In Category on 08 Jun 2026
What CKAN Made Possible: A Sixteen-Year Open Data Story
From NYCBigApps to federal metadata standards — a co-founder's story of why CKAN's real value was never the portal
The Canadian government today relaunched its Open Data Portal, data.gc.ca, using CKAN 2.0. The launch was timed to coincide with the adoption of an Open Data Charter by Canada and other G8 countries today, at a summit in Northern Ireland.
The portal, which was developed and deployed in-house, includes a number of adaptations to CKAN, most notably a bilingual extension enabling metadata to be entered in English or French and translated, and fixed tags available in both languages. Like CKAN itself the extension is open source and freely available for other sites to use.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper said that creation of the next-generation Open Data Portal demonstrated "our firm commitment to a more open, transparent and accountable government", and that it would "generate innovation and the economic social benefits that come with it." It makes some new datasets available to the public for the first time, including data on housing, health and environment.
The site joins another new Canadian portal, the official data catalogue of the city of Ottawa. Ottawa's portal has also recently moved to CKAN, to take advantage of features including custom RSS feeds, the API, and better search features.
The portal, which was developed and deployed in-house, includes a number of adaptations to CKAN, most notably a bilingual extension enabling metadata to be entered in English or French and translated, and fixed tags available in both languages. Like CKAN itself the extension is open source and freely available for other sites to use.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper said that creation of the next-generation Open Data Portal demonstrated "our firm commitment to a more open, transparent and accountable government", and that it would "generate innovation and the economic social benefits that come with it." It makes some new datasets available to the public for the first time, including data on housing, health and environment.
The site joins another new Canadian portal, the official data catalogue of the city of Ottawa. Ottawa's portal has also recently moved to CKAN, to take advantage of features including custom RSS feeds, the API, and better search features.
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In Category on 21 May 2026
CKAN in the Age of AI: A Call for Agnosticism and Provenance
CKAN co-steward Steven De Costa makes the case for CKAN as the trusted data foundation for AI — providing provenance, machine operability, and the cold reasoning that keeps AI outputs grounded in reality.