Has our Prime Minister’s recent summer vacation taken Canadian transparency to a new level? Spotted by a Peterborough family emerging from a cave shirtless, our prime minister’s chiseled abs have been covered by national and international media alike. Here’s a list of what has got us wanting to take our own shirts off and run into the wide open Canadian wilderness.
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We don't often talk about this, but part of Powered by Data’s original inspiration was an important innovation in international development — the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI). As a Canadian organization devoted to developing our nonprofit sector’s data infrastructure, it’s easy to get caught up with our work here. But it's important for us to discuss international best practices — especially when they are applicable back home.
Read MoreWe recently published an article in Markets for Good. It outlines some of our concerns with the BRIDGE project. Despite the good intentions of those behind it, we think that the BRIDGE project currently stands at odds with technical best practices and some of the social sector’s values…
Read MoreOne of our objectives is to create an enabling data environment for the nonprofit sector. This means making sure all of the different stakeholders in the sector have access to the data they need to make informed decisions.
We have made some great strides over the past three years. Datasets we have helped to “liberate” include the Canadian Revenue Agency T3010 tax forms, gaming records of the BC government, and granting records of several key funders in Canada.
Now we have a new item to add to that list.
Read MoreLast summer, we were delighted to help the Ontario Trillium Foundation (OTF) become the first Canadian grantmaker to publish their grants in a raw, open and machine-readable format. Others have taken notice and started to join in — the Canada Council for the Arts launched an open data pilot project, publishing open data about their grants for the past two fiscal years.
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