The first public meeting of Montréal Ouvert took place last thursday. We are happy to report that it was a great success, with over 50 (60?) Montréalers turning up to make their support known for municipal open-data!

Participants were invited to a public discussion of what open-data would mean for Montréal as well as a deliberation on how we could best collectively proceed towards an open-data policy. The large majority of the participants were well informed about the topic of open-data and were up-to-date on the developments in other cities in Canada and around the world. Some had already worked on open-data projects such as OpenStreetMap Montreal and OpenParliament.ca. It was a surprisingly diverse group, with many representatives from the educational, developer, non-profit, and private sectors, and even some participants from the city who shared an inside view of this issue.

The participants were introduced to the people behind Montréal Ouvert and had the opportunity ask questions about our experience and knowledge of the issues. In addition, participants inquired about Montréal Ouvert’s contact with stakeholders in other cities who have developed and implemented open-data policies. They also asked about our next steps and reported that they were happy with our direction of encouraging and supporting the city towards the goal of passing an open-data policy. Specific issues discussed included privacy, security, cost-benefit, technical questions for implementation, and licences.

We wish to thank all the citizens who came out to manifest their interest and support for this issue and we look forward to working with them to make this goal a reality!

We also want to thank Station-C for their hospitality. Without places like Station-C, un-financed, citizen activities like MontréalOuvert would have a hard time finding places to hold this type of public event.