We are big fans of open data and government transparency. Open Data is the concept that government data should be freely available to everyone to use and republish as they wish, without restrictions from copyright, patents or other mechanisms of control (via Wikipedia). The Open Data movement asks governments to publish information on their activities – budgets, service schedules, trash pickup, pollution information, and a myriad of other data in a structured format (i.e. not PDFs) with a legal licence that allows software developers to build websites and mobile apps to make the data more useful to the average citizen.
The potential for open-data to help the environmental, health and safety compliance world is huge. We are only starting to see the potential of this information with sites such as Emitter.ca which maps data from the National Pollutant Release Inventory (NPRI), allowing Canadians to see air pollution levels near their home and workplace. One could easily imagine this information correlated with lung cancer rates and smog levels to better help citizens decide where to live, work and send their kids to school. For health and safety issues, work accident data with location, type of accident and employer name could be easily made available – allowing potential employees to easily assess the level of safety at a job site and incite companies to become even safer.
Despite efforts at the Canadian Federal level and 24 municipalities, free high quality data on environmental and safety issues is hard to come by. In 2010, we issued a report on environmental fines in Canada between 2000 and 2009. The data for that report was obtained from a variety of government websites and through access to information requests, it was painful, slow and probably missed some key elements. If all governments in Canada and abroad published their environmental fines and warnings in a structured manner, it would be much easier to identify the tricky parts of the law that need clarification and punish repeat offenders who do not respect environmental laws. We plan to update the report soon.
In a similar vein, Eco Justice Canada issued a report on the state of environmental enforcement in Canada. In the study, author William Amos clearly explains the lack of quality data regarding fines and warnings related to environmental legislation. The report states, “Enforcement data under different federal environmental laws is hard to access because it is gathered using inconsistent methods. This unnecessarily complicates the comparison and analysis of enforcement data, diminishing the public’s ability to hold government accountable and to assess the risks to environmental and human health.”
The report goes on to recommend an open data policy for environmental fines data, “[The Federal government should] Establish a comprehensive online database to provide full disclosure of compliance and enforcement of all federal environmental laws. Modelled upon the Enforcement and Compliance History Online data-base, created by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, it should be updated monthly, enable geographic and facility-based searching and data analysis, and contain multiple user-friendly file formats that better allow concerned citizens to monitor local enforcement issues.”
To enforce environmental protection in the 21st century, we need to use 21st century technology. That requires open data. Pro-actively publishing data in an open format allows non-profit organisations, such as Eco Justice, engaged citizens and other canadian organisations to monitor factories and plants in their neighbourhood for environmental and health and safety compliance. While the Federal government is moving slowly, a Canadian court ruled that Environment Canada has to publish much more pollution data than what it is currently issuing. Specifically, mining effluent pollution needs to be public and included in the standard NPRI reports. This is a major victory that will likely improve the lives of people in mining communities across the country. With governments around the world moving in this direction, proactive publication in open formats will only increase, Canadian companies should be prepared.
Monitoring your EHS obligations on an ongoing basis and in a rigorous manner will become more and more important as we move towards an open government with open data policies embedded throughout its departments. We look forward to seeing more governments publish health, safety and environmental performance online in formats that allow citizens to stay informed of their employers and their neighbourhood company’s efforts to continuously improve their EHS compliance.
To take action on this, contact your federal, provincial and municipal representatives using Represent and make a donation to Eco Justice. You can also suggest a data set for the government to publish (i.e. environmental fines, health and safety accidents, …) at the Federal Open Data portal.
Note : Jonathan volunteers at Montreal Ouvert and Quebec Ouvert and is a board member at Open North.
Just a quick announcement that our EHSQ Reporter for iPhone and iPad will soon be receiving a free upgrade. This upgrade addresses a number of bugs and issues. It will also be adding in-app purchases and higher quality reports for all of our users around the world. The update has been going through the Apple Approval process for the past two weeks and we hope it will be available soon, our apologies for the delays and inconveniences this might have caused.
Yves Faguy, LLB, of Nimonik recently had a chance to sit down with Janice Walton, LLB, of Blakes in British Columbia to discuss recent changes to water laws and regulations. Let us know what you think.
Yves Faguy of Nimonik chats with Janice Walton of Blakes about recent changes to environmental assessments regulations in Canada.
There are a lot of environmental, health and safety auditors looking for audit tools to make their job easier. iPads and iPhones should rightfully be part of their solution; however, the differences between an iPad software and a desktop or web based software are rarely well understood. Many software vendors – eager to make a sale – who have offered a web based solution for years, try to convince potential clients that since their software works through a web browser, it can be used on a mobile device.
While this is technically true, it is practically false. A web browser on a desktop with a large screen and stable internet connection is completely different from a 10 inch or 4 inch screen on a 3G mobile connection. It is akin to saying a Hummer and a Mini are the same thing because they are both cars. To see an example of this narrative, take a look at this thread on LinkedIn.
A software designed for iPad is completely different than one that is web based or for desktop computers – as it should be. Vendors who claim that their service “is web based, so it can be accessed from an iPad” do not understand the potential benefits and the constraints of an iPad or iPhone (or any touch based device). Software vendors and EHS&Q inspectors looking for both a desktop and mobile solution need to understand why an iPad is not simply a mobile web browsing machine. iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch software must be built specifically for it.
Because an iPad uses your fingers and not a keyboard and mouse, the entire experience for a user is different. Your fingers are a lot bigger than a mouse and your perceptual relationship to a mouse is not the same as your fingers (I hope!). With a mouse, your hand controls a device that makes a pointer on a screen move. With your fingers you are directly manipulating something on a screen and you see and feel the reaction immediately; this is much closer to how you interact with real world objects. This great video explains these concepts in more detail.
Additionally, the screen size is quite different (smaller) and the angle you view the screen at not the same as you have when sitting at a desk. The great iPad software out there – from EHS to games to newspapers – are always designed with these constraints in mind. Making a great iPad app based on these realities is really, really hard, we have been at it for one and a half years and we are still not fully satisfied with the results.
To better meet their audit needs, I suggest EHS auditors and inspectors first determine if they are looking for an iPad solution first or a web based solution first, that will really change their selection priorities.
These major differences between the two devices are why we chose to invest a lot of time, effort and resources into two distinct products for environment, health, safety and quality audits: one for iPad and one web based. While the two integrate together with the click of a button, they are very different beasts.
We designed EHSQ Reporter for iPad to help auditors gather data in the field (notes, photos, videos, audio) and perform audits and inspections as efficiently as possible. The app is fundamentally a data collection and organization tool.
We then designed our web based WikiChecklists site to manage audit templates, modify audit results (collected on iPad), work in teams, track changes by colleagues, issue corrective actions and compare site performance – not to gather data.
I have not spoken of whether a well designed mobile web app (def. website designed for mobile devices) can replace a native app (def. a piece of software that runs on the device) – that is a more nuanced argument. But, if you want to take full advantage of a device’s speed, video, audio, photo and GPS capabilities – native apps are still leagues ahead. This might change in the near future (possibly 2014), but for now we feel native iPad, iPhone and iPod touch apps offer a better experience to auditors who need reliability and efficiency in the field. Of course, your comments and counter-arguments are welcome!
So, when choosing your next EHS software, please take care to determine where you will be using it most – at a desk or in the field.
