Our Vision

Our goal with ODEN is to democratize Open Data so that developers do not have to choose which cities to write applications for. Imagine the benefit to cities if developers could obtain all common datasets from multiple cities in a standard format consolidated into one ready-to-use developer package. Such a platform levels the playing field among cities so that developers no longer have to choose between writing an app for New Westminster, Edmonton, or New York. They can, instead, write a single app and support all three cities from the very first day.

Background

To support economic, social, and collaboration goals, governments around the globe are pursuing Open Data initiatives. Research by McKinsey & Company shows that Open Data has the potential to help create $1.3 trillion in economic development in North America alone. However, they also report that momentum can happen only if private industry and public agencies cultivate a vibrant open-data ecosystem with investments in technology and expertise.

To unlock the potential economic and social benefits developers can create, a new approach is needed. Currently, Open Data developers want to be able to easily write apps that work for multiple cities so citizens will have more apps available to them. However, developers who want to use Open Data are inhibited by the time and effort required to find, normalize, and prepare the datasets for their programmatic needs. Developers need an efficient, unified platform that allows Open Data to be easily discovered across cities provided in a developer-friendly format.

ODEN - A New Developer-focused Open Data Platform

To meet this need, we’ve created a new Open Data platform called ODEN (Open Data Developer Network) that follows the proven, successful, developer focused models of sites such as GitHub and StackOverflow, while combining the collaborative nature of sites such as Wikipedia.

ODEN is the first platform designed to make it easy for developers to discover and use Open Data while at the same time, making Open Data better for all. ODEN has been built specifically for developers by developers.

About TerraTap

TerraTap Technologies Inc. is a Canadian technology company owned and operated in New Westminster, BC since 2009. TerraTap develops software solutions that utilize location-based proximity technology, the Internet of Things (IoT), and Open Data. TerraTap has won numerous entrepreneurial awards for its development including Entrepreneur of the Year from Douglas College, The SFU Venture Connection, The Coast Capital Savings Venture Prize, The Gerri Sinclair Award for Innovation in Digital Media from the Centre for Digital Media, and made Top 25 in the BCIC New Ventures competition.