Govern Together BC provides updates on policy changes, and has a searchable data base to discover any current public consultations. The site also provides a link for those interested in applying for government appointed seats on public bodies.
The list of current consultations includes panels reviewing the carbon tax, fisheries regulations, and transparency in the justice system.
The site also pointed me to Data BC, which provides public access to BC government data.
The site is very useable... for instance, in abut 1 minute, I was able to download the following information about unemployment rates by type of post secondary education attained.
| Unemployment Rate of Graduates from Public Post-secondary Institutions by Credential Type | |||||
| BC Public Post-secondary System, Survey Year 2006 to 2010 | |||||
| Published November 2011 | |||||
| Unemployment Rate (%) | Survey Year | ||||
| Credential Type | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 |
| Bachelor Degree Graduates | 3.9% | 2.8% | 3.6% | 5.9% | 6.6% |
| Apprenticeship Graduates | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | 9.6% |
| Diploma, Associate degree, & Certificate | 6.3% | 6.1% | 6.4% | 9.5% | 10.9% |
| high school or less (8 to 29 yrs) | 7.6% | 6.5% | 7.7% | 13.4% | 14.0% |
Graduate students with research interests in areas affected by public policy could find this a practical tool.
4 comments:
The Canadian government is a long ways behind the US in making their data openly available. This at least seems like a step in the right direction for BC. Do similar programs exist for the federal and other provincial governmental bodies?
I wonder if it would be possible to create data mining competitions a la kaggle.
The federal open data site is here: http://www.data.gc.ca.
I think Canada is quite a bit behind on open data access, and the feds are also just getting started with it.
I am also worried that there will simply be less good data, given recent cuts to research projects, archives, and stats can. I like Open Data, but I also don't want the role of reviewing statistics downloaded to volunteer enthusiasts!
Thanks much for the original post. I work for the Province and am focused on open data. We're especially interested in how we can improve what we are doing to help make your 'research' lives easier. Please drop us a note via our contact form: https://extranet.gov.bc.ca/forms/dbc/contact/index.html and let's connect.
Cheers, and thanks again,
David
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