Open Data

In Detroit and New Orleans, open data proponents are pushing local government to share public data in ways that help citizens in these struggling cities to improve their communities.

September 9, 2010 - Next American City

Streetfilms offers this video about how opening up transit agency data can greatly improve urban public transit systems for riders at little or no cost to the agencies.

August 18, 2010 - Streetfilms

New York City is moving forward with a plan to create a singular clearinghouse of public agency information -- an effort to help improve the way city departments work together.

June 25, 2010 - Urban Omnibus

Public data can be more than information for cities. Some have even used it to help generate revenue.

June 14, 2010 - Next American City

Next American City's Christian Madera reports on a series of seminars looking at how the growing open data movement is helping to offer cities solutions to some of their operational problems.

May 22, 2010 - Next American City

In an effort to improve accountability, more government agencies are freeing data about public expenditures.

March 30, 2010 - Next American City

The City of San Francisco has for years had a "Sunshine" ordinance, requiring that public agencies make their documents and proceedings available to the public. But recent reviews show that sunshine has been hard to find in the city of fog.

March 12, 2010 - San Francisco Bay Guardian

The city of Miami is putting its 311 phone system and the civic problems it's used to report online, enabling residents and city officials to easily track local problems.

March 12, 2010 - Government Technology

Next American City columnist Christian Madera looks at new efforts to get local government to make municipal data available and accessible, and some of the ways reluctant cities can be convinced to open up.

February 24, 2010 - Next American City

Keeping government open and accountable has led to some problems for cities, according to John D. Donahue.

February 12, 2010 - Governing

A new site from the people behind WalkScore shows you where to track your commute, and singles out the transit agencies who are failing to let you.

December 10, 2009 - City-Go-Round

A growing number of cities are opening up public data streams to computer developers. Some say the move will improve civic discourse, but the nascent trend is still developing.

December 8, 2009 - The New York Times

City data catalogs are fast moving from the exception to the norm for large U.S. cities. Washington, DC's Data Catalog, spearheaded by former CTO Vivek Kundra, was an early leader. The site combines hundreds of static government-created datasets from across DC government with administrative feeds like the city's 311 system. Their site emphasizes providing data in multiple formats, including where possible formats that don't require proprietary software. Kundra's selection as the nation's first Chief Information Officer, and launch of the federal government's Data.gov has elevated the principle among the federal government's vast datasets. DC's two "apps" contests sought to encourage creative uses of the data made available, and some of which are available at the DC App Store. Beyond DC, many big cities have recently launched or are planning open data catalogs of their own.

October 19, 2009 - Robert Goodspeed

New communication and interaction technologies are dramatically changing the way the public understands and participates in government. The emerging openness of data and information at the city level is broadening the urban policy conversation, but challenges and questions lie ahead as the open city develops.

October 15, 2009 - Nate Berg