The Information Management Public Lectures give attention to exciting advances in research and professional practice. The topics are diverse reflecting the importance and global extent of Information Management in today’s society. The lectures are open to all members of the Dalhousie campus and surrounding community. When feasible, recordings of the lectures are posted here for wider circulation. For the full schedule, visit the Public Lecture page of our website.

Open Data and Open Governance in Canada: A Critical Examination of New Opportunities and Old Tensions

Dr. Jeffrey Roy
School of Public Administration, Dalhousie University

Lecture Details
Tuesday, March 10th, 2015 from 4:00pm-5:00pm
Room 3089, Kenneth C. Rowe Management Building, 6100 University Avenue

Abstract

As governments develop open data strategies, their efforts reflect the advent of the Internet, the digitization of government, and the emergence of meta-data as a wider socio-economic and societal transformational. This lecture will seek to both situate and examine the evolution and effectiveness of open data strategies in the public sector with a particular focus on municipal governments in Canada that have led this movement domestically. It will also delve more deeply into whether and how open data can facilitate more open and innovative forms of governance enjoining an outward-oriented public sector (across all government levels) with an empowered and participative society.

Biography

Jeffrey Roy is Professor in the School of Public Administration at Dalhousie University. He is a widely published observer and critic of the impacts of digital technologies on government and democracy. Dr. Roy has worked with the United Nations, the OECD, multinational corporations, and all levels of government in Canada. He is a featured columnist in Canadian Government Executive, and his most recent book From Machinery to Mobility: Government and Democracy in a Participative Age was published by Springer in 2013. Dr. Roy’s research has been supported by several funding bodies including the Social Sciences and Humanities Council of Canada and the IBM Center for the Business of Government.