Release Notes Canada’s Third Biennial Plan to the Open Government Partnership (2016-2018) Consultation Data

Series Name: Open Government Action Plan Consultation Data (2016)

Key Words

3BP, Open Government Action Plan, Consultation, Consultations, National Action Plan, NAP,  Public Consultation, Public Consultations, Comments, OGP, Open Government Partnership, What We Heard.

Series Description:

From March 31 to July 15, 2016, the Government of Canada conducted public consultations in support of developing Canada’s Third Biennial Plan to the Open Government Partnership (2016-2018).  The datasets contain the comments, questions and ideas received, as well as the coding added to conduct the qualitative analysis. Private personal identifiers have been removed from the data. There are two sets of data: one entitled “Compilation” and the other, “Individual Comments”, as well as a supporting document entitled release notes that describes the content in detail.

For additional information on the methodology used, please see the “Gathering and Analysis” section of the “What We Heard” report.

Official Languages:

Consultations were conducted in English and French, and comments were always encouraged in either official language.

Comments and summaries provided by citizens who participated in the consultations appear in the language in which they were provided.

Summary notes created by government employees and the complete “What We Heard” report are provided in both official languages.

Each dataset is described below, along with a list of abbreviations at the end of the document.   

Compilation —Open Government Action Plan Consultation Data (2016)

Description:

The dataset includes comments, questions and ideas from a variety of sources identified in the source field; these include web comments, in-person event table worksheets, meeting notes, and social media posts. The compilation data includes data from two fields also found in the Individual Comments data.

Field Descriptions:

Row# - is a unique identifier

Votes – some ideas generated online have “votes”. Where the result is a number, it indicates the number of votes the idea received, where it is Yes, it indicates that it was the number one idea from an in-person table as determined by the table, and where there is no entry, there are no votes associated with that comment.

Context – additional context is provided for the comment which is dependent upon the source. In the case of most web comments, the context is the name of the web page or idea that the comment is associated with. In the case of twitter comments, the context refers to whether the comment is a directly associated with the action plan (AP) or refers to a blog or web site that is indirectly associated with the plan.  In the case of in-person events, the context refers to the focus question the comment relates to.

Source – identifies the source of the comment:

• Indv Comment – transcribed from an in-person, individual comment form, created by participants
• Group Comment – transcribed from an in-person table discussion form, created by participants
• Meeting Report – report on bilateral or multilateral meeting with stakeholders, created by open government staff
• Event Report– report on conversations at third party events with stakeholders, created by open government staff
• Facilitator Notes– notes taken during a workshop or roundtable, created by the facilitator
• Other In person – notes taken from internal and ad hoc conversations
• Suggest an Idea – participants suggested an idea for inclusion in the plan via a web form at open.canada.ca
• Idea Comment  - participants commented on an idea via a web form at open.canada.ca
• DP- Web Comment – participants commented on the draft action plan via a web form at open.canada.ca
• Other Open.Canada.ca – relevant participant comments from any web form at open.canada.ca
• Other online – relevant comments from other online sources
• Twitter – Relevant comments using the hashtags #OpenGovCan and #GouvertCan
• Twitter - Google Hangout – comments associated with the April 6, 2016 hangout hosted by the President of the Treasury Board.
• Other SocMed – other social media, usually a blog that comments directly on the action plan
• Email – comments received at the open-ouvert@gc.ca mailbox
• Contact Us – comments from participants via the contact us form at open.canada.ca
• Detailed Submission – comments are excerpts from detailed submissions, usually a text document or pdf.

Comment, Question or Idea– this is the main body of a comment. Some comments that included more than one idea were broken into separate entries that are connected by the context field. Text is displayed in the language it was provided.

PLEASE NOTE: Some comments are quite lengthy and may exceed the cell display limit in some programs such as Excel 2003. If this occurs, the entire text can usually be viewed in the formula bar which can be expanded by clicking and dragging.

Comment, Question or Idea Translation if available – In accordance with the official languages statement,when the comment was summarized by an employee of the Government of Canada, it was translated, when the comment was provided directly by a participant in their own words, it was not.

The following represent category fields that were added during the analysis; it is these fields that drive most of the data visualization in the “What We Heard” report:

Primary Commitment and Secondary Commitment– assigns the comment to the proposed Third Biennial Plan commitments and other interest areas:

• ATI
• Personal Info
• Open Data
• Provide and Preserve Access
• OG Performance
• Open Government Skills
• Service Strategy
• Open Heritage
• Open Spending & Procurement
• Open Budget & Analysis
• Grants & Contribution
• Open Corporates
• Geospatial Data
• Open Science
• ODX
• Open Data Canada
• Extractives
• Support Global Transparency
• Civil Society
• Open Dialogue & Policy
• Promote OG Globally
• CRA Services
• General Comment
• Other - Postal Codes
• Other - Open Parliament
• Other - Whistleblower
• Other - Data & Civic Literacy
• Other - Open Source
• Other - Co-creation
• Other - Open Culture
• Other - Resources
• Other - User Centric
• Other - Multilateral Collaboration
• Alt - Collaboration Issues
• Alt - Communication
• Alt - Copyright Waiver
• Alt - Indigenous
• Alt - Official Languages
• Alt - Prioritization
• Alt - Process & Tools
• Alt - Quality & Standards
• Alt - Community
• Alt - Governance & Licence
• Alt - Specific Data
• Alt - Youth
• NA

Primary Theme – links the comment to the themes of the Third Biennial Plan to the Open Government Partnership (2016-2018):

• Open by default
• Fiscal transparency
• Innovation, prosperity & sustainable dev
• Engaging Canadians & the world
• NA
• General Comment
• Not categorized

What We Heard (WWH) Theme- represents the themes that emerged during analysis and were used to structure the “What We Heard” report:

• Open Data
• Open Dialogue & Policy
• Access & Preservation
• Open Data Canada
• Multilateral Collaboration
• Culture of Openness
• Open Parliament
• Data & Civic Literacy
• Postal Code Data
• Open Source & Co-creation
• NA
• Other

Final Disposition- verifies whether a comment has been covered in an existing commitment, if it should be considered for a future Open Government Plan, or if it could help shape the implementation of a specific commitment:

• Yes
• Partial
• No
• Future Consideration
• Implementation Guidance
• NA

INDIVIDUAL COMMENTS —Open Government Action Plan CONSULTATION Data (2016)

Description:

All comment data collected from Individual Worksheets that participants completed as part of the in-person sessions. This data is presented in the language in which it was provided by participants.

A sample of the worksheet can be found in the appendices of the “What We Heard” report.  A subset of this data (the Public Engagement Question and 1 Practical Idea) is included in the “Compilation” dataset.   

Field Descriptions:

Row – is a unique numerical identifier

Event – represents the event at which the Individual Feedback form was collected:

• ARMA
• Edmonton
• Montreal
• Ottawa
• Toronto
• Victoria
• Whitehorse

Source –identifies the source of the comment:

• Indv Comment

Sector – The sector the participant self-identified with:

• Academia
• Business
• Media
• Non-profit
• FedGov
• PTGov
• MunGov
• Individual
• Student
• Other
• NA

Public engagement question (also in “Compilation”)– participant’s answer to the question; “One question I would like to see explored in public engagement sessions on Open Government is:”

1 Practical idea (also in “Compilation”) – participant’s answer to the question; “One practical idea about how to make government more open might be:”

3 words – Three words that describe why the participant was attending the event

OG is important because – participant’s answer to the question, “Open Government is important to me because:”

Preferred way(s) to participate in OG – participant’s answer to the question; “Ways I would like to participate in the Open Government initiative in the future is/are:

1. On-line forums
2. Online surveys
3. Social media
4. In-person workshops on particular topics
5. Open public meetings
6. Commenting on documents online or by email
7. Other

What did you like most – participant’s answer to the question; “What did you like most about the session?”

Dislike – participant’s answer to the question; “What did you dislike most about the session?”

Improvements –participant’s answer to the question; “How can we improve the Open Government consultation experience?”

Would you recommend – participant’s answer to the question; “Overall, would you recommend a colleague to participate in this consultation session” 1 = Not at all, 10 = definitely

Other Comments – participant’s general comments

Abbreviations:

• AP – Action Plan
• APIs - Application Programing Interfaces
• ARMA – American Records Management Association
• ATI – Access to Information
• Biz - Business
• CAJ- Canadian Association of Journalists
• C/NP – Community/Non-profit
• CoP – Community of Practice
• CJFE- Canadian Journalists for Free Expression
• CSO – Civil Society Organization
• CODE – Canadian Open Data Experience
• DP – Draft Plan
• ESTMA – Extractives Sector Transparency Measures Act
• Fed – Federal
• FedGov- Federal Government
• Gen – General
• GoC – Government of Canada
• IATI – International Aid Transparency Initiative
• ID – Idea Dialogue
• IM – Information Management
• Indv – Individual
• Info – Information
• ISED – Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada
• MunGov – Municipal Government
• MP – Member of Parliament
• MPP – Member of Provincial Parliament
• NA – Not Applicable
• NFB – National Film Board of Canada
• NP – Non-profit
• OD – Open Data
• ODC – Open Data Canada
• ODI – Open Data Institute (See ODX); not to be confused with the UK Open Data Institute
• ODX – Open Data Exchange (formerly CODEX – Canadian Open Data Exchange and/or the Canadian Open Data Institute)
• OGAP2 – Open Government Action Plan 2 (Released October 2014)
• ON OG – Ontario Open Government
• PS – Public Service
• P/T – Province/Territory
• PTGov – Provincial or Territorial Government
• PWYP – Publish What You Pay
• SLAPP – Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation
• Sum – Summary

APPENDIX 6: Consultation Data

These files contain the raw comments and coding used to produce the “What We Heard” report.

• Individual Comments — Open Government Action Plan Consultation Data
• Compilation — Open Government Action Plan Consultation Data
• Release Notes — Open Government Action Plan Consultation Data

Context WORDS

• Engagement public and civil society
• Collaboration across sectors
• Online idea

Compilation sheet - Context data