1. Avoiding Conversion Aversion or Preaching to the Converters 211Ontario.ca Presentation to 2009 AIRS Conference Mining for I&R Excellence June 2009

2. E Pluribus Unum – Canadian Style 211Ontario.ca Presentation to 2009 AIRS Conference Mining for I&R Excellence June 2009

3. What is the 211Ontario.ca Project? An online province-wide bilingual directory of community, social, health and related government services, searchable by topic, geography and keyword.

4. What is the 211Ontario.ca Project? The online channel for 211 service delivery in Ontario. An important compliment to 211 telephone service $3 million investment over 3 years Led by Findhelp Information Services

5. Supporting the development of the directory: Development and implementation of the AIRS Canadian bilingual Taxonomy of human services for enhanced searching Strengthened data partnerships across Ontario Improved consistency and quality of data Spin-off project to create French language community resource information

6. Background - Ontario Canadas largest province by population (13M) Canadas 2 nd largest province by total area 72% of population live in communities of more than 100K Large population of First Nation, Metis and Inuit living in urban centres and on reservations Large population of Francophones Toronto (capital) is the most multi-cultural city in the world

7. Background - History Over 25 years of successful collaboration in Ontarios I&R Sector The umbrella organization representing over 40 Community Information Centres (CICs) and associated Information and Referral Providers around the province of Ontario Mission to strengthen and enhance CICs in Ontario by providing them with leadership in the areas of standards, accreditation, marketing, development and information technology Common thesaurus and style guide

8. 1996 to present: Ontario data collaborative NameTypeTarget population Ontario Victim Support ServicesPhone (Victim support line) Online Victims and families of victims of crimes Employment OntarioOnlineUnemployed and under- employed Access to Professions and Trades OnlineForeign-trained professionals 211 Extended hours PhoneResidents of Central East, Niagara, Northern Ontario, Halton Region and Windsor- Essex Youth Justice ServicesOnlineYouth in conflict with the law Aboriginal Services DirectoryOnlineFirst Nations Metis Inuit Justice services and Resources Directory OnlineParole officers and prison release planning Newcomer servicesOnline (Web services)Newcomers to Ontario

9. Background - Software CIOC is a member-based non-profit consortium formed in 1999 to create, improve and support its online software so that its members can efficiently serve the public and fulfill their own mandates. CIOC is all about building community online - people helping people by sharing information, experience and resources. 21 of 22 lead data partners use CIOC software making it easier to share data

10. Map of Current Ontario Data Collaborative 22 lead partners 52 agencies around Ontario coordinated by Findhelp community information centres, libraries, health care providers over 56,000 community resource records

11. Data Flow

12. Background - Agreements Current Provincial data agreements Standard agreement specifying Basic inclusion policy Frequency and method of update Usage and intellectual property rights Data standards Compensation (addendum) Between Findhelp and each lead partner Rolled over annually with little or no change Future agreements will be negotiated between the Ontario 211 Services Corp. and each of the 8 211 Operators. Operators will, in turn have agreements with local data Partners. Agreements will be expanded to include French language coverage and tighter data qulity measures

13. 211Ontario.ca – program for change Quarterly updates Weekly updates Daily updates 1980s Style Guide 2009 style guide No naming standard well-defined naming authority Thesaurus Taxonomy No process and audit tools centrally managed process and audit tools Slow feedback to partners regular feedback to partners No guidelines for working in French French included in style guide Locally managed reference data common reference data

14. Challenges – location, location, location Located-in community and area served emerge as two most critical fields for searching Hierarchical communities table was a good start as common reference data 18 records with no located-in community 543 records with no area served 192 records with inappropriate location data (e.g. local health clinic with area served=Ontario; Area served=Not limited)

15. Challenges – French language records Of 4,808 records for programs and services offered in French, 2,589 have no French view Few agencies have staff who can maintain bilingual records Summer students do not have sufficient training to meet standards Automated translators are not acceptable! Solution: Spin-off project launched to build partnerships with francophone agencies and enable them to maintain records Findhelp Francophone staff create and update records on behalf of partners

16. Challenges – duplication Example: 52 Kids Help Phone records Multiple provincial government service records Solution: Only export records for programs and services within your local catchment area

17. Challenges – mapping Mapping based on street address 6K records could not be geo-coded for map display Invalid addresses Rural locations not found in Google Street address = Same as mailing address Geo-coding not automatically updated when address changes What to do with non-public addresses Solution: Data management application assigns geocode, based on street address, located-in community, postal code or intersection, at the time a record is created or updated.

18. Priority 2 Services Optional by community Second priority for translation Other Services- TBD for-profit services Clubs and interest groups Etc. Priority 1 Services Required from all partners (global) Highest priority for translation Challenges – inclusion policy

19. Challenges – search logic or making one size fit all without writing thousands of lines of code Search logic is based on the InformOntario style guide Description is not included in key word search Data partners who dont follow the style guide dont get expected search results Example Subject search name: Community Access Programs Logic: community access program in org name or alternate org name Problem: Several communities dont follow this style guide recommendation and get no search results

20. Challenges – description Should be light bright and tight Most descriptions are excellent Problems range from descriptions cut and pasted from a website to the small novel (2 were too large to fit in the field allotment) Translation poses its own challenges

21. The work to create and implement a Canadian version of the AIRS/211LA County Taxonomy of Human Services within the 211Ontario.ca project had three steps: 1.Creation of the Canadian version 2.Adoption of the Taxonomy in Ontario 3.Outreach for sustainability Challenges – taxonomy

22. 1) Creation of the Canadian version All English terms and definitions were completed by the end of 2006, matching the (now) over 9000 US terms On the French side, all terms have been completed and all definitions of terms in the starter set Additional funding must be found to complete the remaining French definition All available on the taxonomy site

23. 1) Creation of the Canadian version A bilingual Canadian Editorial Team has been assembled to aggregate regional queries and requests for the consideration of the Taxonomy Editor in LA, and to support 211 operators in British Columbia and Quebec that will be adopting the system. Ontario leadership within this group has been key to the development, maintenance and adoption of the Taxonomy. Recent new members of the Team include staff from Vancouver, Edmonton and Calgary (users since 1999) and from Quebec City

24. 2) Adoption of the Taxonomy in Ontario In March 2007 an AIRS Taxonomy trainer trained regional and Findhelp editors in Taxonomy indexing skills. Teams of regional and Findhelp editors then delivered indexing training to their regional colleagues in May and June. Application development completed to support indexing with the taxonomy

25. 2) Adoption of the Taxonomy in Ontario Training tools and the new Canadian Taxonomy listserv in turn supported the editors in the 38 participating organizations to complete conversion of their own databases. Regional trainers met every two months via teleconference to surface training and indexing issues and resolve them.

26. 2) Adoption of the Taxonomy in Ontario Conversion took place from the fall of 2007 to March 31 2008 with participating agencies reporting progress on a monthly basis. At the conclusion of this phase of the project, 86% of the records needed for 211Ontario.ca had been indexed. By the end of May 2008, completion was 100%

27. 2) Adoption of the Taxonomy in Ontario April to June 2008 brought the next big task which is assessing the quality of indexing, reviewing for consistency among data partners, and making adjustments before the database is available publicly.

28. 2) Adoption of the Taxonomy in Ontario 11 agencies/programs with Distress Centre in name: 8 – use General Crisis Intervention Hotlines (2 also: Suicide Prevention Programs) (1 also: Suicide Prevention Hotlines) 2 – use Suicide Prevention Hotlines (also Crisis Intervention) but service is broader 1 – uses Telephone Crisis Intervention but a not-to-be-used broader term, says Starter Some concern in other similar cases of use of Helplines/Warmlines for services involving distress Suicide Prevention Hotlines also used 2 times, suitably, for suicide-specific lines.

29. 2) Adoption of the Taxonomy in Ontario Mental health centres: concern that most records do not use a facility term (such as Community Mental Health Agencies) and focus on specific services, so difficult to gather together. Community Mental Health Agencies defined as City or county-operated, does not accommodate community- operated.

30. Taxonomy updating when part of a collaborative: whats different? agree on a shared update schedule standardize around a version Synchronizing of customization decisions leave transition time to accommodate re- indexing 2) Adoption of the Taxonomy in Ontario

31. Update Process 3 times a year (Feb, June & Oct), master file downloaded from L.A. Canadian editorial team aims to complete any important work before download. Master file from LA incorporated into each CIOC application, with best guess as to local activation/deactivation for new terms. Master file also available to non-CIOC users. 2) Adoption of the Taxonomy in Ontario 2) Adoption of the Taxonomy in Ontario

32. 3) Outreach for sustainability Presentations and contacts have been made government, library, and funding bodies. The Taxonomy is now listed on the Library and Archives Canada web site as a classification system that government information managers may wish to use A proof of concept has been completed which indicated that terms in the Governments of Canada Service Reference Model (GSRM) could be mapped to Taxonomy terms.

33. Project closeout - successes French language resource development Professional application development approach (prototyping) Proximity search feature Stakeholder involvement Transition to Ontario 211 Services Corporation

34. Project closeout - successes Taxonomy conversion Support for CIOC application for re-development funding Project teamwork OLA with City of Toronto

35. If we had it to do over…. Staff turnover Ensure knowledge transfer Identify and communicate impact on schedule Communication Assign a communication prime with responsibility for project communication Encourage two-way communication by asking directly for feedback Make feedback as easy and as useful as possible by being specific and using templates

36. If we had it to do over…. Browser technology Develop with the most problematic browser Ensure testing with all browsers in scope Managing critical dependencies Enlist CIOC developers onto project team Establish a formal relationship with CIOC addressing the dependencies Make feedback as easy and as useful as possible by being specific and using templates Documentation of processes, roles and responsibilities Continuous logging and tracking of issues

37. If we had it to do over…. Managing stakeholder expectations State assumptions/explore for assumptions on the part of the stakeholder Increase communication when major changes to scope, schedule, etc occur Managing changing environment One-on-one meetings with new stakeholders to introduce the project Identify environmental change as a risk factor in long projects

38. Next steps Ensure indexing quality and consistency issues are dealt with using subject search logic as test plan Conduct data audits using tool set Complete the standard communities table Improve usability Provide local views of directory

39. Thank You! Contact: Kathy Kelly Manager, 211Ontario.ca Findhelp Information Services kakelly@findhelp.ca 416-392-4658 John Allec Manager, Information Resources and Taxonomy Findhelp Information Services jallec@findhelp.ca 416-392-4572