selling Saint John through open data

Open Data and an Hierarchy of Needs

This sounds like a lecture about Maslow.
Its not but...
                     .....there is something to learn from his hierarchy of needs if a City like Saint John is going to design an open data portal which will be of some use to its citizens

• What are the opportunities here?
• What are the basic services...and are they any good?
• What is the leadership like and do people care to select good leaders? Is the leadership stable or is it changed as often as one would a pair of socks?
• Does the community value diversity? Is it clean? What are crime rates like?
• Does the community value aesthetics?

Each of these may be quantified.

opportunities 

• How good is the local economy? A scan of a few editions of the Telegraph Journal might help. An open data portal might describe how people are employed, what sorts of skills stay and what skills move on ( say from university).
• What job opportunities are there?
• What are the median salaries?
• What is the cost of living and how does that compare to comparable cities in Canada?  
• What are the opportunities for continuous learning?
• Is there a robust social enterprise movement?
• Is there an impact hub? How many businesses spin off from it?
• How many start ups are there each year and in what sector?

Opportunity extends beyond the economy. What are the chances that you will be able to build social as well as economic networks in this community? In other words, is Saint John a place you can easily plug into?

basic services

What are these?

Easy.

Education, health care, housing, safety, public health

• What is the range of educational programs available in Saint John? The quality and proliferation of such services is clearly an indication of the quality and proliferation of other amenities...not to mention how creative the community is. 
• How active is the Brilliant Labs project? 
• How many start ups from this project start up each year and in what sector?
• How easy is it to get a family physician? a dentist? a physio?
• How good is the hospital? In some provinces, hospitals publish a report card, comparing themselves to hospitals in other communities. These report cards cover pretty much anything you might want to know including the range of services, infection rates, wait times, ALS. In the US, they also publish mortality data.
• Public health will present overall morbidity rates. How healthy is the community?
• What is the housing market like? Costs, commute times, sale and re-sale rates.
• How well are children treated? What are poverty rates?
• Public transportation may also be a factor. How easy is it to move around the city? Are there bike lanes. How many people use public transit to get to work? How many people drive? 

leadership

• What does the local media say about the leadership of the City.
• What are the voting patterns at the local, provincial and national levels?
• Is the local DEC (Board of Education) active?

aesthetics

• Is there local theatre, an arts community, a school of performing arts and how well are these attended?
• How many local restaurants are there? How long do they last?
• Is there a local culinary school?
• How active is local amateur sport? How many players move onto senior levels? How well attended are local sporting events? How many fitness programs are there? 

These are a few questions which might be answered through an open data portal. A more robust portal could focus its data on the degree of creativity exists within the City. More on this later.