COD: Cash in on Open Data

COD: Cash in on Open Data

July 26, 2016Joseph Bou-Younes, Data Executive in Residence

codx.caCanada’s Open Data Exchange

• What open data is• About ODX• How companies are using it

– Piinpoint– ThinkDataWorks– Knomos

• Getting started• Calls to action

What We Will Cover


What is Open Data?

“A piece of data is open if anyone is free to use, reuse, and redistribute it — subject only, at most, to the requirement to attribute and/or share-alike.”

A key element of Open Government

Open Data is often associated with government data but doesn't have to be

Data Spectrum


The Opportunity

Government is becoming open by default: public service directed to maximize release of data and information of business value while protecting privacy, confidentiality, and security

Data is the new currency. Big data, ML and AI make using this data possible

Open data is being mined, organized and used to build and market products and services


Canada’s Open Data Exchange

• Private-Public partnership • Uniquely focused on data

innovation and commercialization of Open Data– Work with organizations in various

industry sectors to identify issues with Open Data that can drive economic growth

– Provide tools, services, resources to reduce time to value for use of Open Data

Founding Partners


Benefits of Open Data• Creating new products and services• Optimizing business processes• Making better, data-driven decisions• Solving complex problems


Case Study:


Open data at PiinPoint• Traffic counts• Pedestrian counts• Building permits• Development plans

• Parking spots

• Public transportation• Zoning• Census• …and more

PiinPoint sources data sets from municipality open data websites across North America, providing retailers with continuous municipal open data.

How Government Can HelpRelease more geo-spatial economic data, more often, and more quickly.

Features and data sets• Search (Namara.io)• Boundaries &Regions• Economy• Education• Energy

• Environment• Parking• Transport• Trade• Housing

Sources open data from governments around the world and makes it available on a consistent API within the firewall.

Used by asset managers and in programmatic trading.

How Government Can HelpAdopt standard formats; focus on recency, frequency and quality. Release more trade data.

Free version provides public with improved access to justice and creates transparency in charge and conviction rates. Paid versions give lawyers better research tools and suggests litigation strategies.

How Government Can HelpMove legislation and case law to open licenses; encode legislation in machine readable format.

Legislation and case law ingested from government, converted to machine-readable format, linked together by machine learning.


Open Data – Who Has What?

Level of Gov’t Responsibilities Example Data Example UsersFederal Agriculture, Financial

Services, Economic Data, Natural Resources, CRA, Census, Weather

Criminal CodeWeatherGIS and ImageryEconomic DataTax Code

KnomosWeather NetworkSkywatchQuandlIntuit

Provincial Courts, Education, Environment, Energy, Health Care

K-12 CurriculumCourt Rulings

D2LKnomos

Municipal Water, Traffic, Parking, Property Tax

Property TaxTraffic Flows

MapYourPropertyPiinpoint


Get Started


1. Google

Finding Open Data


2. Open Data Portals (Federal, Provincial, Municipal)

Finding Open Data


3. Review for Usability

Finding Open Data

How Government Can HelpMigrate to structured data in open formats (CSV, XML); HTML and PDFs must be transcribed at great expense.


4. Download a data set

Finding Open Data


Or: Ask us!http://codx.ca/data/request

http://codx.ca/data/request




To Business:• Understand breadth of gov’t data:

– Any data that does not compromise privacy, security or confidentiality can be released – in principle

• Experiment with open data portals• Brainstorm products, services, and new

processes enabled by data• Begin and maintain a dialog with other

businesses about open data• Contact us for help

Calls to Action

To Government:• Participate in Open Data 150• Focus on data usability: recency,

frequency, quality and standard adherence

• Migrate from licensed to open access where possible

• Release structured data (CSV, XML) in standard formats

Join the conversation:codx.ca @codx [email protected]


The founding partners have committed to $3 million in cash and in-kind contributions over three years, which has been matched by the Government of Canada.


The Open Data 150

The OD150 Survey will create the first comprehensive, internationally comparable inventory of Canadian companies that use open data to: • Launch new products and services, • Optimize their business processes,• Make data-driven decisions,• And solve complex problems.

Why undertake this initiative?• Raise awareness of open data use in Canada• More effective advocacy efforts• Understand what support companies need most urgently• Encourage more open data sets• Identify best practices of how companies can use open data to

enhance their products/services

The survey results will give ODX a better understanding of how open data is used by companies, and of how ODX can better unlock the economic value of open data.

For more information: www.opendata500.com


We need your help!

What do companies get out of it?• Plans for case studies and spotlights to highlight

companies• Enhance ODX advocacy efforts to help create more

competitive companies• Better linkages between data providers & users

• As a thank you for filling out the survey, the first 150 respondents will get a gold coloured USB stick that says “Data is Gold”

Survey Details• We expect to deploy the survey in late April• When the survey is live, we’ll need your help to distribute

– email it, link it, tweet it, and water cooler it!• Know a company that uses open data? PLEASE send an

email to Beth Bailey with their website & contact information ([email protected])

mailto:[email protected]


The founding partners have committed to $3 million in cash and in-kind contributions over three years, which has been matched by the Government of Canada.

What is ODX?Canada’s Open Data Exchange (ODX) is a private-public partnership. Its mandate is to make it simple to access and use any open data for commercial purposes. ODX connects those who need data with those who have data. It develops tools to share data, a partner network to accelerate commercialization, and a national initiative to strengthen Canada’s technology brand. We’re turning open data into real wealth