#inf2102

_This is a cool idea, hope they can use real faces_ ### Transportation Projects: - myttc.ca - Trying to consider the interoperation of data - The innovation lab: when you look at things on the periphery at a glance. Instead it brings things to your attention, not only at your choice.  hear streetcars shaking use speakers and see - Open paths # HELEN KULA - MARS Data Catalyst - The unlock data initiative.  Health data is challenging to work with and to access because there are a number of privacy issues.  The goal is to generate insight and inform decision making around innovation. - Tracking the money flow and innovation especially around startups.  Accelerators and incubators. Currently we have little knowledge of the startup landscape in province, the data landscape around this is patchy at best. - They are doing data development work, negotiating partnership with 17 regional innovation centres - Trying to pool data linkages and integrate with others sources of data crunch base, angel list, commercial sources, to generate a more robust view of startup activaty in province - Special interest in energy and health - Open data outcomes with energy process consumption - Innovation data - the million dollar question is what does this look like?  How do you capture it? - It can mean different things.  Here they focus on startups and ecosystems that sits around those - organizations support like mars, funders focus oct programs venture capitalists, angel investors, policymakers # SHEYDA SANEINEJAD - TRACKING TORONTO TICKER The Innovation Lab - The ticker for stocks, sports - Here it would track something more important things using open data that are happening in Toronto, trends of how Toronto is doing as a city economically, socially, environmentally - What measure or policy in place to determine what is good or bad who decides - Numbers are not in the periphery, the city will think about why some things increase or decrease - A physical ticker display gateway to toronto - union station airport - People will stand in line find to out how doing as a city (building stats, sewage, pollution, etc) - An online ticker can be customizable audience/ website indicators turn off and on _Should you let people turn things off or customize what they want to see? Information silos? Or maybe select a portion of the ticker to customize_ - Currently the data feed is not automatic, open data updated by going and put data in the background sheet, a prototype idea is  to develop the process automatically - The innovation lab is a volunteer group no affiliation to the City of Toronto # ANIL PATEL - timeraiser Planning Presentations Repository IT Linkedin Box Planning  & IT Timeraiser - Principles: agile open web movement, takes non-profit work to a whole new level of transparency and efficiency - Good governance leads to better decisions - Responds quickly to change - Shows how non profits interact work like open web - Tracks all costs from batteries to beer - The burden of paperwork and what does it mean - Cost revenue ratio - Web assets, capacity ability testing tools transactions - Document workflow - Tools to use - See a lot of good governance tools speed dating prep where emphasis - Timeraiser's mission is to creatively connect people with causes they care about.  In reality volunteers and people involved in  donations expend many hours and resources and are burnt out - A new non-capitalist society _Prospects through events_ # RAED SHARIF - Govt data in S. Africa - Government data can save lives - But there is no accountability or transparency for planning projects - It is very difficult to find data in S. Africa, even harder to access it.  Likely you would find a brief summary of the db or a db wouldn't even exist - of the requests for data, 60% not answered and from those requests that were answered, many (?%) were rejected - another issue is data in pdf files - how to manic put in map see enter manual - After going through all that, trust/reliability of data - Context of global south issues tribalism - NGO CiviC Centre Global South (Egypt, Lebanon, Kenya) - Crowdsourcing applications like ushahidi can't work because it is not easy to get to scaleable level of infrastructure.  Issues like road banning are really becoming more of a trend # Kevin Branigan & Kieran - My TTC ++ My TTC++ Branigan - Was using open trip planner, decided to make their own - Have a ridiculous amount of data - 10 000 bus stops 3 million times from bus schedules - Had to interpolate stop times between stops - Service summaries vehicles allocated each window time frame headway minutes etc - Debug data see vehicles where move quick interpolate airport or subway - Simulation compression artefacts - Data: Went all subway count all stairs - 10 000 stairs, entrances, elevators - Accolades from Brad Ross (on Twitter he said 'cool') -Organizational agility could be dangerous.  Possible repurcussions: deception by trip planner # Sean Crawford - QUANDL Open Data Day 2013 Quandl - Questions that require data - A search engine for numerical data - 2.5 million datasets, doubling total dataset every 3 months, numerical data on set easy to find and use - When you find the raw data that you are looking for, there is a lot of work left to do.  30 min per dataset in finding, processing, cleaning - How does it work? - You can download data in a multitude formats, API visualizations, & more features - Quandl goes to original data source, fetches raw data, translates it into usable format instantly - an instant productivity gain - System for copyright, license, all data they have is open and accessible, no need to check yourself -Will premium data be licensable later? - Fields or domains Quandl focus - catch all, strongest datasets in finance, demographics, global datasets, economics - Take dataset pull into R to analyze - Health data  - all and more data hopefully coming _I hope they chronicle this experience_ - Do you take sets manually or pull in? Quandl uses Q bots - data exists in pdfs, broken web pages, etc Q bots crawlers parses and pulls in automatically - Dataset will track updates, revisions knows when to constantly grab new data to pull in - Quandl archives previous data so even if dataset ceases to exist it will exist in quandl - The data library or finds immediately interprets data - potentially a data library, wikipedia for data - Search goes to data library or original source - Will go to their library and exact same time the source makes updated data # Wendy Smith - Parklot Project Parklot Project - The Parklot Project looks at a number of historical features of Toronto: disappeared/disappearing creeks, land grants - Usage of open data?  Much of it is primary research - The map tells a land transaction story - Tools: google fusion tables, created a db in excel and built online on fusion tables - Then give the table coordinates address plot markers on map # WORKSHOPS, HACKATHON REVIEW # Karen Smith Workshop Presentation # Andrew Lovett-Barron - HACKATHON IDEAS 1. Neighbourhood cheatsheet - a guide that shows local neighbourhood interests to newcomers - aggregate data from sources - filters data down to use - communication problem: how to make data relevant to a lot of people - location quick and easy cheat sheet - Information that is contextual to you in seconds 2. Local Layer Library - A community bake oven, find out when events happen and access to those events.  There is no one place to go and find out - Local organization participation - Problem there are sources of data but existing in diff formats cannot centralize - Start physical/expand to cultural events - For instance, this app can extend to public art like finding murals in the city Other great ideas: MeshCities Great Lakes Map Crisis Mappers

It seems to be conventional wisdom in library, academic and business circles that government produced information like geospatial data should be freely available and that the benefits to the economy will more than pay for the cost of the data creation and management. In his article “The True Cost of Spatial Data in Canada” Brian Klinkenberg makes the case that the restriction and fee system of Canadian geospatial information impedes research and economic growth and reinforces class distinctions by creating information haves and have-nots according to who can afford to access and benefit from greater access to geospatial information. He lays the blame for the current system and its problems on the Crown Copyright system and argues that this system should be dropped, as New Zealand has done, in favor of a US based system where there is no copyright on government information. I agree that the current system in Canada is not ideal; however, I don’t believe that the differences between the US and Canada have been fully considered in the article. For example, the significance differences in population and land area. The cost per person of producing geospatial data is huge in comparison to the US. The Canadian tax base is so much smaller while the land area is proportionally speaking immense. Canada will never be able to map its land to the same scale that the US has. Also, due to the more equally distributed wealth in the population and higher taxes, the labour costs of creating and maintaining the geospatial data is also much higher than in the US. New Zealand, which Klinkenberg uses as an example of how Canada could jettison Crown Copyright, is a much smaller country and with a proportionally larger population to its land area. Particularly, given the current political climate in Canada of budget cuts, shrinking government, and  lowering taxes, where is the political will and budget for funding geospatial data creation and low cost (or free) dispersion? Even in the US, corporations that benefit from free access to geospatial data created by the government, do not want to pay taxes and fund the government institutions and employees who create this information. Whether a company pays for the information through taxes or by paying for the product through a fee system, someone needs to pay.

Resources:   Piers Dillon-Scott: 2012 – The web’s most interactive, real time, Presidential Election ever Sheraz Khan: US Election - Mapping Frenzy   Jessica Melanson: Digital mapping: Is it journalism? Knight Digital Media Center: A resource for data driven journalism, digital mapping and mashups

In chapter 2 of his book, How to Lie with Maps, Mark Monmonier describes the three basic elements of the map: map scales, map projections, and map symbols.  He insists that if you do not understand these three elements, then you can not use a map safely or effectively. The chapter works as a crash course in map and spatial literacy. Of the three components, scale made the most sense to me. Of course, a map is smaller than reality and a good map will contain the scale on it and be consistent to that scale. If only... because of problems with projection-- trying to represent something that is spherical and three dimensional on a flat piece of paper. This skews up the sizes and distances of things. I think I understand that, but to be honest, I had a hard time getting my head around the full explanations and the descriptions of the different types of map projections that have been used, including their strengths and limitations. Plane, cone, cylinder, sinusoidal? Conformal? Loxodrome? Gnomonic? Oblique azimuthal equidistant projection? What? I am trying to make the transition from armchair map lover to having a more critical understanding of the map. I am straining for map literacy... I better read this chapter again.

An interview on the CBC radio program "Spark" with Nora Young. Among the many interesting points discussed, Brotton declares that the print map is dead. Of course, I understand where he is coming from, but I wonder if this is similar to saying that print books are dead? Is it premature? When I was traveling recently in South America, I was completely dependent on a print map. Although, I had a smart phone with me, it was in airplane mode the whole time due to the expense. Even if I had been able to access google maps, the experience of pulling a map out of my pocket and getting a glance at the whole city is so much better and more convenient. If I need to get from point A to point B, then google map directions are great, but when I want to explore and wander around, a print map is so much better. Also, a majority of people in the world still do not have internet access, and for them, print maps are still the only accessible maps. It always strikes me as a bit of a privileged statement from the "right side of the digital divide" to say that print is obsolete.

Wired: Worldwide Smartphone User Base Hits 1 Billion