About Open Data in Edmonton
What is Open Data?
Open Data is freely available, easy to access, and most importantly, simple for the public to reuse in machine-readable formats.
This data, from across the city's departments and branches is available here in a single place - the Open Data Portal.
Anyone accessing data through the Open Data Portal can combine that data with contextual elements, transforming raw data to useful information. Data released by the City has the potential to be both impactful and beneficial, contributing to the livability of our city. Open data allows for direct visibility into how decisions are made, empowers citizens and enhances the relationship between citizens and public organizations.
Open Data can be freely used, re-used and redistributed by anyone. Technology has provided the capability to distribute large amounts of government data and information enabling public access to the data that governments produce, collect and use.
Our Story
The City of Edmonton is the Canadian leader in Open Data. It was the fourth municipality and the third major Canadian city to host an online Open Data Catalogue when the City launched its platform in January, 2010.
The catalogue has grown to include a wide variety of datasets and visualizations, making data related to roadways maintenance, locations of schools, varieties of trees, municipal elections data, aggregate municipal census data and much more available to the public.
Edmonton has been awarded the
- Canada's Most Open City 2017 : Public Sector Digest Award
- Canada's Most Open City 2016 : Public Sector Digest Award
- 2016 Canadian Open Data Award for Accessibility by the Open Data Society of BC and Open North
- 2015 Canadian Open Data Award by the Open Data Society of BC and Open North
- Top spot : 2015 Open Cities Index Report
Today
Today on our portal we have published over 2100 assets (datasets, visualizations, maps, stories). We are truly proud of this impressive growth from our humble beginnings just 9 years ago. It speaks to the dedication we have to be as transparent as possible using this proactive disclosure approach.
We have succeeded in the creation and adoption of a Corporate Advisory Group to promote Open Data ensuring the Open City Policy is followed. We are currently executing on our strategy with the creation of
- Citizen Advisory Group
- School of Data
Tomorrow
As we look to the practical future of open data and expanding its use, we foresee and will work towards major advancements in two areas - mobile/web applications and analytics. While we embrace these advancements we will continue to expand our Open Data Catalogue with new datasets and visualizations on a monthly basis.
Continued areas of focus include:
- enhancing standards and processes to ensure high-quality data and metadata
- fostering a Metropolitan Open Data collaboration with surrounding municipal governments, post-secondary institutions, provincial government bodies, and law enforcement agencies.
If you have any comments or suggestions, you are encouraged to reach out to us at opendata@edmonton.ca-City of Edmonton Open Data Team