## 1 Introduction  
Many governments are striving to develop so-called open data strategies, taking previously internal and often proprietary sources of information and rendering them public through online spaces. Such efforts are indicative of the emergence of meta-data as a wider socio-economic and societal transformational driven by the advent of the Internet on the one hand, and massive and newly accessible data flows on the other hand [1]. These continually expanding data flows may well constitute new forms of public and private value if harnessed and exploited, something governments are now seeking to do via their open data efforts both directly (by opening up the information to wider access) and indirectly (by allowing for and stimulating innovative usage and application). However, open data does not fit easily within the rubric of democratic governance and traditional public administration [2]. The movement partly draws sustenance from an evolving and increasingly open and data-driven society shaped by a confluence of both technological and governance patterns emphasizing mobility, collaboration, and participation: it is underpinned by the backend dynamics of cloud computing for information storage and processing, and frontend Web 2.0 platforms (and social media in particular) and tools that facilitate content generation and sharing, thereby feeding the growing meta-data vortex. Open data is thus closely intertwined with the emergence of \"Gov 2.0\"--and yet its emergence invariably encounters tensions between traditional public sector culture and structures more predicated on control-minded principles such as secrecy and hierarchy [3]. The purpose of this article is thus twofold. First, we seek to both situate and examine the evolution and effectiveness of open data strategies within the Canadian public sector, with a particular focus on local, municipal governments that have led the development of this movement. While national governments often receive greater attention for their efforts due to their heightened technological prominence and greater information holdings, it is locally where Canadian public sector open data efforts have been pioneered, a reflection of the bottom-up nature of many aspects of government innovation and reform in the digital era [3]. At the same time, the inter-relationship between various government levels is also an important determinant of the impacts of open data on jurisdictions as a whole (and thus an issue also examined in this article). This latter point thus speaks to the second purpose of this article--namely to consider the evolution of open data and its capacities to foster more open and innovative forms of governance for the public sector as a whole (an ambition ascribed to by governments themselves and one in keeping with the spirit of open data as an evolutionary process from basic forms of data availability to more dynamic and participative information eco-systems). This article, therefore, seeks to develop a better understanding of open data's potential and effectiveness through this wider governance prism--building on the now widely-recognized premise that merely making information available in an open and online format is not sufficient to drive change and create value [4].