Now that Chapel Hill has joined the ranks of cities around the country in launching on online platform to share its data, it's up to citizens to make the most of the opportunity.
"The Town of Chapel Hill has joined Raleigh, Durham and Cary in a national trend of posting the city government’s information on a user-friendly website," reports Jordan Wilkie.
After introducing the idea of Open Data and detailing the business deal the city made with data management company OpenDataSoft to launch the online platform, Wilkie describes the potential of the project.
Among those ready to take advantage of Chapel Hill's new open data platform is Jason Baker, a Chapel Hill resident and longtime blogger on Orange County politics. The article quotes Baker directly, describing his hope for the new data: "The project I’m trying to build is a toolkit for empowering neighborhoods and other community groups to make better planning and zoning decisions…"
FULL STORY: In bid for tranparency, Chapel Hill launches open data project

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Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
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Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.
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Mpact (formerly Rail~Volution)
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