About City of Toronto Open Data
Background
The City of Toronto launched its first Open Data Portal in the fall of 2009 to meet growing demand for open data. Since then, the open data movement has gained increasing momentum within Toronto’s digital and civic spaces. As a result, open data currently serves as a politically charged topic of discussion within civic decision-making as policymakers and the civic community navigate open data policies and address socio-political and technical barriers.
The evolution of technology and data literacy mean, however, that in addition to increasing demand for data, expectations for a broader set of functionality have changed as well. This includes being able to visualize data, being able to download data in non-proprietary formats, and meeting accessibility compliance requirements. These factors have necessitated a redesign effort, which is the in-house developed portal you are currently on.
When we started designing the new portal, we spoke to the individuals best informed to direct how it should function. Our open data community is a passionate one; it includes developers, policymakers, academics and civic advocates. These communities mobilize around a common goal: that some data should be freely available for everyone to use and re-publish as they wish. When data is freely available, it can innovated upon by anyone to draw insights and use evidence to inform the design of civic services. The open data portal aims to do just this.
Features
| # |
Feature |
Status |
| 1 |
AODA (WCAG 2.0) Compliance |
In Progress |
| 2 |
Data Request form |
Planned |
| 3 |
Data Owner direct contact |
Implemented |
| 4 |
Data newsfeed |
Implemented |
| 5 |
Catalogue search by taxonomy and keywords |
Implemented |
| 6 |
File format conversion and automation |
Implemented |
| 7 |
Data Visualization |
Implemented |
| 8 |
Data Quality Assessment |
In Progress |
| 9 |
Data Stories (case studies) |
Ongoing |
| 10 |
Learning Resources |
Ongoing |
| 11 |
Migration of all existing toronto.ca/open datasets |
Implemented |
| 12 |
Developer notifications (API) |
In Progress |
| 13 |
Comment and discuss on datasets |
Planned |
| 14 |
Predictive search |
Planned |
| 15 |
On-the-fly dataset conversion to non-proprietary formats |
Implemented |
| 16 |
Browser-based data submission process |
Planned |
| 17 |
Dataset Preview |
Implemented |
| 18 |
Community Showcase |
In Progress |
| 19 |
Responsive design (mobile-friendly) |
Implemented |
Project Evolution
| Date |
Milestone |
| 2009 |
Open Data website and catalogue launched |
| 2012 |
Open Data policy implemented |
| 2015 |
Public Sector Open Data group created |
| 2016 |
Request of City Clerk and CIO to “build a proper open data portal” |
| 2017 |
Open Data Visualization Portal developed |
| 2018 |
Open Data Visualization Portal Release 1 |
| 2019 |
Open Data Visualization Alpha Launch |
Recognizing our Partners
The Open Data team would like to extend a sincere thank you to the City partners who supported us through the portal development process. In particular, we would like to thank key team members from
Common Components,
Digital Communications,
Technical Infrastructure Services,
Digital Technology Services, and
Strategic Communications for your partnership and contributions. We greatly appreciate your assistance and contribution.
