Digital Strategy

The Digital Strategy is Oakville’s roadmap to becoming to the most digitally connected community in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA).

The strategy identifies the following areas of focus to move the town’s digital transformation forward:

  • Adopting a Citizens First approach to designing digital tools and services
  • Making better use data and analytics to make evidence-based decisions
  • Establishing partnerships with private, public and academic leaders

Citizens first

Engagement with citizens is at the core of the digital strategy and we are committed to engaging community members early and often so that digital services are designed to meet your needs and expectations.

Beta site - coming soon!

Our new beta website will be a testing ground for new digital ideas, tools and services. It will feature projects that are works in progress, or the sparks of good ideas that need your input and further testing. Stay tuned for an invitation to collaborate and design with us.

Partnerships

Becoming the the most digitally connected community in the GTA will require strong collaborative partnerships with academic and private sector organizations.

We will:

  • Develop a framework that recognizes the different skills and abilities of prospective partners.
  • Examine our procurement processes so that partners can co-invest with greater confidence.
  • Take a pilot approach, relying upon evidence to determine which projects to support and expand.

Data and analytics

Oakville produces enormous amounts of data about places, people and events, and this wealth of information will help us make better informed, evidence-based decisions that will best serve the community.

Open data

The town is committed to being open, accessible and accountable. We will build on our open data program and continue to proactively share our data to see what’s possible when government and the community collaborate.

We will:

  • Develop and implement a data policy outlining what and how much data the town will share, and under what terms and conditions.
  • Expand the open data program and examine data creation, publishing and distribution solutions.
  • Ensure that agreements with software vendors make it clear that we own any data produced in their systems, and control the terms and conditions over its use.

Smart technologies

Smart city technologies use sensors to connect things, such as building controls, environmental management, and video monitoring, to the Internet. These sensors collect data – everything from wear and tear on an engine, to the temperature of a building, to traffic volume. Smart technology is completely changing how municipalities solve complicated urban challenges related to transit, emissions, traffic, energy management, economic development and more.

We will:

  • Create pilot projects to test out smart technologies.
  • Engage partners to help us find new applications and benefits of smart technologies.
  • Encourage new partners to locate to Oakville, attracted by our ‘most connected community’ status, and our ongoing smart city initiatives.

Contact

Ian Barker
Director, Digital Strategy
905-845-6601, ext.3936 
ian.barker@oakville.ca