The Future of Open Data flows from a multi-year Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Partnership Grant project that set out to explore open government geospatial data from an interdisciplinary perspective. Researchers on the grant adopted a critical social science perspective grounded in the imperative that the research should be relevant to government and civil society partners in the field.
This book builds on the knowledge developed during the course of the grant and asks the question, “What is the future of open data?” The contributors’ insights into the future of open data combine observations from five years of research about the Canadian open data community with a critical perspective on what could and should happen as open data efforts evolve.
Each of the chapters in this book addresses different issues and each is grounded in distinct disciplinary or interdisciplinary perspectives. The opening chapter reflects on the origins of open data in Canada and how it has progressed to the present date, taking into account how the Indigenous data sovereignty movement intersects with open data. A series of chapters address some of the pitfalls and opportunities of open data and consider how the changing data context may impact sources of open data, limits on open data, and even liability for open data. Another group of chapters considers new landscapes for open data, including open data in the global South, the data priorities of local governments, and the emerging context for rural open data.

Pamela Robinson (MCIP RPP) is Professor and Director of the School of Urban and Regional Planning at Ryerson University (Toronto, Canada). Throughout her career as a planner, her research and practice have focused on complex, emergent challenges that Canadian communities face. Her current research focuses on the question: who is planning the Canadian smart city? Pamela writes for Spacing.ca about sustainability, technology, and civic engagement in Canadian cities. Robinson was a member of Waterfront Toronto’s Digital Strategy Advisory Panel and an inaugural member of the Multi-Stakeholder Forum for the Government of Canada’s Open Government Partnership work. She is an Advisor on the Toronto Public Library’s Innovation Council.

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Teresa Scassa is the Canada Research Chair in Information Law at the University of Ottawa, where she is also a professor at the Faculty of Law. She is a founder and former editor of the Canadian Journal of Law and Technology; author of Canadian Trademark Law (LexisNexis, 2010); co-author of Electronic Commerce and Internet Law in Canada (CCH Canadian Ltd, 2012), which was the winner of the 2013 Walter Owen Book Prize; and co-author of Canadian Intellectual Property Law: Cases, Notes and Materials (Emond Montgomery, 2013). She is also a co-editor of the recently published Intellectual Property for the 21st Century: Interdisciplinary Approaches (Irwin Law, 2014). She is a member of the External Advisory Committee of the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, and of the Canadian Government Advisory Committee on Open Government. She has written widely in the areas of intellectual property law, law and technology, and privacy.

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Michael Geist is a law professor at the University of Ottawa, where he holds the Canada Research Chair of Internet and E-commerce Law. He has obtained a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.) degree from Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto, Master of Laws (LL.M.) degrees from Cambridge University in the UK and Columbia Law School in New York, and a Doctorate in Law (J.S.D.) from Columbia Law School.

Dr. Geist has written numerous academic articles and government reports on the Internet and law, is a nationally syndicated columnist on technology law issues for the Toronto Star and Ottawa Citizen, is the editor of Internet and E-commerce Law in Canada and the Canadian Privacy Law Review (Butterworths), and is the author of the textbook Internet Law in Canada (Captus Press), which is now in its third edition. He is the author of the popular BNA's Internet Law News and maintains a popular blog on Internet and intellectual property law issues.

Dr. Geist is actively involved in national Internet policy development and was a member of Canada's National Task Force on Spam. He has received numerous awards for his work, including Canarie's IWAY Public Leadership Award for his contribution to the development of the Internet in Canada, and he was named one of Canada's Top 40 Under 40 in 2003.

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Peter Johnson has taught history, English, and creative writing in high schools and colleges in Canada for over thirty-five years. He has written several books on BC maritime history, including Glyphs and Gallows: The Rock Art of Clo-oose and the Wreck of the John Bright; Voyages of Hope: The Saga of the Bride-Ships; Quarantined: Life and Death at William Head Station, 1872–1959; and, with John Walls, To the Lighthouse: An Explorer’s Guide to the Island Lighthouses of Southwestern BC. He has also written and directed a documentary film on Lake Winnipeg, which was shown on CBC television, and published interpretive articles on Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov and George Orwell’s 1984. He lives in Vancouver, British Columbia.

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