Issue link: https://resources.esri.ca/i/778281
ments, municipalities can reach higher levels of productivity. With the rise of cloud computing that has made sharing easier and faster, municipalities can further improve efficiencies by opening up their data to the public so it can be "mashed up" with other data to become even more meaningful and useful. Opening Up a World of Benefits through Open Data Forward-thinking cities are al- ready embracing this new idea. Hali- The Historic HaliTour web app by Jeremy Tupper of Dalhousie University takes users on a virtual tour of numerous historic sites around the Halifax downtown and waterfront areas. It maps museums, forts, government buildings, ships, churches, and other historically-relevant locations around Halifax, along with facts and pictures of each site. The app integrates the community boundaries and building footprints datasets from the Halifax open data catalogue. fax Regional Municipality in Nova Scotia is realizing more benefits from their data and GIS through their open data catalogue. Halifax had embarked on an open data pilot project in 2012, which released 17 datasets that gave the public free access to georefer- enced information such as civic ad- dresses, crime data, and public bus routes. "The open data program we pro- posed would make public informa- tion more accessible and introduce a level of transparency into govern- ment decision making that wasn't there before," said Mark Helm, team lead of data services for Halifax, who spearheaded the open data project team. "Regional council also identi- fied an opportunity for economic development for local businesses. By releasing the data with no restric- tions, no copyrights, and no fees, we're giving businesses and entre- preneurs the opportunity to get into markets that consume data, such as building web apps." "By releasing the data with no restrictions, no copyrights, and no fees, we're giving businesses and entrepreneurs the opportunity to get into markets that consume data, such as building web apps." December 2015 Municipal World 25