We’ve been accepted to present 5 Blocks Out at Toronto DemoCamp #24.  Hooray!

It should be a good opportunity to show what we’ve done so far on 5 Blocks Out, and to get feedback and engagement from a broader set of folks in Toronto’s tech community.

If seeing interesting slices of  Toronto’s tech activity sounds good to you, check out DemoCamp, and in a similar vein and spirit, Ignite Toronto.

We launched a fun local e-newsletter this week called the Bird Nest Press. Hurray!

It’s geared at parents with young kids. The newsletter will explore local places, resources and tips to make parenting even more enjoyable.

Check out the first issue here. And subscribe to the Bird Nest Press here. We plan to publish every 3 – 4 weeks.

The first issue has a very useful presentation on H1N1 vaccinations. Forwarding it to new moms will be appreciated…believe you me.

One of the things the massive 5 Blocks Out product team (ahem… all two of us) does is slurp up lots of city-related data into 5BlocksOut.com. We’ve built a list of Toronto neighbourhoods, for instance — there are a few hundred — and we’re compiling lists of thousands of named places within the city. This all takes a lot of time, even with the help of our community members, so we’ve been pretty excited about the “Open Data” initiative that the city is putting together. If the city provides some of the data that we currently gather manually it should allow us to focus more on improving the “application” part of 5 Blocks Out, instead of toiling away on invisible-yet-necessary “plumbing”. This is a big deal, not just for 5 Blocks Out and other software projects, but for our 50-some thousand city staff and, ultimately, millions of citizens.

Toronto Open Data kicked off in earnest yesterday and today at the Toronto Innovation Showcase event. I attended the Open Data Lab on day 1, and took part in a panel discussion hosted by Mark Kuznicki with David Crow, Jay Goldman, and Greg Wilson on day 2 (today). It was a lot of fun, and the buzz and positive energy was palpable. See the Twitter backchannels here and here. I was particularly inspired to meet so many smart and can-do city employees.

If you’d like to get involved in requesting and using open data related to the city, check out DataTO.org, where you can put your wish lists. I put ours (place name location data) on the site, so go vote for it now!

The panel webcast will be archived at some point on toronto.ca/toshowcase, so check back there if you’re interested.