected in 2003 on the promise to clean up City Hall, memorably waving a broom in the air and attaching the image to his campaign signs.

This week, almost seven years into his tenure and a year before he steps down, the mayor pulled out a vacuum cleaner.[rssbreak]

OpenTO, the initiative to collect all the bits of information that make Toronto work and offer them free to the public, will suck all the inefficiencies out of city services and, in time, facilitate a new way of doing business.

It is, in this columnist’s opinion, Miller’s greatest achievement yet, and a momentous move for the future.

Here’s how it works: City Hall makes all its information available in a technically accessible format, and local developers organize that info into tools the general public can use to more easily navigate services.

Toronto has data on services like food banks, licensed child care facilities and parks, but it is often hard to find or use. But when that data is available online, talented and technologically savvy citizens can make user-friendly online tools out of it for the rest of us.

On November 2, Miller announced the launch of toronto.ca/open, where all kinds of data is available for use. Exactly 46 minutes later, a map of Toronto wards appeared, courtesy of local developer Brian Gilham.

The wards map is a very basic example, Gilham is the first to admit. But it shows the limitless possibilities of open data developers like him will happily donate work hours in order to devise more useful online resources.

Basically, OpenTO amounts to the city offering up puzzle pieces and the public putting them together. It costs taxpayers next to nothing, creates a wing of local government in which citizens can participate directly, and makes everything more transparent.

At present, not a whole lot of data sets are available. But now that some have been liberated, it won’t be long before others follow.

Because of this, OpenTO will seem inconsequential to some. I’ve heard people complain that it will only benefit iPhone users, or that it’s great for bored Web developers but not many others. These opinions are ill informed and short-sighted.

Allowing citizens to be involved in local government – through technology or otherwise – is fundamental to open societies. If OpenTO is a success, and all early signs indicate that it will be, it will democratize Toronto like nothing before it.

For more on the open data movement, read NOW’s cover story on the issue.

joshuae@nowtoronto.com

twitter.com/nowtoronto

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