Post by Michael Druker
Apr 01 2012
Filed In: Event
If you weren’t at the Open Data CodeFest, here’s what you missed. We started after 11am with an overview and few comments from Garry Bezruki, the City of Waterloo’s Director of Information Management and Technology Services.
Open data advocate and consultant Jury Konga worked with the city to put together a developer’s preview of City of Waterloo open data for this event. The data included: bike lanes, city facilities, heritage buildings, historical street names, parks, places of worship, public art, railway, trails, and ward boundaries. If you’re lucky it may still be available. If not, there is still an opportunity to help test and provide feedback on those data sets and others. In the next week or two the city is doing an open data developer focus group, following which data will be given a wider testing phase before a public launch this spring. If you have any feedback about the data already or would like to be part of the focus group, please contact the city at opendata@waterloo.ca.
The Region of Waterloo also added new data for the CodeFest. They updated the waste collection data and added data on Doors Open Waterloo Region. In addition, the Region shared their real-time airport flight schedule feed. The Region is also interested in feedback on the new data (as well as on existing data sets and requests), so please do contact them at opendata@regionofwaterloo.ca.
It turned out that the 11am start at the University of Waterloo was far too early for many, and so there was surprisingly little effective time before our room booking ended at 4pm. And with the large amount of new data released, much of the time we all spent was actually on looking at the various data sets and on preliminary exploration.
Here’s a few examples of what people worked on: additional feature to an existing transit app, scraping university course calendar data, mapping heritage buildings and public art, and combining bike lanes and paths from three separate data sets.
This was a good start for many present to working with open municipal data, and the new data sets in particular. Another CodeFest in May would probably make sense, perhaps after the City of Waterloo’s official data launch.
In the meantime, if you’ve got the data, use it! And please join us for our monthly meet-up this Thursday evening, April 5, at Queen Street Commons Cafe in downtown Kitchener, from 7pm to 8:30pm. We’ll discuss the CodeFest and the data, and plan more events, including OpenDemos and the next CodeFest.
Post by Michael Druker
Mar 28 2012
Filed In: Event
This Saturday is the Open Data CodeFest at the University of Waterloo (Facebook event link). In case you needed more reasons to attend, here’s a big one.
The City of Waterloo is working on joining the local open data scene, and Saturday will be a chance to get a taste of Waterloo’s open data! It will also be a way to provide direct feedback to the city on what you would like to see, and how well everything works. At this point it will be just a preview, but more will be on the way soon. At the 11am start of the CodeFest we will have an introduction to those data sets and what you can do with them, courtesy of the City of Waterloo. Expect the preview data sets to include GIS data relating to city facilities and networks, but come out Saturday to find out the detailed list.
Also in time for the CodeFest, the Region of Waterloo will be updating their data sets, and releasing a new data set on Doors Open Waterloo Region.
So spread the word about the Open Data CodeFest, and join us on Saturday! If you like, print out a poster in colour or grayscale and put it up where it makes sense.
Post by Michael Druker
Mar 23 2012
Filed In: Event
[Update: posters are available in colour or grayscale.]
We’re joining forces with the University of Waterloo Open Data Initiative and the Student Developer Network to host an Open Data CodeFest on Saturday, March 31.
Come work on something interesting using open data and meet others in the Waterloo open data community! Bring your laptop and enthusiasm. Data sets will be available from the University of Waterloo and the Region of Waterloo, though data sets from elsewhere are fine too. [Edit: Data will also be available from the City of Waterloo.] This isn’t just about coding, but maps, graphs, visualizations, and so on — anything that is useful, interesting, or shows the potential of open data.
The CodeFest will be held from 11am to 4pm at the University of Waterloo’s Student Life Centre, in the Multi-Purpose Room (between the food court and the Great Hall). (Facebook event here.) We’ve got the room until 4, but if there’s interest, space can be found to continue the CodeFest later than that. In case you’re unfamiliar with the campus, the university has an online map. The SLC is a short walk from the iXpress stop at Davis Centre; if you’re driving, there is free weekend parking in Lot X north of Columbia Street.
Here is one example with a short tutorial on integrating Waterloo Open Data with existing data. 
Post by Michael Druker
Feb 24 2012
Filed In: Event
Regional data sets have been trickling out, and there’s more than enough open data things to talk about. So we’ll be having an Open Data Waterloo Region meeting next Thursday, March 1. It will be from 7pm to 8:30pm at Queen Street Commons Cafe in downtown Kitchener at 43 Queen St S.
This will be an opportunity for those who have been using existing open data to share their progress, for discussion of ongoing developments / advocacy of potential data sets, and planning of an Open Data CodeFest jointly with UW Open Data – tentatively on Saturday, March 17.
Everyone is welcome to join us!
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Post by Michael Druker
Sep 01 2011
Filed In: Event
It’s been a bit quiet Open Data-wise over the past few months, but it’s time to change that. Soon enough staff will be bringing forward a report on open data, and there has already been some community use of transit schedule data. Open Data recently made its way into Waterloo Region’s 2011-2014 Strategic Plan. This is a good point to consider what we want to see Open Data Waterloo Region doing over the next while.
Anyway, we have booked space (the Harp Room) for Open Data Waterloo Region at McCabe’s (at King & Francis in Kitchener) from 6 to 9pm next Wednesday, September 7. (Facebook event link.) Come out, grab a pint / some food and talk open data – with advocates, staff (hopefully), prospective/current developers, and interested others. Please invite anyone who might be interested in figuring out what we’re about, what’s going on with open data in Waterloo Region, and what the possibilities of open data hold.
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Gaelan’s slides are available here.
With recent additions from Google and Facebook, social networking has been at the centre of many tech-related discussions. Our next Open Demo, on Wednesday, July 13, will focus on advances and issues in open social data.
Previous Open Demo presenter Gaelan will provide an introduction to Diaspora, a decentralized social networking alternative to Facebook / Twitter / Google+. It was created as a response to the privacy and data ownership concerns of modern popular social networking sites, trying to provide their benefits while also giving the user full control of the data they submit.
He will spend some time on why you should care about how social media sites manage your privacy, but will mostly describe how Diaspora works, how it respects your data and how to set it up.
As always, our Open Demo events are geared to anyone interested in open data, technology and the OpenDataWR community, regardless of experience level. Whether you want to stick around to code or chat, you’re invited to stick around after the Open Demo — feel free to bring your laptops and your thoughts.
When: Wednesday, July 13 at 6:30 – 8:00pm
Where: Barleyworks at the Heuther Hotel, 59 King Street North, Waterloo (see map.)
Please RSVP to @opendatawr or info@opendatawr.ca
OpenStreetMap contributor, Ed Hillsman, was the senior research associate on a multi-modal trip planner study. In it the authors implement a multi-modal trip planner using transit feeds, Open Data and a variety of Open Source tools.
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Post by Jackie M. Lambert
Jun 13 2011
Filed In: Event
Update: see the comments for a link to the slides.
Interested in learning how to use OpenStreetMap data? Not sure where to start? Free on Wednesday, June 22 at 6:30 – 8pm?
After a brief hiatus, we’re gearing up for our third Open Demo next Wednesday, June 22. This instalment will delve into how to work with map data from OpenStreetMap (OSM), the worldwide user-contributed online map. Steven Singer, OpenStreetMap enthusiast and data base expert, will present an introduction to OpenStreetMap and a variety of techniques for using OSM data in your open data-related applications. Many open data applications use OSM data as their backbone, so learning how to work with it is an important first step in developing your own applications.
As always, our Open Demo events are technically-oriented, but accessible to all experience levels. Even if you’re a non-coder, Open Demos provide a great opportunity to meet the OpenDataWR community and be exposed to great uses of technology for community improvement. Being informal events, the floor’s open to participants with OSM-related insights to share.
When: Wednesday, June 22 at 6:30 – 8:00pm
Where: Misty Mountain Coffee, 33 Queen Street South, Kitchener (across from the Walper Terrace Hotel, see map.)
Please RSVP to @opendatawr or info@opendatawr.ca.
If you would like to work on your open data-related project and talk shop with other members of the OpenDataWR community, you’re invited to stick around after the Open Demo! We’ve got Misty Mountain booked until 10pm, so feel free to bring your laptops.
A question we often field at Open Data Waterloo Region is, “what data needs to be open?” While one answer to this question is “Open it all,” we need to start somewhere. And that’s where we need your help.
An important part of moving the Region’s Open Data strategy forward involves gaining an idea of what data should first be made available. Thanks to popular demand, Grand River Transit has already released GTFS schedule data, but what’s next? Here at OpenDataWR, we’ve thought of more than a few ideas — among them, restaurant inspection and bike rack location data — but along with the Region, we would like suggestions from the entire community.
What data sets would you like to see the Region of Waterloo make available as open data? Post a comment and let us know what interests you most.
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