Province plans to overhaul access to information
The provincial government is hiring a consultant to develop a plan for bringing open government to Alberta as part of a wholesale remaking of the provincial access to information system.
The province plans to integrate Alberta’s government libraries with what it calls an “open-government office,” and the consultant will draft a plan to open government and write a handbook for provincial employees.
Service Alberta Minister Manmeet Bhullar said the move is part of a multi-year effort to liberate provincial data from storage vaults.
“Right now, government has scores of information and data all over the place. We want to move that data from being in physical locations to having that data be stored electronically, and converted into open formats,” Bhullar said Thursday.
The goal, he said, is to get government information online and publicly available “so the creative minds in our world can get access.
“To me, open data is about helping foster creativity.”
The department’s 2013-16 business plan sets ambitious goals. In 2012, the plan shows there were no government data sets available online; by 2015-16, the department wants to have 1,000 data sets online. A data set is similar to a simple spreadsheet, but can contain millions of lines of information which can be searched and sorted in innovative ways. Researchers, librarians, industry, app developers and journalists can mine data sets for new information.
The new plan is expected to help the province integrate the work of government libraries with a new office.
Bhullar said the change will take time, and those seeking a quick fix will be disappointed. The purpose of the work is to start moving the province in the right direction – beginning with the state-of-the-art expense-disclosure system released earlier this year.
Bhullar said government is “a big, big machine” and changing course requires step-by-step changes.
Bhullar said the province will consult with Information and Privacy Commissioner Jill Clayton when sensitive information is being made publicly available online.