Navigator Award Finalist: Tyler Kleykamp, Connecticut Chief Data Officer
Connecting state and local government leaders
Collaborating to obtain the state’s most guarded datasets.
This is the 42nd in a series of profiles on the 50 finalists for Route Fifty’s Navigator Awards program. The first 10 finalists were from the Government Allies and Cross-Sector Partners category. Finalists 11-20 were from the Agency and Department Leadership category. Finalists 21-30 were from the Executive Leadership category. Finalists 31-40 were from the Next Generation category. Finalists 41-50 are from the Data and IT Innovators category. Explore our complete list of 50 finalists.
Commitment to accuracy is critical when opening a city or state government’s datasets, which means stats must not only be verified and complete but also regularly updated.
In Connecticut, Chief Data Officer Tyler Kleykamp has made significant improvements to his state’s Open Data initiative launched in February 2014. New datasets are continually inventoried in an online portal, where users can visualize certain stats as graphs, charts and maps.
Under Kleykamp, Connecticut’s U.S States Open Data Census score has gone from 78 percent to 84 percent.
“Something state & federal gov’t have in common: we’re both aggregators of data that’s generated at a more local level,” Kleykamp tweeted on Oct. 28.
Always seeking out that next dataset to improve, over the last year Kleykamp pushed for the Nutmeg State to publish its data on the pressing issue of substance abuse. With those numbers readily at their disposal, Connecticut officials can more easily make data-driven decisions concerning the opioid crisis.
Kleykamp has demonstrated willingness to collaborate to obtain department data and regularly holds Open Data Office Hours to keep the public abreast of what his team is up to.
Last March, Kleykamp was awarded the 2016 Open Data Pioneer Award and Route Fifty is pleased to include him as a Navigator Award finalist.
Dave Nyczepir is a News Editor at Government Executive’s Route Fifty and is based in Washington D.C.
NEXT STORY: Navigator Award Finalist: Nick O'Day, GIS Manager, Johns Creek, Ga.