As huge sets of data are increasingly becoming available to the public, the ability to make that data relevant and useful is becoming a valuable skill.
The Honourable Tony Clement, president of the Treasury Board of Canada, and Ray Sharma of XMG Studios Inc. are touring the country to promote CODE: the Canadian Open Data Experience, with the aim of spreading the word about how Canada’s Federal Open Data aims to spur innovation and benefit Canadians. Last Friday, they visited HÂţ» — an obvious destination given that the university is quickly becoming a big player in the data field as the event’s MC, Richard Florizone, Dal president and emcee of the evening, was quick to point out.
“A year and a half ago Dal actually launched Canada’s first institute dedicated to big data analytics,” said Dr. Florizone. “Big data analytics advances are creating better communities, better cities, connected citizens, and [showing] how [citizens] can make better use of open data.”
Later this month, CODE will be hosting its second annual Hackathon: an intense, 48-hour coding competition from February 20-22 that invites Canadian innovators to create the best app using the Federal government’s open data. There’s a $15,000 grand prize at stake, along with several $5,000 category prizes. (Last year’s Hackathon winner was an app called
newRoots that matches new Canadians with their ideal city.)
The federal government is not the only organization promoting the use of their data by hosting Hackathons. Donna Davis, chief information officer of the HRM, discussed the Apps4Halifax contest, wherein contestants create apps using the data sets that the HRM has made available to the public. Apps4Halifax lead to the creation of the popular transit app, Knowtime.
Along these lines, the Faculty of Computer Science will be hosting its annual this term as well, a contest in which all Dal students can take part.
Creating skill sets for Canada’s digital economy
Mike Smit from the HÂţ» Institute for Big Data Analytics and the School of Information Management wowed the crowd with insights into the huge demand for data literacy developing right now in the workforce — what Dr. Smit described as a “massive skills gap.”
HÂţ» is on its way to addressing this gap, though. “The new Data Science specialization within the Bachelor of Computer Science degree at Dal is just the perfect thing to try to start filling this skills gap,” said Dr. Smit.
The new Data Science specialization is just one of the ways that Dal is supporting students who want to do exciting things with large and diverse data sets — from the Institute for Big Data Analytics, to the School of Information Management, to opportunities within the new ICT Sandbox for student entrepreneurs.
All the evening’s speakers proved the same point: open data is a hugely valuable resource that, if used effectively, can benefit Canadians in ways we never thought possible. “These apps connect open data to people, by converting it into open information,” Dr. Smit explained. “[Apps] aren’t really about the data; they’re about the people.”