Opening up government through Open by Default

Alex Benay: Hi. My name is Alex Benay. I’m the Chief Information Officer for the Government of Canada. Open government as far as I’m concerned is the future of government especially in the Government of Canada.

I think we’ve got an unbelievable opportunity to turn the government into a platform more people can engage with. In order to do that, we have to put more and more of our content online by default. Ultimately for me, open by default or open government is about reducing the barriers to access to government.

I think the days of the silent public servant need to come to an end. We need to engage with the communities around us more and regardless of what sector that they’re in. The government right now to promote open government, we’re launching a pilot project that is open by default. So the platform in itself is just the beginning.

We live in an age where there is an interconnected society and we need to start leveraging the benefits and the power of the masses. The tools are available and at our disposal to be able to engage in this kind of conversation. You can check out the open by default portal for yourself on open.canada.ca.

On screen: Share your ideas on open.canada.ca