Responses to our online consultation question 1 (Page 3)

This is what we have heard in response to our online consultation question 1: "What could be done to make it easier for you to find and use government data provided online?"

Less onerous registration process' might help. I found trying to create an account on My Service Canada for example to a fairly frustrating experience.

- eyeball

• linked data

• RDF

• Principles of the Symantic Web

• google indexed

• machine processable formats (CSV, TXT, XML, RDF)

• flexible licenses

• appropriate documentation

• Subscribed feeds (RSS and Atom)

• raw data, not heavily processed

• access to specialists to ask questions about the data

• statistics on usage of various products

- davidsampson.ca

Well, all the search functions of gov of canada websites function poorly. It's often easier just to google the subject/topic.

If you try to "browse" Open Data, the scroll menu is SUPER small, which goes against basic usability and accessibility. And there also aren't any sub-subject options, so if i click "Science and tech" I get absolutely everything. People may want to just browse R+D, etc.

- jandii

• Organize it clearly with many ways to sort and filter the data set.

• create similar templates to display and search through data for similar data sets across all departments and sources.

• sort data sets by different types. eg financial, military, assets, demographics, etc.

• partner with google and use their technology to use your data in more ways with a web browser. for example, google maps or google docs

- aaronT

A more straightforward breakd own of the budget...total for each department with a breakdown of where it gets spent. I tried to find out how much the federal govt transfers per aboriginal person and it was very difficult. I do know that it is less than the average canadian but could not get a clear breakdown.

- Maureen