Building DataTO.org – An Overview

November 17th, 2009

DataTO.org is a community website, built as a venue for the users of Toronto’s open data to request and discuss open datasets. On top of enabling conversation, the site also helps users garner support for their request so as to establish a democratic prioritization of requests.

I first became interested in the open data dialogue back in early 2009 at ChangeCamp in Toronto, which was an event aimed at re-imagining government and citizenship in the age of participation. ChangeCamp spawned ChangeEngine, a project where a group of citizens (including myself), imagined a geo-aware issue tracking system, aimed at bringing communities together to solve problems and to provoke systemic change.

As the launch of Toronto’s open data site approached, some of my colleagues at Architech Solutions and I, met with Mark Kuznicki (organizer of ChangeCamp) to discuss the possibility of building a community companion site to the city’s site. We all felt there was a need, and so DataTO was born. Continue Reading

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Not Alone Afterall

December 18th, 2008

Wow. Since I started my little Geekout.ca initiative my perception of the Toronto web community has been radically altered. In short, there are a lot of us! Events like #hohoto brought a lot of web industry people out of the woodwork, and if you’ve been following any Toronto webbies on Twitter in the last week or so you know that there’s a movement afoot to establish an open community of like-minded web industry folk.

In my opinion, this emphasizes the need for an online place for all of us to network and collaborate. The fact that all these people live and work within a few kilometres of me, and that I, someone who tries to put a lot of effort into staying tuned in, didn’t know anything about them, is a pretty strong indication that we all need to start communicating.

If you’re on Twitter, start paying attention to #tsTO, I think this may be the beginning of something great.

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Canadian Web Professionals Community

December 6th, 2008

For some time now I’ve wanted to get to know more people in the web industry in Canada. Well, today’s the day I stop wanting and start doing. Checkout GeekOut.ca and let’s get the ball rolling.

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