Science Library Pad

IT, innovation, science and more - Gov of Canada 2016 consultations

Many Government of Canada consultations are underway.  This post is updated as they close and new ones are announced.

• Innovation - unknown deadline
• including Global Science Excellence ideas
• Fundamental Science Review – closes September 30, 2016
• Government of Canada [Information Technology] Cloud Adoption Strategy - closes September 30, 2016 - "Feedback on the strategy will be collected until September 30, 2016, and will be used to finalize the Government’s approach." - see press release for more info
  • feedback by email to [email protected]
• Government of Canada Information Technology (IT) Strategic Plan 2016-2020 – closed September 30, 2016 – “all feedback will be considered when the plan is updated in 2017”
  • feedback by email to [email protected]
• CRTC – differential pricing (or ‘zero-rating’) – closes September 30, 2016
• Cyber Security - closes October 15, 2016
• National Housing Strategy - closes October 21, 2016
• Official Languages – closing extended to November 14, 2016
• Shared Services Canada (SSC) IT Transformation - closes October 31, 2016 - also see (now closed) IT Strategic Plan and Cloud Adoption Strategy above
• Federal employees can provide feedback using http://www.ittransformationconsultation.ca/federal-employees
• Canada Post – closes December 31, 2016
• Clean Resources / Clean Tech / Clean Energy – unknown deadline - closed October 31, 2016
• Canadian Content in an Online World – consultation launched September 13, 2016 – unknown deadline
  • http://www.canadiancontentconsultations.ca/
  • Facebook Live events October 28, 2016 and November 7, 2016
• Budget 2017 – unknown deadline

Disclaimer: I work at Environment and Climate Change Canada.

See also:
June 23, 2016  Innovation Strategy consultation in Canada
June 13, 2016  Review of Canada Federal Support for Fundamental Science

Some of these consultations can be found on the government's open dialogue site ConsultingCanadians.gc.ca

post based on information from my personal blog

Innovation Strategy consultation in Canada

the Government of Canada will focus on six areas for action:

• promoting an entrepreneurial and creative society
• supporting global science excellence
• building world-leading clusters and partnerships
• growing companies and accelerating clean growth
• competing in a digital world
• improving ease of doing business

press release - Building an inclusive and innovative Canada - June 14, 2016

The Innovation Agenda will look at how to strengthen applied research while promoting partnerships with businesses so that the knowledge and discoveries generated in the lab make their way to the market.

In other words, support for world-class research is critical to making innovation a national priority.

Speech: Launch of Innovation Agenda – Minister Duncan (Minister of Science) - June 14, 2016

The ideas market has launched, you can follow the short link for more information at canada.ca/innovation which will take you to the ISED site http://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/062.nsf/eng/home or go directly to the ideas market site at

http://nationofinnovators.ca/index.php?lang=en

You can see the ideas under category Global science excellence at http://nationofinnovators.ca/ideas?view=ideas&layout=1pagetwocol&challenge_id=2

You can also tweet ideas, using hashtag #CdnInnovation

As well, the government has opened a two-week window of consultation on Reddit, which I think means it will close July 6, 2016.

There was a National Press Gallery event (which the above speech is from) and a Canada 2020 event at the Chateau Laurier.  The Canada 2020 event was livestreamed and the archive is available on YouTube.

I particularly recommend the presentation by Zayna Khayat, which runs from  41:44 to 57:50.  This link will start the video at that time: https://youtu.be/XwyRybnBiMI?t=41m44s

A reminder that the innovation strategy consultation is running in parallel with three other potentially-relevant consultations:

• consultation on support for fundamental science
• consultation on draft Open Government Action Plan 2016-2018 (including open science) closing June 30, 2016
• consultation on revisions to Access to Information closing June 30, 2016

Open Government in Canada - 2016 consultations and Google Hangout

Minister Brison (President of the Treasury Board) will host a Google Hangout on Open Government, specifically on Canada's next national action plan for open government (as part of Canada's participation in the Open Government Partnership).

Google Hangout

• Wednesday April 6, 2016 at 1pm Eastern (13h)
• hashtag #OpenGovCan
• Twitter @TBS_Canada
• check open.canada.ca for more information

UPDATE 2016-04-10: Video of the 30 minute Hangout is available.

UPDATE 2016-04-11: Transcript of the Hangout will be posted to http://open.canada.ca/en/consultations/hangout160406  ENDUPDATE

Consultations

From March 31 to May 15, 2016 the government is running an online ideas consultation ("ideas market") where open government ideas for the Action Plan 2016-2018 can be submitted, upvoted, searched, and commented upon.

You can see the current ideas and submit your own at

Help shape Canada’s Action Plan on Open Government 2016–18

You can sort ideas by date, most popular, and most commented, but there aren't separate URLs for those options.

There will also be in-person consultations and you can email a detailed submission to [email protected]

The draft plan will be online in June 2016 for consultation.

Separately, from May 1 to July 1, 2016 there will be online and in-person consultations about the Access to Information Act.

Budget

In Chapter 7 Open and Transparent Government of Budget 2016,

Expanding Open Data Initiatives

The Government is committed to accelerating and expanding open data initiatives and to better involving Canadians in policy-making. Budget 2016 proposes to provide $11.5 million over five years to double the Treasury Board Secretariat’s budget for open government activities. This funding will allow the Treasury Board Secretariat to enhance its capacity to support engagement with Canadians, to design and deliver an ambitious open government strategy and to accelerate the provision of digital content.

Table 7.1 Open and Transparent Government indicates this $11.5 million will be allocated as $2.5 million in 2016-2017 and $2.5 million in 2017-2018, with the remaining $6.5 million from 2018-2021.

Presentations and Information

Minister Brison presented at the Canadian Open Dialogue Forum.

You can see the presentation on YouTube, from 41:40 to 1:02:48

https://youtu.be/HS9JXTj4ZBw?t=41m40s

The speaking notes are available, along with a news release.

The Action Plan 2016-2018

In his speaking notes and as delivered, Minister Brison indicates

Strategy on Open Government

Beginning today, Canadians can go to open.canada.ca to tell us their views on what should be in the next strategy on Open Government.

We’ll also be holding in-person discussions and using the technology at our disposal to consult with Canadians in a number of cities across the country.

The details of this process are available at open.canada.ca.

The plan resulting from the consultation will be released in the summer. It will cover the full range of open government actions, from open data all the way to open science.

Previous Plans

• Open Government Action Plan 2012-2014 (first plan)
• Open Government Action Plan 2014-2016 (second plan)

Plans run according to the Open Government Partnership Canada calendar, from July to June across two years (e.g. the second plan runs from July 2014 to June 2016).

Previously:
February 2, 2016  Canada - Open Science 2014-2015 assessment for OGP/OGAP
November 6, 2014  Open Science in Canada's 2nd Open Gov Plan

Disclaimer: I work on the Open Science commitment of Action Plan 2014-2016.

provide feedback on Canada's Open Gov Action Plan 2

Canada is doing a multi-part, multi-aspect consultation about the 2nd version of its Open Government Action Plan.

The three four parts are:

1. In-person consultations

2. Ideas generation

3. Discussion of proposed activities (proposed commitments)

4. Consultation on the draft complete Action Plan (NEW)

Part 3 is now running has completed, however activities are being posted progressively; not all proposed commitments will be posted at once.  At the time of this writing, there are four proposed commitments posted

• Open Data Institute
• Open Data [projects and activities]
• Mandatory Reporting on Extractives
• Canada’s Directive on Open Government – Creating a Culture of “Open by Default”

others will follow.

UPDATE 2014-08-21: Open Information (including Virtual Library and declassifying documents) added.  ENDUPDATE

UPDATE 2014-08-29: Open Data Canada – Open Data Without Borders (unified open data across Canadian jurisdictions), Open Dialogue (consulting Canadians).  ENDUPDATE

UPDATE 2014-09-06: Three new proposed activities (proposed commitments):

• Open Science - the wording is a bit awkward, the clearest statement is "The Government of Canada proposes to maximize the release of federal scientific data and make more federally funded, peer-reviewed scientific articles and research publicly available ... free of charge."
• Open Information on Budgets and Expenditures - including "Investigating ways to release more budget data as open data"
• Open Contracting

ENDUPDATE

UPDATE 2014-09-20: The action consultation (phase 3 consultation) is now closed, as of Sept. 19, 2014.  However, the data.gc.ca mailing list has announced that there will be a 4th phase of consultation "to request public input on the draft version of Canada’s Action Plan on Open Government 2.0" from Oct. 6-17, 2014 Oct 9, 2014.  ENDUPDATE

To try to clarify the stages - in part 2 the public is invited to submit ideas, in part 3 the public is invited to provide feedback on selected activities, and in part 4 the public is invited to provide feedback on the entire plan.

There is some information in a news release - New Action Plan on Open Government: Engaging Canadians on Draft Plan - August 11, 2014.

Hackfests and Apps Contests

Here's a thing I wrote on the government internal wiki (which is only available to government employees).  Some of the content was based on an email I received.

If you have ideas about how to make it better, please feel free to leave a comment (or edit it directly on the wiki, if you're in the Government of Canada).

 

Hackfests and Apps Contests

There are a number of ways to encourage the use of open data and the building of a community. This article uses the broad umbrella of "hackfest" (hackathon, codefest, etc.) to cover some approaches.

Common approaches include:

• an online community discussion channel (e.g. mailing list, discussion board)
• ideas-generating events or contests
• code development events or contests

Community-Building

Sites that offer data, APIs, or other technical capabilities often need support from a broader community in order to sustain and grow their capabilities. This is a key element of community engagement.

Communities may be sector-specific, or they may be based on particular skills or expertise.

Key communities may include:

• software developers
• user interface design experts
• technology standards experts
• domain experts (e.g. health experts, energy experts)
• intended users of a particular technology (e.g. parents for a consumer recall application)

Developer Outreach

In cases where a desired outcome is the development of new applications or hardware in order to promote economic growth, software development experts are a community that needs specific targeted outreach.

In the United Kingdom, the national Open Data White Paper identifies the need for a Developer Outreach Strategy

We need to work collaboratively to ensure that developers are aware of what datasets are being released, in what timeframes, and to maintain relationships with those at the cutting edge of technology who can help government do things differently and in more agile ways. This kind of conversation between government and users facilitates capacity building both ways to great benefit for the public good.

One approach to this for government websites is to ensure that every site has a /developer subpage that provides contact and community information. Such a page needs to be backed up with active community engagement.

In the US, the national Digital Government Strategy states

To establish a “new default,” the policy will require that newly developed IT systems are architected for openness and expose high-value data and content as web APIs at a discrete and digestible level of granularity with metadata tags. Under a presumption of openness, agencies must evaluate the information contained within these systems for release to other agencies and the public, publish it in a timely manner, make it easily accessible for external use as applicable, and post it at agency.gov/developer in a machine-readable format.

Ideas Generation

Many events have idea generation as a first stage of the event (typically online-only to get people started thinking). Others are ideas-only (no code created), or run idea generation in parallel with the coding.

Examples:

• ideas as first stage: Nokia Creating Innovation for People and Planet challenge closes July 31, 2012 followed by an apps contest (the "Do Good Hackathon") http://dogoodhackathon.com/ - if you don't "claim" your idea by registering for the hackathon, anyone can use it
• ideas-only: the GC IT Innovation Challenge ran in 2009
• ideas in parallel: the City of Ottawa offered separate prizes for ideas and for code in its 2010-2011 Apps4Ottawa contest

Apps Contests

There has been an upsurge in organisations offering prizes for creative use of their technology assets, most typically an "apps contest" using open data that they have released. This has ranged from the municipal to the international level.

It is an easy entry point into leveraging the value of released data, but it should be considered only one piece of an overall engagement strategy.

A caution on expectations from cash prizes - they will incentivize creation of individual apps, but they are not sufficient to help build community. Four Ways Summer of Smart has Reinvented Civic Hackathons states

Don’t (just) offer cash prizes. (Hackathons should build a community.) We have seen dozens of apps contents and hackathons where it’s assumed that a few thousand dollars of incentive as a prize will help seed the projects and produce innovation. But as many have found, this model simply isn’t effective – and there is a clear reason why: civic hackers are driven not by money, but by the potential of their work to create civic and social change.

Canadian Apps Contests

Completed or Currently Running events

• Apps4Ottawa - the City of Ottawa in 2010-2011 - with organising support and hackfests from citizen's group Open Data Ottawa
• Apps4Edmonton - August 2010
• Apps4ClimateAction BC - August 2010
• Apps4Good - May 2010
• London Open Data Budget App
• Canpages API
• e-Health 2012 Apps Challenge
• Royal Canadian Mint (RCM) MintChip Challenge - Deadline for submissions is August 1, 2012
• «Let’s Develop Together!» [Société de transport de Laval (STL)
• AppStar (UTSC Mobile App Development Competition)

Upcoming

The City of Ottawa will have a second contest in fall 2012. The lead at the City of Ottawa is Rob Giggey (Twitter: @rob_giggey).

US Government

The US government offers a general platform for citizen competitions of many different types called Challenge.gov The tagline is: "On Challenge.gov, the public and government can solve problems together."

Hackfests (General Information)

Developers will sometime create simply based around a data release or a hackfest event, without needing to have a specific contest. For example a wide range of applications for bus arrival times were created following the City of Ottawa's release of real-time transit open data - there was no contest, but the data release was widely promoted and there was a related 2012 Ottawa Transit Data Day event.

Canadian Hackfests

• Hack Regina Fall 2012
• Startup Edmonton Summer Hackathon 2012 - #hackathonyeg
• Hackons la corruption 2012 organised by Quebec Ouverte
• Gatineau Hackathon 2.0 - May 5, 2012
• 3rd Open Data Ottawa Hackfest - December 3, 2011 - @opendataottawa - #hackott
• Random Hacks of Kindness Montreal - December 2011 - @rhokmtl
• Random Hacks of Kindness Toronto - December 2011 - @rhokto

GC Hackfests and related events

• WET Codefest - July 2012 - event to work on government web standards
• Open Policy@DFAIT - February 2012 - although not a hackfest per se, it included an unconference where various aspects of application development and coding were discussed

National-level Hackfests

• Dutch Parliament Hosts Apps4Democracy Event - Sept. 2012 - "The Dutch Parliament is planning a major release of parliamentary data as open data, and the hack day is aimed at letting coders explore and work with the data."
• UK - 4th National Hack the Government Day - April 2012 - #nhtg12 - also see blog post National Hack The Government Day 2012 - hosted at http://digital.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/

Ottawa & Gatineau Groups

There are many Ottawa-area groups with expertise related to community-building and software development.

These include:

• Open Data Ottawa
• Gatineau Ouverte
• Girl Develop It Ottawa
• Geek Girl Dinners Ottawa
• Hacks & Hackers Ottawa

Québec - Consultation publique Web 2.0

The Province of Quebec has an online consultation about Web 2.0

Comment le gouvernement du Québec peut-il exploiter le Web 2.0 – réseautage social, sites wiki, applications composites (mashups), blogues – pour améliorer la qualité des services aux citoyens et son efficacité interne?

http://www.consultationgautrinweb2.gouv.qc.ca/

There's also tweeting from @GautrinWeb2 and use of the hashtag #GautrinWeb2

I encourage you to provide your opinions and votes in their ideas market (they're using the IdeaScale platform).

However, I think there are a lot of issues with these kind of broad-based open-ended ideas market public consultations.  In general the participation level is low and the ideas are all over the map. 

I am strongly in favour of government finding new ways to open up to citizens, I just think we have to be mindful about the types of consultations and technologies we use, and our expectations for them.

With low participation levels, it's easy to game the system (that is, for a particular interest group to get their ideas voted to the top).  You need to get into the thousands or tens of thousands of users for an open consultation before someone can sway the results just by reaching out to the members of their personal social network or broader professional networks.

These are the current response levels for the consultation, running since July 25, 2011:

51 idées soumises, 192 commentaires, 519 votes, 181 utilisateurs