Open Letter to the B.C. Government

The Open Letter regarding Open Access to BC Government data was one outcome of this session. Add your name if you agree.

TransitCamp and Open Source Government

Intro

• Session led by Dustin Quasar Sacks: programmer, blogger, activist
• Please raise your hand anytime if you want to ask a question or add a comment

Background

• What is TransitCamp?
• A meeting of minds about public transit
• Expanding the BarCamp process into areas of government and public policy
• Toronto, Vancouver, and San Fransisco Bay Area is having one this weekend

Vancouver transit camp covered lots of issues. Software, art, suggestions...

All the details are in the Vancouver Transit Camp Wiki

1 Big Issue was Open Access to data

• Time schedules and route maps exist, offer interesting possibilities
• Google transit feed specification exists
• Translink has a feed which google has access to. They won't release it to other people.
• Google hosts a list of open data cities. Canada is fully absent

• Trying to do it all themselves, but Translink is not an IT company
• Epic failure of i-move.ca

• Why not open the data?
• Legal excuses, blah, blah, blah. Real underlying reason:
• Lack of open-source understanding at the top of government
• It's our job to change that
• Talk to any government contacts you have about open source benefits
• Let's send an open community letter:

Open Letter regarding Open Access to BC Government data

• Follow that link and read the open letter.
• Add your name if you agree.
• Spread the letter throughout our media.

Part 2: Other areas we can Open Source Government?

Taking ownership over our public images

• Designing catchy new logos for government branches, publish under creative commons (busflame)
• Government should embrace creative commons whenever it can
• You can make government swag yourself. JMV made some awesome images and buttons for TransitCamp, and put forth more ideas. I want a "no shocking" T-shirt, somebody sell me one please

Open-source media distribution

• The net is playing a big role in the US elections, grass-roots style
• Big help from user-voted news sites like digg.com and reddit.com
• What can we do in Canada to work together and amplify our voices?
• Reddit Canada is one possible news aggregator we could use

Taking ownership over our public spaces

• Vlogging the UI problems with SkyTrain stops
• Community redesign of public spaces (NYC example)
• BarCamp RobsonSquare ? too late: trees cut down, new construction is in progress
• Vancouver Public Space Network is doing good work here

• We can make better use of the public space we own.
• Transit space offers huge opportunities:

• We have lots of bus stops around town. They are all blank walls: boring and useless.
• Bus stops should have city maps with "*You are here" and local areas of interest.
• Could also be community bulletin boards (bluetooth?).

• We have many SkyTrain stations that all look exactly the same. Undecorated and boring.
• SkyTrain stops should each represent the unique character of their area
• Vancouver has an existing mural program that could be used
• Example station ideas to whet your appetite:

Waterfront:

Stadium / Chinatown:

Main Street:

Commercial Drive:

Links:

Vancouver Transit Camp Wiki:

http://vancouver.transitcamp.org/

Vancouver Transit Camp Organizer Google Group (join if interested):

http://groups.google.com/group/vantransitcamp

Toronto Transit Camp process is making big strides forward:

http://remarkk.com/2008/02/05/accelerating-the-transitcamp-community/

Bay Area Transit Camp is happening this weekend:

http://www.barcamp.org/TransitCampBayArea

Portland's transit developer website (with open data):

http://developer.trimet.org/

Portland's Transit CTO gave a very positive talk about their experience opening their data:

http://headwayblog.com/2008/02/21/trimet-data-sharing-talk/

Handi Mobility - Vancouver start-up working with transit + mobile tech:

http://handimobility.ca/

Michael Weisman - Has been working with Vancouver transit tech:

http://michaelwave.com/

New York City Streets Renaissance:

http://www.nycsr.org/

NYC StreetFilms video blog:

http://www.streetfilms.org/

NYC StreetsBlog:

http://www.streetsblog.org/

Got more good links? Add them here.

FRIDAY AFTER-PARTY

You're invited to the unofficial MooseCamp after-party: Pirates o' the Seabus!

The cheapest harbour cruise you can buy, with Pirates! Yarrrr! Ninjas also welcome.

Q and A...