Make Web Not War TV - Open Data in Ottawa with Robert Giggey

Robert_Giggey_and_Fred

I hope that my friends who had a long weekend, had a good one. For this Tuesday post, that feel like a Monday, I wanted to share another interview I did for my previous project, Make Web Not War TV, that I wasn't able to finish before leaving Microsoft. All the interviews were timeless, except this one: I'm really sad I didn't publish this one at times, as it was a good interview with Robert Giggey, the Open Data lead at the city of Ottawa. Filmed at Confoo, during the Make Web Not War hackathon, we talked about Open Data, the city of Ottawa, why they found it's important to support it, the benefits for everybody, their amazing competition Apps4Ottawa, and the type of applications they got with this contest. I still wanted to put this video online as I think it's really exciting to see a city in Canada who is totally into Open Data, and who believe it will help the citizens, the companies, but also the city to grow, and give better access to information for Ottawa. I'm pretty sure that they'll do a third edition, so you'll know about it, even before they'll announce it (don't take this as a statement, actually I have no idea if they do another one, but with the success they had the last two years, I can't imagine them not doing one next year).

From my experience with Open Data in Canada, I think that Ottawa is probably the best city when it comes to opening their data, but also, giving correct ones, and proper formats. Do you know Open Data? Did you use Open Data in one of your projects? Is your city doing a great job to open their data? If you are a Canadian, will you participate in this competition if there is one in 2014? Share your thoughts!