This resource package includes presentation files and additional resources for the closing panel at the Canadian Open Data Summit (CODS18) on November 8, 2018 in Niagara Falls, Ontario. Sharing of this package is made possible by ODX in partnership with Niagara Connects.
This closing panel consisted of experts from government, academia, civil society and business, and focused on charting the way forward into the future of Open.
Moderator: Paul Connor is currently director of operations at CleanTech North, a community of interest among clean technology founders, investors and supporters; and a volunteer at Niagara Connects, currently the secretariat for the 5th Annual Canadian Open Data Summit. Paul has previously served as Economic Research & Analysis Manager / Foreign Trade Zone lead at Niagara Region, and President of NAO-Ontario (now called Angel Investors Ontario), a provincial network of groups of technology investors. His abiding interests and specializations include open data, communities of practice, social enterprises, technology investment, economic development, and corporate communications
Panelists:
Connie McCutcheon is the Open Data Project lead for the Niagara Region and Niagaraopendata.ca Administrator. Connie is also President of MISA Ontario (Municipal Information Systems Association) and co-chairs the MISA Canada Open Data Special Interest Group (SIG) and PSOD – Ontario’s Public Sector Open Data group. Connie holds a degree in Urban Geography from the University of Western Ontario as well as a certificate from Brock University in Urban and Environmental Studies. She is passionate about citizen engagement and the opportunity open government provides for new innovations and insights.
Mélanie Robert leads the Government of Canada’s efforts to transform the public service culture and processes towards an “Open by default” mindset and open-by-design approaches. She coordinates efforts across the federal family to improve transparency, accountability and citizen participation, which include the open government portal, www.Open.Canada.ca, and the Government of Canada’s Biannual Action Plans. Acting as Canada’s Open Government Partnership (OGP) point of contact, she coordinates Canada’s international engagement and collaboration with provincial, municipal and Indigenous partners to advance open government goals. With more than 20 years of experience in the federal public service in operational, advisory and challenge-function roles, Mélanie has advanced files related to technology, innovation and engagement. She holds a BSc in Communications and Political Science from the Université de Montréal and a Master’s degree in Economic Development and International Cooperation from the Université de Paris in France.
Jury Konga is an Associate with OpenNorth, Canada’s leading non-profit in Open Government, Open Data and Smart Cities. His recent work with OpenNorth includes been a principal author of the Do-It-Yourself Open Data Toolkit. He is an innovator and long-time advocate and international speaker on Open Government, Open Data, e-Government, m-Government, transformative/disruptive innovation and Smart Cities/Intelligent Communities. He has over 40 years’ experience in the public, private and not-for-profit sectors in diverse areas including GIS services, land information management, public policy development, IT consulting, intelligent community assessment and Open Government and Open Data strategic and tactical plan development and implementation. Jury supports open data internationally primarily as an active member of the International Open Data Charter’s Measurement and Accountability Working Group and also as the Canada Ambassador for Open Knowledge International. Jury was appointed as an IPC “Access by Design” Ambassador by Dr. Ann Cavoukian, Ontario’s former Information and Privacy Commissioner and he is a Co-founder of the former Canadian Open Data Institute. He was the inaugural Chair of MISA’s Gov 2.0 Committee (2010), Chair for the GO Open Data Conference 2014 and acts in an advisory capacity for a variety of community focused innovation and service projects. Jury is also the Executive Director of the GO Open Data Association, a grass roots organization that holds a successful open data conference annually in Ontario, Canada.
Kevin Tuer is Managing Director of the Canada’s Open Data Exchange, a national initiative launched in May 2015 with a mandate to help the private sector adopt and commercialize data from public and private sources for the purpose of enhancing their current products or creating new products. As Vice President Strategic Initiatives for Communitech, Kevin leads data driven innovation cluster building activities including open data, big data, artificial intelligence, machine learning and the Internet of Things (IoT), for the purpose of creating or accelerating new opportunities in emerging fields for the private sector. Previously, Kevin was the founding Managing Director of the Canadian Digital Media Network (CDMN), a federal Centre of Excellence for Commercialization and Research, which is dedicated to establishing Canada as a world leader in Digital Media by enabling connections and collaboration of people across the country and bringing more digital solutions to market. In addition, he led the design and deployment of the Communitech Hub, a world leading innovation centre located in the Waterloo Region as well as the CDMN’s national network and associated programming strategy. Prior to launching the CDMN, Kevin held several engineering and senior management positions in the high tech industry including Senior Research Engineer with Computing Devices Canada (now General Dynamics Canada), VP Engineering for Control Advancements Inc., as well as co-founder and CTO of Handshake VR. Kevin holds a BASc (Honours) in Mechanical Engineering, a MASc in Mechanical Engineering, and a PhD in Electrical Engineering from the University of Waterloo.
Charles Conteh is an Associate Professor of Public Policy and Management in the Department of Political Science (Brock University), and Director of the Niagara Community Observatory. Charles’ research and teaching interests are in the areas of Canadian and comparative public policy, public management, political economy and governance. He currently investigates how local and regional communities are reinventing themselves in the face of economic, social, digital and ecological changes.
Christine Hagyard leads the Policy and Partnerships team and champion’s Ontario’s Open Data and Open Information work. Christine is passionate about change and leads her team in an effort to drive an open culture across the OPS, increase demand and supply of Ontario’s information, and foster collaboration and partnerships to improve all Ministries and Agencies efforts in becoming more open
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