Re: [Talk-ca] Open Database of Buildings / Base de données ouvertes sur les immeubles

[Alasia, Alessandro (STATCAN)]

Hi Janes, John and all,

Sure, it will be up to the OSM community to discuss, decide and organize as 
deemed appropriate.

The data are out there, released under one single open data lincese! (Open 
Government License - 
Canada<https://open.canada.ca/en/open-government-licence-canada>)

My hope is that much more will follow soon!

Regards,
Alessandro

From: John Whelan [mailto:jwhelan0...@gmail.com]
Sent: November-01-18 2:22 PM
To: talk-ca 
Cc: Alasia, Alessandro (STATCAN) 
Subject: Re: [Talk-ca] Open Database of Buildings / Base de données ouvertes 
sur les immeubles

I think on the OSM side we probably need to think this one through and get 
organised.

In Ottawa on the first import we went through all the steps to do the import 
including getting agreement with the local mappers and we were very fortunate 
in having an organised team of competent local mappers to do the import.

It went reasonably smoothly but there were some questions asked and one or two 
buildings were probably remapped which raised some eyebrows.  Since its been 
released under the federal government open data license licensing isn't an 
issue.

If we do nothing on the organising side then we will almost certainly get 
individuals importing Open Data in an ad hoc mode as has been happening in Nova 
Scotia recently.

My feeling is it would be better if mappers in the major cities / regions such 
as Toronto and Montreal took the lead for their cities / regions.

Cheerio John



Alasia, Alessandro (STATCAN) wrote on 2018-11-01 2:06 PM:

Released today!  / Diffusée aujourd’hui
Share with your networks ! / Partagez avec vos réseaux !


***(EN)
Open Building Data: an exploratory initiative
This exploratory initiative aims at enhancing the use and harmonization of open 
building data from government sources for the purpose of contributing to the 
creation of a complete, comprehensive and open database of buildings in Canada. 
The outcome of this exploratory work is a first version of the Open Database of 
Buildings<https://www.statcan.gc.ca/eng/open-building-data/open-database> 
(ODB), a centralized and harmonized repository of building data made available 
under the Open Government License - 
Canada<https://open.canada.ca/en/open-government-licence-canada>.
This initiative originates from insights taken from the Statistics Canada pilot 
project<https://www.statcan.gc.ca/eng/open-building-data/crowdsourcing-osm> on 
data crowdsourcing, which used OpenStreetMap as a platform for integrating data 
on building footprints. In addition to the possible benefits of crowdsourcing, 
that project highlighted the potential of integrating open data from municipal, 
regional, and provincial governments to meet the needs of official statistics.
In its current version (version 1.0), the ODB contains approximately 4.3 
million building footprints.
https://www.statcan.gc.ca/eng/open-building-data/index
Open Database of 
Buildings<https://www.statcan.gc.ca/eng/open-building-data/open-database> (ODB),

*** (FR)
Données ouvertes sur les immeubles : une initiative exploratoire
Cette initiative exploratoire vise à accroître l'utilisation et l'harmonisation 
des données ouvertes sur les immeubles provenant de sources gouvernementales en 
vue de contribuer à la mise en œuvre d'une base de données complète, exhaustive 
et ouverte sur les immeubles au Canada. Le travail exploratoire a mené à la 
création d'une première version de la Base de données ouverte sur les 
immeubles<https://www.statcan.gc.ca/fra/donnees-ouvertes-immeubles/base-donnees-ouvertes>
 (BDOI), un référentiel centralisé et harmonisé des données sur les immeubles 
rendu public en vertu de la Licence du gouvernement ouvert du 
Canada<https://ouvert.canada.ca/fr/licence-du-gouvernement-ouvert-canada>.
Cette initiative est fondée sur les leçons tirées du projet pilote de 
Statistique 
Canada<https://www.statcan.gc.ca/fra/donnees-ouvertes-immeubles/approche-participative-osm>
 sur l'approche participative en matière de données, qui avait employé 
OpenStreetMap comme plateforme d'intégration des données sur les empreintes 
d'immeubles. En plus des avantages potentiels de l'approche participative, ce 
projet a mis en lumière la possibilité d'intégrer les données ouvertes des 
administrations publiques municipales, régionales et provinciales afin de 
répondre aux besoins en matière de statistiques officielles.
Dans sa version actuelle (version 1.0), la BDOI contient environ 4,3 millions 
d'empreintes d'immeubles.
https://www.statcan.gc.ca/fra/donnees-ouvertes-immeubles/index

Base de données ouverte sur les 
immeubles<https://www.statcan.gc.ca/fra/donnees-ouvertes-immeubles/base-donnees-ouvertes>
 (BDOI)


Alessandro Alasia
Chief | Chef
Data Exploration and Integration Lab (DEIL) | Lab pour l’exploration et 
l’intégration de données (LEID)
Center for Special Business Projects | C

[Talk-ca] Open Database of Buildings / Base de données ouvertes sur les immeubles

[Alasia, Alessandro (STATCAN)]

Released today!  / Diffusée aujourd’hui
Share with your networks ! / Partagez avec vos réseaux !


***(EN)
Open Building Data: an exploratory initiative

This exploratory initiative aims at enhancing the use and harmonization of open 
building data from government sources for the purpose of contributing to the 
creation of a complete, comprehensive and open database of buildings in Canada. 
The outcome of this exploratory work is a first version of the Open Database of 
Buildings 
(ODB), a centralized and harmonized repository of building data made available 
under the Open Government License - 
Canada.
This initiative originates from insights taken from the Statistics Canada pilot 
project on 
data crowdsourcing, which used OpenStreetMap as a platform for integrating data 
on building footprints. In addition to the possible benefits of crowdsourcing, 
that project highlighted the potential of integrating open data from municipal, 
regional, and provincial governments to meet the needs of official statistics.

In its current version (version 1.0), the ODB contains approximately 4.3 
million building footprints.
https://www.statcan.gc.ca/eng/open-building-data/index
Open Database of 
Buildings (ODB),

***  (FR)
Données ouvertes sur les immeubles : une initiative exploratoire

Cette initiative exploratoire vise à accroître l'utilisation et l'harmonisation 
des données ouvertes sur les immeubles provenant de sources gouvernementales en 
vue de contribuer à la mise en œuvre d'une base de données complète, exhaustive 
et ouverte sur les immeubles au Canada. Le travail exploratoire a mené à la 
création d'une première version de la Base de données ouverte sur les 
immeubles
 (BDOI), un référentiel centralisé et harmonisé des données sur les immeubles 
rendu public en vertu de la Licence du gouvernement ouvert du 
Canada.
Cette initiative est fondée sur les leçons tirées du projet pilote de 
Statistique 
Canada
 sur l'approche participative en matière de données, qui avait employé 
OpenStreetMap comme plateforme d'intégration des données sur les empreintes 
d'immeubles. En plus des avantages potentiels de l'approche participative, ce 
projet a mis en lumière la possibilité d'intégrer les données ouvertes des 
administrations publiques municipales, régionales et provinciales afin de 
répondre aux besoins en matière de statistiques officielles.
Dans sa version actuelle (version 1.0), la BDOI contient environ 4,3 millions 
d'empreintes d'immeubles.
https://www.statcan.gc.ca/fra/donnees-ouvertes-immeubles/index

Base de données ouverte sur les 
immeubles
 (BDOI)


Alessandro Alasia
Chief | Chef
Data Exploration and Integration Lab (DEIL) | Lab pour l’exploration et 
l’intégration de données (LEID)
Center for Special Business Projects | Centre des Projets Spéciaux sur les 
entreprises
Statistics Canada | Statistique Canada
alessandro.ala...@canada.ca / (613) 796-6049


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Re: [Talk-ca] Fwd: BC2020i - update Sept 2018

[Alasia, Alessandro (STATCAN)]

Hi Steve,
If you read the email, you would see I did mention OSM (and it was sent to 
several people active with OSM in Canada, who rightly started a discussion on 
talk-ca).

Specifically about your question: I do not think it is up to me to tell what 
should be the role of the OSM communities across Canada. They will decide. Of 
course, I would hope to have many involved, but there are certainly different 
views and priorities and that is perfectly fine.

I will welcome any outcome of those decisions. But I would be more concerned 
about the manner in which discussions take place and the governance systems 
surrounding the possible decision making process.
Online discussion forums are a great tool to discuss and generate consensus. 
But I am certainly not revealing anything new in saying that online forums can 
become channels through which ideas are misrepresented (if not distorted) and 
extremely vocal individuals, with troll-like behaviours, discourage others from 
expressing their views and be part of constructive discussions. Occasionally, 
it may even happen that people expressing different views are targeted 
off-line, with rather aggressive and annoying emails. This can quickly turn a 
great tool for democratic participation and consultation in its opposite. Of 
course, I am talking in general, right?
Nevertheless, as the Canadian OSM communities continue to grow, they may have 
to address some of the issues related to their governance system(s). This may 
strengthen their voices and an authentic representation of their needs and 
aspirations, in connection with, and as an expression of, local groups across 
Canada. Ideally, an enhanced governance system for relevant decision making 
would include transparent participation mechanisms and some form of 
accountability to the communities themselves. Having this would probably 
facilitate the dialogue between institutions and OSM groups and eventually 
unleash the real power of civic data science.

Finally, I do not think there was anything wrong with BC2020 or BC2020i (to 
begin with, they are the same thing; the "i" was a nice suggestion of a 
colleague, which ensured a unique hashtag in twitter). This is not to say that 
this initiative is perfect. New and innovative ideas do not hatch perfect; they 
always need a lot of improvements and refining, and there is nothing wrong with 
that.

So to conclude, I can tell you what our (i.e., my team) role can be in BC2020i 
(in short: do our small part for more and better data available to all 
Canadian; in the specific case: our goal is to create an harmonized database of 
building footprints, available under a single open data license compatible with 
OMS, which would be available to all OMS groups interested in using it, 
importing, etc., as well as to all Canadians).

We will continue to work in this direction, with all groups and entities that 
are interested in making meaningful and concrete contributions toward that goal.

I trust this answer your questions. I would like to have more time to write 
emails, but unfortunately that is not the case, so do not be offended if I will 
not continue this conversation.

Best regards,

Alessandro

From: OSM Volunteer stevea [mailto:stevea...@softworkers.com]
Sent: September-16-18 8:00 AM
To: talk-ca 
Cc: Matthew Darwin ; Alasia, Alessandro (STATCAN) 

Subject: Re: [Talk-ca] Fwd: BC2020i - update Sept 2018

Matthew, I personally thank you for sharing Alessandro's missive with talk-ca 
(an OSM-based list).

However, Alessandro mentions "BC2020i" (and even "BC2020i-2"), initiatives 
which "used" (or proposed to "use") OSM as a data repository.  Not wishing to 
rehash history about this yet again, the initiative was found to not fully 
respect some basic tenets of OSM (primarily that process and importation of 
data be "Open") and a genuine attempt was made (partly rather publicly here) to 
re-imagine a re-branded project (BC2020, no "i") which more openly and 
harmoniously integrated with a wider OSM community using familiar and more-open 
communications channels like our wiki and this talk-list.

As Alessandro didn't mention OSM one single time in that message, yet it was 
forwarded to this list, I remain quite curious what role OSM is to or might 
play in any "BC2020i-2" initiative.  So, I invite / politely request Alessandro 
to post here exactly what that is or will be.  Is it a national-scale import of 
the Bing building data (as he says "what they did in the US")?  I realize that 
from STATCAN's and indeed a much wider Canadian perspective, this "initiative" 
will be much more than that, benefiting many, and for that I do share 
enthusiasm.  Still, I ask the specific question from an OSM perspective:  what 
role will our mapping project play?

Please, Alessandro, address OSM directly (in this list) what OSM is to 
BC2020i-2.  You might start

Re: [Talk-ca] Building Canada 2020 (BC2020i) Microsoft has released 120, 000, 000 building outlines for the US

[Alasia, Alessandro (STATCAN)]

Hi John and greetings to all BC2020i friends,

As mentioned in our last update, my team is compiling a database of building 
footprints from municipal open data sources; this dataset is now approaching 4 
million footprints and covers both major urban areas as well as some rural 
municipalities. We hope to release this entire database over the summer with an 
open data license, compatible with OSM imports.

We had a positive discussion with the Bing Maps team and talked about possible 
collaborations in enhancing open data availability of building footprints in 
Canada. At this stage, the discussion is still exploratory but, in my view, it 
was certainly a positive and encouraging exchange.

Reaching a nearly complete coverage of building footprints from municipal open 
data sources and satellite imagery processing would be a fantastic achievement 
for an open data agenda that would benefit BC2020i, the OSM community and all 
Canadians alike.

More updates soon. Stay tuned!

Alessandro

Alessandro Alasia
Chief | Chef
Data Exploration and Integration Lab (DEIL) | Lab pour l’exploration et 
l’intégration de données (LEID)
Center for Special Business Projects | Centre des Projets Spéciaux sur les 
entreprises
Statistics Canada | Statistique Canada
alessandro.ala...@canada.ca<mailto:alessandro.ala...@canada.ca> / (613) 796-6049



From: john whelan [mailto:jwhelan0...@gmail.com]
Sent: July 12, 2018 7:19 PM
To: Talk-CA OpenStreetMap 
Cc: Alasia, Alessandro (STATCAN) 
Subject: Building Canada 2020 (BC2020i) Microsoft has released 120,000,000 
building outlines for the US

I'm not sure what the implications are but hopefully they'll do Canada soon.

OSM-weekly.

Cheerio John
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[Talk-ca] BC2020i - Solving the licensing issues

[Alasia, Alessandro (STATCAN)]

Dear all,

It is fantastic to see all these exchanges about BC2020i! There are a lot of 
great ideas and improvements being made. I cannot follow up on each point, 
though I wanted to update you regarding one area of specific relevance: the 
attempt to find a solution to the licensing issue for building related 
datasets. I believe this is one area where my team can contribute to support 
the BC2020i.

With my team, I am looking into the feasibility of compiling all available 
municipal open data files into one single file and then releasing this single 
file under one common license, specifically the open data licence of the 
Canadian federal government. This would, hopefully, solve the license 
compatibility issue. We are still exploring this possibility but are moderately 
optimistic.

So far we started with the "easy" task: compiling all the known files - a 
special thanks to those who contributed to the tables on the BC2020i wiki page! 
With that and other OD sources, we compiled an "OpenAddressRepository" file of 
nearly 11 million records (georeferenced) and an "OpenBuildingRepository" file 
of nearly 3.2 million polygons (still in progress). Preliminary analysis 
suggests that the coverage and geocoding are very promising. More importantly, 
given that the files all originate from official municipal sources, there 
should be no reason to doubt the quality of the data.

The next step, for us, is to look at the process required to release these 
files with a GoC open data license. We do not yet have a clear timeline for 
release, but if this idea is possible, we should almost certainly make it 
before the timelines that were discussed on Talk-ca for vetting each and all 
individual municipal open data licenses  - 2080s or 2030s if I recall correctly 
:-)

We believe this solution/approach, if successful, puts an end to the issue of 
license compatibility (at least for the files found thus far) and greatly 
facilitates the use of these open data by the general public as well as the 
private and public sector. Furthermore, and more importantly for BC2020i, this 
solution paves the way for the many local OSM groups to import these open data 
as they see fit. As well, once the large national level files are released, we 
might be able to collaborate with local groups and provide more manageable 
partitions of the larger files.

Of course, this approach will not necessarily solve the license compatibility 
issue for all types of municipal files. Thus, needless to say, anybody is 
obviously free to pursue submitting individual municipal OD licenses to the 
License Working Group of OSM.  Though, given that the Working Group resources 
are scarce, and assuming the approach outlined above works for building 
footprints, we would be happy to discuss the feasibility of compiling and 
re-releasing other municipal open data under the open data licence of the 
Canadian federal government.

Finally, as I mentioned in other communications, my team is also exploring 
other activities that will hopefully contribute to the BC2020i. These 
activities touch on data analysis, data monitoring, and building footprint 
extraction from satellite imagery. For this work, we are primarily using open 
source tools and applications that can be integrated in open source 
environments (more updates on all of this hopefully soon!).

More updates, feedback, and follow up on other interesting points of discussion 
later on.

Regards to all,

Alessandro and DEIL team


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[Talk-ca] Building Canada 2020 initiative

[Alasia, Alessandro (STATCAN)]

Hello all!

Statistics Canada was a partner of the 2017 HOT Summit held in Ottawa, Sept 
14-15. In parallel to the summit, Statistics Canada hosted a workshop to 
discuss the possibility of launching a community-led initiative titled 
"Building Canada 2020".

The goal and vision of this initiative is simple: map all buildings in Canada 
on OSM by the year 2020. The workshop was well attended. There were about 50 
people from various sectors (federal, academic, civic group, and private). This 
was a preliminary discussion amongst a small group of people, but now that 
broad interest has been confirmed more stakeholders need to be involved!

A short summary of the workshop along with a first draft Roadmap to 
implementation has been posted on the OSM Wiki at: 
https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/WikiProject_Canada/Building_Canada_2020

Everyone that shares the vision of "mapping all buildings in Canada on OSM by 
the year 2020" is invited to contribute to the discussion and the roadmap to 
implementation. In addition, there is still need to discuss how coordination, 
communication and governance of this initiative can be set in place.

One important aspect that needs to be emphasized is that "Building Canada 2020" 
is not a Statistics Canada project. In fact, it is not properly a project of 
any sort. It is a vision and an aspirational goal. The hope is that many 
organizations and contributors working with an open data resource (OSM) can 
coordinate their efforts through a multitude of projects, initiatives, and 
activities towards a common goal that would benefit society at large.

My team at Statistics Canada (DEIL) has been working on a pilot project with 
OSM (which was presented at the HOT Summit). We are looking at the possibility 
of a second Statistics Canada project to expand to other cities the work done 
with the pilot in Ottawa and Gatineau. If this happens, this StatCan project 
would contribute to, and align with, the Building Canada 2020 initiative. 
Hopefully this will be but one of many projects and activities contributing to 
the vision. Where possible, we would be happy to coordinate work with other 
organizations or groups that share the vision. We would also be happy to share 
experiences and the tools developed while working with building information on 
OSM.

We look forward to further collaboration with the OSM communities as we move 
forward with the second phase of our project and expand to more cities.

Best regards
Alessandro and DEIL Team


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