Elections
Some cities have committed recently to publishing their public data in an open format that citizens can directly access. Should Hamilton pledge to become an "open source city"? Why or why not?
Responses to the question: "Some cities have committed recently to publishing their public data in an open format that citizens can directly access. Should Hamilton pledge to become an "open source city"? Why or why not?"
In This Page:
11 Candidate Responses (top)
| Mayor | ||
|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Brief Response | Full Response |
| Baldasaro, Michael James | Yes | Yes, Hamilton should become an "open source city" to promote more understanding of where we stand financially and to identify and better communicate on the issues affecting everyone within the Greater Hamilton Area. |
| Bratina, Bob | Yes | Yes, absolutely. The first priority in this is the live streaming of all committee meetings, which I will bring forward immediately upon election of the new Council. |
| Butani, Mahesh P. | Yes | I have been a proponent of an "open source city" for a very long time.
See some of my earlier views on this at: http://metrohamilton.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-city-as-an-open-source and http://www.raisethehammer.org/article/893/#comment-31573. Hamilton needs commitment in this area, and that can only come from a new leadership that implicitly understands and inherently values "open source" thinking. It is no longer about making pledges. It is about seizing the moment and running with it. We have lost precious time in wishing and hoping that the current leadership somehow learns about such ideas and gets around to believing in it enough to implement them. The benefits are enormous -- but over the last decade, the fear of the "new" has always stopped us from becoming truly who we are as a community. |
| Eisenberger, Fred | Yes | Most city information is already open source in the sense that it is publicly available for the asking. If there are ways to increase accessibility for the public I would favour looking at them as I believe the public interest is best served by putting out as much information as possible in a timely fashion. |
| Filice, Pasquale | Yes | Yes, can people can have a access. You have to have the proper psychology and first go to cat psychology school so they can dress like the cat and act like one to and chase there tail around in a circle. Of course communication, transportation, and education are the keys factors to upgrade your standards of living. |
| Haines, Andrew | Yes | Yes, we should endeavour to become an open source City. However, I believe that would only be one step toward Saving the City. We need Transparency, as opposed to Opacity. WE need to become involved in Government like never before.
As yourself: "Can we all govern?" Participative Government. Picture this: in the process of checking your daily e-mails, you get a link to the City of Hamilton's daily issues page. There, you see the issues that City Council will be dealing with that day. One by one, you click on the issues and read about them. Then you vote on them. Then you confirm your choices and click "ok" and close the page. Then you move or delete the e-mail and carry-on with your day. You've just participated in the actual functioning of your City Council: your vote is collected along with hundreds of thousands of other Hamiltonian votes and is used to guide the direction of Council. If you like this idea, you may like my website: AndrewForHamiltonMayor2010.com |
| Hamilton, Glenn | Yes | To help citizens know what is going on in city hall with their money. |
| Leach, Ken | Yes | The city should become an open forum for our public data. All citizens deserve the right to have access to the information that impacts them directly. In order to ensure transparency of our government, while ensuring that the public is aware of our plans to move forward, we must give them the opportunity. |
| Marrone, Tone | Yes | Yes, definitely. I can't think of a better way to keep the finances of the city honest. There is a widespread belief that Hamilton City Hall is corrupted, and whatever the actual truth may be, giving the public much greater access to city data will help to restore confidence in the government of Hamilton.
Admittedly, there will still be some things that must be kept confidential, and we cannot release data that would prejudice public works tendering, but the vast majority of city documents should be available to the public. The Internet has made the delivery of this material much more practical. |
| Veri, Victor | Yes | Yes, become an open source city. This allows citizens to be more informed on all the issues. In turn, these people can apply their beliefs on the issues at hand to the elected officials. |
| Waxman, Steven | Yes | Barriers must be reduced to allow ease of personal access. |
Response Summary (top)
| Brief Response | Count | % of Total |
|---|---|---|
| Yes | 11 | 100.0% |
| No | 0 | 0.0% |
| Maybe | 0 | 0.0% |
4 Candidates Have Not Responded (top)
| Mayor | ||
|---|---|---|
| Di Ianni, Larry | ||
| Graydon, Edward H.C. | ||
| Speziale, Gino | ||
| Wozny, Mark | ||
