These Cities Celebrated Open Data Day Right
Mesa, Arizona Tim Roberts Photography / Shutterstock.com
Continuing transparency and accessibility conversations among citizens is key.
U.S. cities large and small celebrated International Open Data Day on Saturday through a series of hackathons and other local events affirming their commitment to boosting transparency within government.
Some cities opened new datasets or hosted policy discussions soliciting citizen feedback.
Mesa, Arizona, a city near Phoenix with a population of nearly 465,000 residents, launched a new open data portal in partnership with Bloomberg Philanthropies’ What Works Cities initiative and the Sunlight Foundation.
“I strongly believe that data and evidence are the fuel that will continue to power the positive momentum we’ve created as we work to grow Mesa into an even better place to live work and raise a family,” Mayor John Giles said in an announcement. “We are excited that Mesa is a leader in open data for Arizona.”
The working portal currently contains 94 exportable datasets detailing trends, geographic concentrations and urban redevelopment progress.
Raleigh, North Carolina, has been participating in the festivities for four years with Triangle Open Data Day. A variety of speakers touched on regional open data efforts from making restaurant inspections smarter to identifying biased policing.
Attendees received a crash course on Open Data Policing NC, which visualizes every state public record related to known traffic stops by law enforcement.
Washington D.C.’s Open Data Day Hackathon also coincided with the international holiday and tackled a range of pressing issues like election-year APIs and identifying opioid abuse.
On the West Coast, the CodeAcross SF civic hacking event at the Microsoft Reactor in San Francisco focused on using SF OpenData’s newly released datasets.
“We recognize the incredible worth of each person and their experience,” said lead organizer Hy Carrel in an announcement. “CodeAcross is a safe and respectful space for every resident to contribute their skill sets toward discovering and building solutions.”
Dave Nyczepir is a News Editor at Government Executive’s Route Fifty.
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