As part of their commitment to making municipal information more open, transparent and accessible, HRM has started a 12-month Open Data Pilot Project that includes a nice user friendly web site and lots of data for people to play with. HRM’s Open Data Catalogue is powered by The Socrata Open Data Platform, the most widely-adopted Open Data solution in government. they claim that "Whether you are a software developer or a non-technical user, the Open Data Catalogue has something for you. - Anyone can easily create a map based on geo data using either Google Maps, Bing Maps or ESRI"
As part of the project, HRM will host an open data application contest this summer to inspire the development of innovative, interesting and user-friendly applications using HRM data. The contest aims to reward developers who create useful, creative and effective citizen apps using any of the available HRM datasets. Have an idea for an app? Then get involved.
In February 2014, following the pilot project, a report to Regional Council will present a recommendation on whether to move forward with a permanent Open Data policy. Now because this is only temporary I encourage everyone to go to the HRM Open Data Catalogue and download data, create maps with HRM data and show your support for open data so we can encourage more places to provide data for Nova Scotioners.
HRM Open Data Catalogue: https://www.halifaxopendata.ca
Also check out http://CanadianGIS.com/data for a growing list of more then 75 other great sources of Canadian data
