Region of Waterloo Open Data Licence v.2.0
You are encouraged to use and re-use the Information that is available under this licence, freely and flexibly, with only a few conditions.
Using Information under this Licence:
- Your use of Information indicates your acceptance of the terms and conditions below.
- The Information Provider grants you a worldwide, royalty-free, perpetual, non-exclusive licence to use the Information subject to the conditions below.
- This licence does not affect any copyright exceptions or limitations available under the Copyright Act (Canada).
You are free to:
- Copy, publish, distribute and transmit the Information
- Adapt the Information
- Use the Information commercially, for example, by combining it with other information, or by including it in your own product or application.
You must, where you do any of the above:
- You are not required to provide credit to the Information Provider when using Information under this licence however if you choose to do so please use this text in a suitable location, "Contains information provided by the Regional Municipality of Waterloo under licence"
- Ensure that you do not use the Information in a way that suggests any official status or that the Information Provider endorses you or your use of the Information
- Ensure that you do not misrepresent the Information or its source
- Ensure that your use of the Information does not breach or infringe upon any applicable laws
These are important conditions of this licence and if you fail to comply with them the rights granted to you under this licence will end automatically.
Exemptions
This licence does not cover the use of:
- Personal information
- Information or records that are not accessible pursuant to the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act of Ontario;
- Third-party rights the Information Provider is not authorized to licence, if any
- Departmental or public sector organization logos, trademarks, slogans or crests where they may be included in the Information
No warranty:
- The Information is licensed 'as is' and the Information Provider excludes all representations, warranties, obligations and liabilities, whether express or implied, in relation to the Information
- The Information Provider is not liable for any errors or omissions in the Information and will not, under any circumstances, be liable for any direct, indirect, special, incidental, consequential, or other loss, injury or damage caused by its use, even if specifically advised of the possibility of such loss, injury or damage
Governing law:
This licence is governed by the laws of the Province of Ontario.
Definitions:
In this licence, the terms below have the following meanings:
'Information': means information or data protected by copyright that is expressly made available under the terms of this license on or through the Regional Municipality of Waterloo website.
'Information Provider': means the Regional Municipality of Waterloo;
'Personal Information': has the meaning set out in section 2 of the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act of Ontario;
'use': as a verb, means doing any act that is restricted by copyright, whether in the original medium or in any other medium, and includes without limitation distributing, copying, adapting, modifying as may be technically necessary to use it in a different mode or format.
'you' or 'your': means the natural or legal person, or body of persons corporate or incorporate, as applicable, acquiring rights under this licence.
About this Licence
The Region of Waterloo wishes to use this licence as a tool to enable the use and re-use of Information under a common open licence. This licence is based upon the the UK government's Open Government Licence for Public Sector Information and has been adapted with the permission of the UK National Archives.
This is version 1.0 of the Open Data Licence for the Regional Municipality of Waterloo. The Regional Municipality of Waterloo may, from time to time, issue new versions of the Open Data Licence for Regional government Information. However, you may continue to use Information licensed under this version should you wish to do so. Notices of new versions of the Open Data Licence for the Regional Municipality of Waterloo will be posted at the Region's website.
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What is open data?
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The Region makes data it collects available to the public via Region of Waterloo - Open Data. By offering data sets for others to use, the Region supports unfiltered access to its data. This allows the public to analyze data for their own purposes, it provides additional research resources and it allows applications to be created using regional data to provide potential benefit for everyone.
Over the last year, a project team has been involved in a comprehensive investigation to inform recommendations into the development of an open data initiative. The team has been working with internal staff, other Canadian municipalities and the community to ensure it uses the appropriate approach.
The open data initiative at the Region will continue to grow. This launch of data is the first step and we will strive to continually update, add to and enhance the site. Visualization tools will be provided in the near future and new datasets will be added to the site
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How can people submit ideas for data sets?
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| Please feel free to email the Open Data Project Team to submit ideas. These ideas will be provided to the appropriate data owner to review and to analyze whether the data can be made available. |
How are data sets selected for the open data catalogue?
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| The Region's open data initiative is still in its infancy. Region staff responsible for data collection are working towards releasing all allowable data as soon as possible. The Region is working towards a proactive approach to analyzing data that it will collect in the future to ensure it will be posted. |
Will personal information be at risk?
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The Region complies with freedom of information and privacy laws and will not be releasing information that infringes on privacy rights. In fact, the Region will not be able to fulfill some requests from the community for data to due privacy restrictions.
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Under what licence is the data available?
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| The Region researched many data licensing options. The licence mimics the Open Government Information Licence (OGL) developed by the UK government, maintained by the UK National Archives. The Province of British Columbia's open data initiative uses a variant of the OGL and the Region has developed its licence using the same wording as BC's, with minor changes to respect applicable legislation. |
What projection is the data provided in?
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| The GIS data provided by the Region of Waterloo is in the Universal Transverse Mercator, Zone 17, NAD83 projection. |
Why is a particular dataset not available yet, and when will it be?
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| The Region maintains thousands of datasets that come from many sources. Our intention is to release as much Regional data allowable by law. Exceptions include restrictions on release because of privacy or confidentiality issues. Resolving issues and privacy concerns takes time. |
How frequently is data updated?
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| Operating divisions and program areas within the Region manage their own data sets and update them as required to meet business needs. The currency of the data is stated as part of the dataset information. |
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