By Drew Bush In our third edition of Geothoughts, we’re excited to bring you an interview with Yvonne Chen, a strategic planner for the city of Edmonton’s Open City Initiative. You can also subscribe to this podcast by finding it on iTunes. In this interview, we talk with Chen about what it means for Edmonton to be on par with … Read More
Geothink at the Canadian Open Data Summit 2015
By Suthee Sangiambut The Canadian Open Data Summit 2015 wrapped up yesterday at the Shaw Centre in Ottawa with the City of Edmonton receiving this year’s Canadian Open Data Award—a nod to the advancement of their open data and open government initiatives. The event was hosted by Open North, and a number of Geothink’s team, partners, and students were present. … Read More
Geothink Newsletter Issue 6
Inside, we speak with our partners at the City of Edmonton about their innovative Open City Initiative, bid farewell to Nova Scotia Community Counts (NSCC), learn about the users of the NSCC data, examine the best practices for countries’ open data portals and more! If you or your Geothink-related organization would like to be featured in the next newsletter, do … Read More
Our Take: Geothink at the Association of American Geographers (AAG) Annual Meeting 2015
By Drew Bush From April 21 to April 25 2015, Geothink’s students, team, and collaborators presented their research and met with colleagues in Chicago, Illinois at the now concluded 2015 Association of American Geographers (AAG) Annual Meeting. Over the week, Geothinkers gave 16 presentations, ran a panel discussion, presented posters, organized and chaired four sessions, and gave two plenary speeches. … Read More
Part 2: Our Project Head on North American Civic Participation and Geothink's Projects
By Drew Bush Part 2 (of 2). This is the second in a two part series with the head of Geothink.ca, Renee Sieber, an associate professor in the Department of Geography and School of Environment at McGill University. In this second part, we pick up the story of how Sieber sees civic participation in North America during an age of … Read More
Part 1: Why Geothink? We ask Geothink’s Head about the Partnership’s Vision and Goal
By Drew Bush Part 1 (of 2). This is the first in a two part series with the head of Geothink.ca, Renee Sieber, an associate professor in the Department of Geography and School of Environment at McGill University. In this first part, we talk with Sieber about Geothink itself; its vision, goal and design. In our next installment, we’ll pick … Read More
Geothoughts 2: The Meaning of Open Government and the Role of Citizens with Daniel Paré
By Drew Bush In our second edition of Geothoughts, we’re excited to bring you an interview with an expert in the issues that arise with innovations in information and communications technology. Daniel Paré is an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication at University of Ottawa. You can also subscribe to this podcast by finding it on iTunes. In this … Read More
Geothoughts 1: What’s in a Plan? Innovation at the Cost of Democracy in Canada
By Drew Bush We’re very excited to present you with our first Geothink.ca Podcast in our series, Geothoughts. You can also subscribe to this Podcast by finding it on iTunes. Our first podcast delves deeper into the opinions of Tracey Lauriault, a researcher at The Programmable City project who specializes in open data and open government in Canada. We explore … Read More
Geothink Program Guide for the Associaton of American Geographers (AAG) 2015 Annual Meeting
By Drew Bush A long line-up of Geothinkers will be presenting at this year’s Association of American Geographers (AAG) Annual Meeting in Chicago next week. You’ll definitely not want to miss four of our team members as panelists on Civic technology: governance, equity and inclusion considerations on Thursday at 8:00 AM. Other highlights include presentations by Geothink Principal Investigator Renee … Read More
Crosspost: Canada's Information Commissioner Tables Recommendations to Overhaul Access to Information Act
This post is cross-posted with permission from Teresa Scassa, from her personal blog. Scassa is the Canada Research Chair in Information Law at the University of Ottawa. By Teresa Scassa Canada’s Access to Information Act is outdated and inadequate – and has been that way for a long time. Information Commissioners over the years have called for its amendment and … Read More
Behind the Scenes with Geothink Partner Yvonne Chen: Edmonton’s Open City Initiative
By Drew Bush Sometime early next week, Edmonton’s City Council will vote to endorse an Open City Initiative that will help cement the city’s status as a smart city alongside cities like Stokholm, Seattle and Vienna. This follows close on the heels of a 2010 decision by city leaders to be the first to launch an open data catalogue and … Read More
Torts of the Geoweb: (or the liability question) Part I
By Tenille Brown, PhD student in the Faculty of Law at the University of Ottawa Recently, on March 3rd as part of the continuing Geothink Project, I hosted a Twitter chat about tort liability with Mapping Mashups. This online forum was joined by Geothink partners and friends and the primary topic discussed was the role of tort law and how … Read More
Studying Public Transport Behavior By Accident: Lessons Learned from A Graduate Class in Computer Science with Scott Bell
By Drew Bush Sometimes the best research grows out of collaboration and study within the confines of a classroom. For Scott Bell, an associate professor of Geography and Planning at the University of Saskatchewan, a graduate class in computer science provided just such an opportunity. The past few years, Bell has collaborated with a colleague in Saskatchewan’s Department of Computer … Read More
Open North’s Inventory: Coming Up With Standards for Open Data
By Drew Bush Open North’s James McKinney, Stéphane Guidoin and Paulina Marczak completed an inventory of global open data standards last week that seeks to establish a global viewpoint on the subject and identify any missing pieces. Their work was completed as part of the Open Government Partnership (OGP) Working Group, a group that aims to support governments seeking transparency … Read More
Crosspost: Looking at Crowdsourcing's Big Picture with Daren Brabham
This post is cross-posted with permission from Daren C. Brabham, Ph.D. the personal blog of Daren C. Brabham. Brabham is a Geothink partner at the University of Southern California Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism where he was the first to publish scholarly research using the word “crowdsourcing.” by Daren C. Brabham In this post, I provide an overview of … Read More
Crosspost: Geoweb, crowdsourcing, liability and moral responsibility
This post is cross-posted with permission from Po Ve Sham – Muki Haklay’s personal blog. Muki is a Geothink collaborator at the University College London and the co-director of ExCiteS. By Muki Haklay Yesterday [March 3rd, 2015], Tenille Brown led a Twitter discussion as part of the Geothink consortium. Tenille opened with a question about liability and wrongful acts that … Read More
Geothink Video Interview 1: Teresa Scassa, University of Ottawa
By Drew Bush This Geothink Video Interview brings us a closeup look at the work and ideas of Teresa Scassa, Canada Research Chair in Information Law at the University of Ottawa. In particular, we talk with her about her views on Canada’s Action Plan for Open Government 2.0, problems with open access under the plan, the idea of making government … Read More
An Emergent Field: Making Better Maps By Applying Geographical Science to the Human Brain
By Drew Bush City planners often use socioeconomic data collected in surveys to determine neighbourhoods that might benefit from improved services. Yet such types of data can have a significant margin of error, especially when they’re collected from a relatively small group. “Especially if you want to look at a small subset of the population—say, kids under 5 who are … Read More
Open Data Gets Boost from Obama’s 2016 Budget Proposal
By Drew Bush Lost in the details of a $4 trillion budget plan proposed by U.S. President Barack Obama are several provisions that seek to increase public access to government data, strengthen government analysis and collection of data and improve data-driven government decision-making, according to a story first reported in the Federal Times. Released on February 2, Obama’s proposed 2016 … Read More
Spotlight on Recent Publications: Teresa Scassa at the Intersection of Intellectual Property Rights and Municipal Transit Data
By Drew Bush This story was originally reported on Teressa Scassa’s personal blog which you can find here. In a paper just published in the Fordham Urban Law Journal, Geothink researcher Teresa Scassa argues that the actual laws governing intellectual property (IP) rights are often surprisingly irrelevant in disputes over rights to municipal transit data. Instead, she finds that being … Read More