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How does the US do this? In Canada, everything is so splintered. Open Data is available at various levels (municipal, provincial), but it's in different formats

How does the US do this? In Canada, everything is so splintered. Open Data is available at various levels (municipal, provincial), but it's in different formats, many government bodies don't expose anything, and it's all very .. uncooridnated. But this is not the first time I've seen data from the US which feels so well organized. Is the secret sauce the data/providers, or is the creator of this site just very good at organizing a big mess?

notwhereyouare 2y ago
i think the creator is good. I think they are just scraping different power company outage maps. If you look in some places there's 0 data because the power company doesn't have a true outage map
- icegreentea2 2y ago
  Yeah, and for context, there is a Canada version of the map. https://poweroutage.com/ca/ https://poweroutage.com/ca/
  - philistine 2y ago
    Euh, I don't think Manitoba Hydro has 600,000 customers in Québec. I wouldn't trust that map.
    - momothereal 2y ago
      If you go on the page for Manitoba Hydro, it says there is 1 customer in Quebec: "South Cypress". Although South Cypress is a municipality in Manitoba. Seems like a data issue where the municipality was double-counted and one in Quebec for some reason. https://poweroutage.com/ca/utility/1408 https://poweroutage.com/ca/utility/1408
    - deleted 2y ago
      [deleted]
evolve2k 2y ago
An open data commitment across gov agencies was an explicit commitment and project started in 2013 during the Obama administration. “On May 9, 2013, President Obama signed an executive order that made open and machine-readable data the new default for government information. Making information about government operations more readily available and useful is also core to the promise of a more efficient and transparent government.” https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/open https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/open I know about this because the Australian government then followed and worked on doing the same. Data.gov became a central place to access and even request that departments open specific data sets and in more formats. https://data.gov https://data.gov https://data.gov.au https://data.gov.au The annual GovHack hackathon was supported by many agencies, leading to a strong prize pool and people from various agencies on hand looking for teams who over the weekend had done cool things with their data (specially if it was public interest). Some projects were further funded coming out of the hackathons. https://govhack.org/about https://govhack.org/about Year on year ongoing commitment to open data in government got us to here. It was a great long term initiative furthering values of cizitzen engagement, open data and open government.
- cavisne 2y ago
  This is a third party site that just scrapes utility websites. So open data initiatives are not relevant.
  - evolve2k 2y ago
    Over a decade of open data culture got us here. Privatised electricity companies often seek to maintain a veneer of social good. Opening data for which you plan to not make open tools yourself can be a good way to have tools built that you don’t pay for that make you look good.
- chrisco255 2y ago
  Most power companies in the U.S. are not run by the government.
  - 2y ago
dpc050505 2y ago
Hydro-Quebec has a web app that works very well to look at outages and service status.

notwhereyouare 2y ago

i think the creator is good. I think they are just scraping different power company outage maps. If you look in some places there's 0 data because the power company doesn't have a true outage map

icegreentea2 2y ago
Yeah, and for context, there is a Canada version of the map. https://poweroutage.com/ca/ https://poweroutage.com/ca/
- philistine 2y ago
  Euh, I don't think Manitoba Hydro has 600,000 customers in Québec. I wouldn't trust that map.
  - momothereal 2y ago
    If you go on the page for Manitoba Hydro, it says there is 1 customer in Quebec: "South Cypress". Although South Cypress is a municipality in Manitoba. Seems like a data issue where the municipality was double-counted and one in Quebec for some reason. https://poweroutage.com/ca/utility/1408 https://poweroutage.com/ca/utility/1408
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]

evolve2k 2y ago

An open data commitment across gov agencies was an explicit commitment and project started in 2013 during the Obama administration. “On May 9, 2013, President Obama signed an executive order that made open and machine-readable data the new default for government information. Making information about government operations more readily available and useful is also core to the promise of a more efficient and transparent government.” https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/open https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/open I know about this because the Australian government then followed and worked on doing the same. Data.gov became a central place to access and even request that departments open specific data sets and in more formats. https://data.gov https://data.gov https://data.gov.au https://data.gov.au The annual GovHack hackathon was supported by many agencies, leading to a strong prize pool and people from various agencies on hand looking for teams who over the weekend had done cool things with their data (specially if it was public interest). Some projects were further funded coming out of the hackathons. https://govhack.org/about https://govhack.org/about Year on year ongoing commitment to open data in government got us to here. It was a great long term initiative furthering values of cizitzen engagement, open data and open government.

cavisne 2y ago
This is a third party site that just scrapes utility websites. So open data initiatives are not relevant.
- evolve2k 2y ago
  Over a decade of open data culture got us here. Privatised electricity companies often seek to maintain a veneer of social good. Opening data for which you plan to not make open tools yourself can be a good way to have tools built that you don’t pay for that make you look good.
chrisco255 2y ago
Most power companies in the U.S. are not run by the government.
- 2y ago

dpc050505 2y ago

Hydro-Quebec has a web app that works very well to look at outages and service status.