## 3 Case Study: Open Data at the Canadian Municipal Level
In the realm of construction data, for instance, an early and prominent open data success in Edmonton, the role of the traditional media in being leveraged as a partner to generate awareness and access to the municipal data catalogue has been acknowledged [21]. Yet the media's traditional orientation as a so-called fourth branch of democratic governance, coupled with the heightened forms of activism and sensationalism online, often reinforce inward and proprietary forms of information management and communications for government entities (a challenge that is accentuated at the national level, as further described below). Thirdly, there are important ramifications to consider with respect to participation and inclusiveness--and whether or not open data initiatives are likely to augment or diminish existing digital divides (or instead foster newer forms of data divides as some have suggested). The above Edmonton quote suggests empowerment: residents'making more informed choices and decisions about their community and their government'. This ambition also speaks to the participatory and political dimensions to open government and the shifting roles and inter-relationships of elected officials, city managers, and citizens. Open data is viewed by many proponents as a step along an evolutionary path toward \"ubiquitous engagement\"--a term denoting high levels of democratic literacy and involvement on the part of the citizenry in most every aspect of governance and one further examined below [22]. Addressing any prospective digital divide is a theme absent from the formal pronouncements of the City of Edmonton, suggesting an implicit view that the creation of open data and open government (and the likeminded deployment of apps) can increase the sphere of community awareness and involvement by introducing novel channels and mechanisms (and more generally by leveraging the Internet as a platform for information openness). It also bears noting that the City's internal open data advocates are younger and more technology-savvy than most public servants and thus keen to exploit this new, online frontier. The point is not to suggest insensitivity to the digital divide, but arguably the opposite--and an implicit belief that greater openness and technological mobility can help build more social inclusion. In the case of Edmonton, it is perhaps also the case that this issue has not received much prominence with respect to the open data and open government initiatives specifically, since they have been viewed as pilot activities with experimental and ground-breaking aims (nonetheless noting as well that accessibility was the first dimension of the criterion for judgment in the local apps competition). Yet the absence of formal linkages between openness and inclusion is a noteworthy point and a theme further examined below. The other prominent dimension of the digital divide with relevance to open data is geographic: the relative size of organizational capacities and informational holdings of local government on the one hand, and the local populous on the other hand. A growing technological and online cleavage between large and small communities is thus a widely shared concern among smaller municipalities where tighter financial and human resource capacities often limit innovation and experimentation, as does more limited and uneven technological infrastructures for the community as a whole. Accordingly, until quite recently the open data has largely emerged across Canada within the confines of urbanization. Yet along with the aforementioned example of Nanaimo, British Columbia, the small Alberta County of Grand Prairie (approximately 500 km's northwest of Edmonton) suggests a widening of open data's parameters and highlights the importance of thinking strategically across jurisdictional boundaries.