What Is Open Data and Why Is it Important: Part 1

Open data is a big deal among cities. At the Connected Cities USA conference earlier this month, I had a chance to learn about open data initiatives being taken up by local governments across the US. One example is Franklin, Tennessee, which has teamed up with Socrata—a company that provides cloud-based solutions for online data—to create an open data portal. Instead of a static webpage, users can export data to create their own visualizations or analysis. Chapel Hill, North Carolina partnered with OpenDataSoft to provide citizens access to data related to spatial planning, crime, transportation, and more. Chapel Hill hosted a workshop, Open2OpenData, to demonstrate how to use the open website and discuss ways data can address citizens’ needs.

Growing Demand for Open Data

Cities across the US, both big and small, are thinking about open data. Why? In government, data transparency is increasingly an issue as citizens want more information on everything, such as accounting of how tax dollars are spent and progress around smart city goals. In addition to the demand for government transparency, the evolution of technology makes an exponential explosion of open data accessible by digital devices. This creates opportunities for individuals and organizations to take advantage of data to create new services and products for financial gain.

Traction Has Been Increasing for over a Decade

The term open data gained traction at all levels of government since the OPEN Government Act of 2007 was signed. Currently, 48 states and 48 cities and counties provide data to data.gov, the federal government's online open data repository. Non-governmental organizations promoting open data include:

• The Sunlight Foundation: Created a set of open data guidelines to address what data should be public, how to make data public, and how to implement policy.
• Open Data Institute: Works with companies and governments to build an open, trustworthy data ecosystem, and to identify how open data can be used effectively in different sectors.
• The Data Coalition: Based in Washington, DC, the nonprofit advocacy group promotes the publication of government information as standardized open data.
• Open Knowledge International: Focused on realizing open data's value to society, the global nonprofit organization helps people access and use data to act on social problems.

So, What Is Open Data?

Open data is digital information that is licensed in a way that it is available to anyone. The data is typically public, open, or attributed. According to Open Knowledge International, data must be both technically and legally open. The definitions are as follows:

• Legally open means available under an open data license that permits anyone freely to access, reuse, and redistribute.
• Technically open means that the data is available for no more than the cost of reproduction and in machine-readable and bulk form.

Other Requirements

In addition to being legally and technically open, open data requires a specific approach based on the kind of data being released and its targeted audience. For example, if the intended users are developers and programmers, the data should be presented within an application programming interface. If it is intended for researchers, data can be structured in a bulk form. Alternately, if it’s aimed at the average citizen, data should be available without requiring software purchases.

The debate about open data in government is an evolving one. So too are the benefits of utilizing open data. This is driven by increasingly sophisticated data analytics allowing us to analyze big data and gain actionable insights to create new value. In my next blog, I will dig deeper into why open data matters and exactly how I see the evolving open data discussion.