Meetup #19 – Open Data – Turning Public Data Into Useful Actionable Information

Event Snapshot

Who attended? See here.
Meetup Track: Innovation
Date & Time: Tuesday May 10, 2011 @ 7pm
Location: Ned Devines, Milton. [Map] Follow Ned’s at @NedDevinesONT

What this Meetup was About, by Richard Bolton

Meetup #19 kicked off with updates from Rick Stomphorst and Chris Herbert highlighted by the recent Toronto Star article on Silicon Halton that was published on May 9: Making Halton the next Silicon Valley (and here and here). Can you believe the week the article was published Silicon Halton gained some 65 plus new members?  Outstanding!  I made sure that Rick and Chris got a thundering applause from the audience for the hard work they have done to grow this amazing organization (slide deck)  There were over 40 people in attendance for the meeting and as always Ned Devine’s were gracious hosts keeping everyone liquefied.

The Meeting was passed over to the member MC’s for the evening, Richard Bolton and Robert Duvall.  After welcoming the half dozen or more guests in the audience the heart of the meeting started with a brief presentation by two new Silicon Halton members:

• Paul Lupinacci – Greentelligence:  A fully-automated, money-saving, web-based sustainability solution designed for businesses of all sizes. (Slide Deck)
• Romeo Mitchell – Bold Academy International and Bold Management Consulting: BOLD Academy delivers memorable experiences through training and mentoring. BOLD TCM Group services are delivered by a number of consultants and experts who align to specific fields, with a wide range of knowledge of the subject matter that they deliver. (Slide Deck)

Keynote: Open Data – Turning Public Data Into Useful Actionable Information

The topic for the evening was Open Data a really fascinating and growing field. The subject was somewhat new to me so, with open mind, I was prepared to listen and learn.  

Nik Garkusha, the Open Source Strategy Lead at Microsoft Canada and an active member of Open Halton, was the keynote presenter. Often referred to as the ‘Head of Open Sourcery’, Nik delivered an excellent presentation on Open Data – Turning public data into useful actionable information. Nik’s Slide Deck can be found here (Nik’s Slide Deck).

Following the presentation we had a panel discussion around the subject and Nik was joined at the front by fellow Open Halton members: Ricardo Covo and Mark Arteaga. Plenty of questions were asked. There are so many different ways I can see the application of Open Data working really well in Milton alone.

As an active board member of the Milton Chamber of Commerce I see many applications of Open Data from the Farmers Market to the Business Directory itself, all for the benefit our growing membership. Overall, I think, a successful meeting. As a lead in to Nik’s presentation, check out this A Case for Open Data in Transit 6min video. Nik also blogged on SiliconHalton.com about Open Data here and about a SiliconHalton un-meetup here.

Meta Data

Pix from the event here. Member blog post, Tokii, about this event there.

About the Keynote Presentor:

Nik Garkusha Nik Garkusha is the Open Source Strategy Lead at Microsoft Canada with the mission of building relationships with the local Open Source developer communities. Nik is responsible for a number of industry projects including Gov 2.0, Open Data, Open Source and PHP on Windows initiatives, and the founder of the Open Halton community. The common theme across all of his projects is the vision of providing an integrated platform for a seamless end-user and developer experiences across a wide range of devices and services; it’s this vision that Nik helps to bring to life through his leadership role on the Windows platform strategy team, Port25.ca editor and as a local representative of the Microsoft Open Source Technology Centre.

About Meetup # 19 Co-host & Blogger: Richard Bolton

As President of Centricity360 Consulting, Richard works with Business Owner, Professionals, and Non-Profit Organizations to develop progressive Sales, Marketing and Customer Service strategies. He also assists them to implementation leading edge technology to automate those strategies.  He leverages his experience with Social Media marketing tools, CRM software applications and Business Productivity solutions to help small and medium size businesses to strengthen their sales, marketing and service management capabilities to produce dynamic results.  You can connect with Richard on Twitter, his Blog, LinkedIn, or email.

Co-host Robert Duvall

Robert is President of Robert Duvall Consulting Inc (aka “RDC Networks”) based on Milton, Ontario, Canada. Robert started RDC in 1998.  RDC is a Microsoft Silver Partner, Cloud Specialist, Cisco Select Partner and registered Dell resellers.  Robert was a trainer for the Compumaster division of Skillpath Seminars for 13 years, training business individuals on Windows Server, Linux, Windows Operating Systems and Cisco. RDC specializes in Network Infrastructure, designing networks that work for small and medium-sized business.  You can connect with Robert on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Editor’s note: Meetup 19 represented another milestone;  Rick and Chris did not facilitate this meetup. Richard Bolton and Robert Duvall took on the rewarding challenge of arranging the MC’ing this meetup.  We hope do more of this.  If you’re interested in MC’ing an event, just let us know.  – Rick