This might be of interest to people who are also interested in the Mashups for Non-Programmers session.

Wouldn't it be nice if there was a project to build up a pool of data about Vancouver, that would be useful to

people who are generating mashups?

Wikipedia is an example of how this could be done.

There are a lot of sources of data out there and many databases that have been collected, but many of them are commercial.  Our governments has a lot of interesting databases, but they often are highly protected and kept away from the public.

Some ideas of things that would be nice to have, for free:

• Geodata
  • Neighbourhood names
  • Street names
  • Local Businesses
  • Mapping data
• Social Data
  • People
  • Events
  • Entertainment
  • Recreation
  • Arts
  • Local Blogs
  • Local Websites
• Politics
  • Politicians
  • Budgeting
  • Development / Zoning
  • Crime Stats
  • Social Programs
• Business Info
  • Economic Data
  • Industry Profiles
  • Jobs
• Housing
  • Renting
  • Buying
  • Social Housing

These datasets, if freely available, could lead to some really interesting locally-focused applications.

Vancouver is a fairly compact city, so it probably wouldn't be too hard to build up a fairly comprehensive

set of free metadata.  We could make Vancouver into the most "meta" city on the planet!

Jim Pick

Talk Outline - Compiling Free Metadata about Vancouver