More on Open Data

A couple of notes on Open Data in Canada, as a follow-up to Part 1.

In this episode of the Open Government Podcast, near the 3:30 mark Tracey Lauriault mentions the following situation, back when the government charged $ for information (near late 1980s):

"... a decade of lost research on Canada. Because census data were so cost-prohibitive at that time, Canadian faculty and Canadian students became experts on the US because data there were free."

I have nothing to add. Just let that sink in.

Also, in this session (below) on Open Government in Winnipeg, Mary Agnes Welch describes the frustration of receiving PDF files (near 47 min 24 sec).

Although PDF files are "open" in the sense of disclosing information, they aren't machine readable. We can't easily write a program to use the data within, and so they're not in the spirit of the Open Data philosophy.