Shining a Light on Government Data

The concept of civic-minded hacking continues to gain legitimacy, evidenced in part by White House support for the National Day of Civic Hacking, which swelled to more than 100 participating cities in the U.S., Canada and abroad during the weekend of May 31.

Google hosted its first government hackathon in May as well, in conjunction with state agencies from Wyoming and Colorado.

And coders and other technologists have more government data as raw material for app-building due to big spikes in available data sets and open data policies sweeping public-sector agencies.

An executive order signed by Connecticut Gov. Dan Malloy in February laid out responsibilities for the state’s new open data portal, the same month that Palo Alto, Calif., switched to an “open data by default” posture. Maryland added an open data policy via legislative action earlier this year, as did a number of local jurisdictions, including Houston, Salt Lake City, Boston, Pittsburgh and Minneapolis.  

Along with more government data basking in the sunlight comes more creative uses of it. The nonprofit OpenGov Foundation, devoted to government transparency, launched an open data platform earlier this year aimed at making all District of Columbia municipal code accessible and easily usable by citizens. Funded by the Knight Foundation, the effort follows similar projects in Baltimore, San Francisco, Philadelphia and Chicago. Chattanooga, Tenn., Mayor Andy Berke released a portal in September, Chattadata, featuring metrics on violent crime, job growth, investment and literacy rates — all to help ensure city budgets are tied to programs that work.
 

2015 will likely see growing evidence of government finding tangible value in open data, moving beyond simple (and sophisticated) apps for citizens to programs bringing actual revenue to public-sector coffers.

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