CivicTechWR Hacknight #37 - City of Kitchener Open Data

The City of Kitchener is sending their Open Data team to come and speak at CivicTech WR. Are you interested in finding out what data is being made available? How it's being used? What the future of open data in our city looks like? Well, now you have the chance!

The Open Data team has been given a mandate by the City of Kitchener through their Strategic Plan:

We [the City of Kitchener] will be transparent and accountable to citizens, providing easy access to information, a great customer service experience, and meaningful opportunities to participate in the democratic process. To achieve this, we will:

1.1 Provide public access to all city records, information and data unless there are privacy, security or legal reasons not to do so, developing partnerships to promote the use of data for economic, social and environmental community benefits.

1.2 Strengthen communication on issues of interest to the public and proactively publish related documents in an accessible format to give citizens the information they need to understand the city’s plans, priorities and the rationale for key decisions.

1.3 Create more opportunities for citizen dialogue on community issues and introduce new ways for people to get involved in decisions that affect them.

1.4 Introduce more convenient and effective channels for citizens to access city information and services.

1.5 Strengthen a culture within the organization that puts the citizen first and improves the quality of the customer service experience.

Come and find out how they fulfill that mandate.

*** Our rough schedule ***
5:30PM - Snacks and networking
6:00PM - Welcome and introductions
6:15PM - Guest speaker(s), Q&A
7:00PM - Project work time
8:30PM - Clean up and head out!