Canada: data journalism powerhouse

UK’s Guardian dubs Canada an “open data and data journalism powerhouse”, thanks to the work of some enterprising data journalists.

First, the paper explores OpenFile.ca’s Poppy Project, where reporter Patrick Cain spent hours digging through the City of Toronto’s archives for information about local soldiers killed during World War 2. After crunching the data, they found a wealth of untold stories, and created an interactive map that gives details about Toronto’s fallen WW2 soldiers. The Guardian calls the project “the pinnacle of what data journalism is supposed to be about.”

The Guardian writes:

“Cain is one of the most established of the new breed. Names mentioned by those in the know include Chad Skelton on the Vancouver Sun, Rob Cribb at the Toronto Star; David McKie at CBC and Glen McGregor at the Ottawa Citizen.”

It adds:

“The Canadian government is consulting on an open data policy and recently, Canada’s biggest open data sites — Toronto, Vancouver, Ottawa and Edmonton — have started getting together to set a series of open data standards. Jury Konga, who has been helping to create the G4 Open Data Framework, says cities all over Canada are jumping onto the open data train: you can see our collection of Canadian open data sites here.”