The Hook

Two new websites that aim to make B.C. government data and information "more freely available" launched today, but according to one open data expert, it's what the government does with the data that will prove its effectiveness.

DataBC amalgamates nearly 2,500 sets of data from various government branches, including data on topics like municipal emissions levels, school performance, and Public Accounts. It also cites the most popularly searched data.

Open Information releases information requested through Freedom of Information (FOI) requests "at least 72 hours and up to a maximum of five days after being released to the applicant." The site also includes and updates information frequently requested through FOI, such as the travel expenses of each government ministry.

The B.C. government is the first provincial government in Canada to create an open data portal, according to a government statement.

"In comparison to what other governments have done so far, I think this is quite a good start," said David Eaves, a public policy entrepreneur who's advised ministries at the federal and municipal levels on open government and open data issues. Today, Eaves posted a review of the new data portal on his blog.

"I always talk about the three laws of open data," Eaves said. "The first is, it's not open if I can't find the data. The second is, I've got to be able to play with the data. It's no good if you give it to me in a PDF, you've got to give it to me in a form I can actually play with. The third is, I've got to be able to share what it is that I do. If I can find it and do all sorts of cool things with it, but I can't share it, what's the point?"

Eaves said as far as he can tell, the websites meet all three criteria. But, he warned, the launch of an open data portal alone isn't proof that "everything is different and better now."

"The real way to evaluate an open data site is the momentum behind it," he said. "We have a bunch of data that's up there, but we need to look at the momentum: how much more comes, how quickly does it come, and is the government actually using that data to help explain public policy to the public?"

The way to know if a government is really changing the way it works, he said, is when it starts "eating the dog food as well."

"That's a tech phrase that means when you create something, you have to use it as well. If you don't use it, you can't really expect your end users to use it," he said.

Eaves pointed to the health care data released on DataBC as a wealth of information that, if organized correctly, could be used to help inform policy and drive down health care costs, as well as help British Columbians make sound health care choices.

"I want to see our government use this data portal as part of its infrastructure," Eaves said. "I want them to be hyperlinking and leveraging the data that's on the open data portal."

Robyn Smith reports for The Tyee.