[Okfn-ca] The Role of Canadian Municipal Open Data: A Multi-city Evaluation | Currie, Liam (MA Thesis)

Fri Aug 30 17:52:41 UTC 2013

I would change this thesis to 

> …..a study of Canadian municipal open governance initiatives in order to assess the current state of the programs and to gauge the role(s) that these initiatives may play in regards to improving public engagement in local government issues.

My 2 cents:  Open data is perhaps too narrow, in order to answer you question you should include the much broader category of open governance, and the software and processes that enables it.   You should also widen the scope to include other countries, by perhaps doing a comparative study.  In some countries in Africa ,for example, they are miles ahead of Canada by using mobile apps for civil engagements.    

The municipalities in Canada that I'm aware of publish such a small sliver of data that it's really moot to study now.  In 5 years the timing for a study of just Open data might be more interesting.  

In other words, you could write the answer to your current thesis in one sentence:  The current state is dismal, case closed.    (So much so that your audience may fall asleep reading about it)

Peder 

On 2013-08-30, at 8:30 AM, Diane Mercier <diane.mercier at gmail.com> wrote:

> Congratulations Liam for your Master degree thesis
> 
> http://qspace.library.queensu.ca/handle/1974/8159
> 
> «... a study of Canadian municipal open data initiatives in order to assess the current state of the programs and to gauge the role(s) that these initiatives may play in regards to improving public engagement in local government issues.
> 
> via Open Data Research Network

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