Edmonton Open City Workshop – International
As many know the City of Edmonton’s Open City Workshop is scheduled to start tomorrow at 10am MST and run until 4pm MST and this will be the first “unconference” to happen at the new Art Gallery of Alberta. What is really cool is that the City will be making some interesting announcements tomorrow and I know from the list of registered attendees that the room is going to be filled with great people. Another fascinating thing is how this has all evolved. The evolution that is happening surrounding this event and the Open Data movement right here in the region is simply amazing to be a part of.
Below is a 2-minute video of the City of Edmonton’s Chief Information Officer, Chris Moore speaking about Open Data in relation to tomorrow’s big event, as well as, continuing the vision forward.
As mentioned, the stage is set for the regional Open Data movement to continue to travel leaps and bounds. The list of folks scheduled to be in the room or participating online is diverse and represents our region, province, country and international friends from many angles and that goes directly to how well the communications about what’s going on has penetrated and inspired folks to take action, all this since the first event on November 21, 2009. Whether that be through the use of social or traditional media, the results are clear.
Just this week, Edmonton was recognized as a leader in the Open Data movement during a major announcement by San Francisco’s Mayor Gavin Newsom in the United States regarding their National Open 311 initiative.
Please see the video below and pay careful attention to the organizations listed in the background.
How can you participate?
Well first, if you have an opportunity please come out in person and participate directly in the “unconference.” Secondly, if you are unable to attend in person, then you are invited to watch the live video stream. Further, anyone in the world may also “embed” the live video stream into their website, blog, etc…
Why would you want to do that? Those who are considering an Open Data initiative in their region may want to communicate and educate certain local audiences that frequent their site. You now have that opportunity, thanks to the City of Edmonton’s willingness to share with other communities, not only here in Alberta and in Canada, but also around the world. I’ve had personal discussions with people from the US, Australia, even with Annemarie van Campen who is excited about the Dutch “fresh government” Open Data initiative. I love the “fresh government” tagline, it’s brilliant. We won’t be able to tell or communicate leading up the event as to everyone whom might be planning to carry the feed unless someone confirms that ahead of time, so please tell us here if you can. Such as in the case of Nick Charney and his very popular Gov 2.0 cpsrenewal blog Nick is also going to be a panelist here in Edmonton. I’d also like to mention once again how cool it is for the Edmonton Journal and GovLoop.com to be participating as mentioned in a previous post.
The team
I know one thing for sure, regardless of the really great discussion, ideas and thoughts shared tomorrow at the workshop. You should be very proud of the City of Edmonton event planning team. This takes a lot of effort to properly represent the fourth largest city in Canada on such an important subject.
Councillor Don Iveson, Chris Moore, Jacob Modayil, Scott Lundy, Jason Darrah, James Rugge- Price, Devin Serink, Raffaella Loro and Ashley Casovan who has been rock solid in terms of keeping everyone marching forward to ensure the event is terrific, that’s a tough gig regardless and she’s handled it very well so far I thought. I’d also like to mention our project team, Evan Adnams, Kelly Lalonde and Genoa Adnams who have been working hard on this project to ensure our first ever (and I believe for the city as well) “bilingual” webcast goes without a hitch.
Due to everyone’s hard work, increased awareness and even recognition for this region and the Open Data work has already happened prior to the event itself taking place and that’s something to be proud of. Of course, there is a lot of work still ahead and yet, clearly the momentum is building going into tomorrow and that I must say is highly cool.
