Celebrating Open Data Day

Photo credit: Flickr/Brian Glanz

Incredible things happen with open data.

It’s at the root of some of the most critical advances in government. Open data gives the public more transparency to how their government is run, provides government leaders with better management tools to create meaningful outcomes, and it is a crucial component to the checks and balances that keep the public sector running.

Open Data Day, which takes place globally on March 7, celebrates the impact of open data and encourages public sector leaders to adopt policies that support open data.

New York City, which passed its open data law in 2012, hosts a week-long festival from Feb. 29 to March 7 with community-driven events from the Mayor’s Office of Data Analytics’ Open Data Program and BetaNYC. Last year’s festival, dubbed Open Data Week, brought 2,300 New Yorkers to more than 50 events across all five boroughs.

The goal is to increase civic engagement with open data. This year, New York City’s festivities include a week-long exhibition, Data through Design, and School of Data, an annual conference organized by BetaNYC.

Check out an Open Data Day event near you.

Check out 25 Socrata-powered open data projects we love. If you have one to share, tweet to us @socrata and @tylertech!

1. Public-private partnerships that use 311 data for tenant empowerment. Check out New York City’s partnership with Rentlogic and read our blog about it here.
2. GIS maps that show urban forests, including Melbourne, Australia’s tree data. Check out the interactive map here.
3. Campaign spending dashboards that simplify complex candidate reports to help voters make informed decisions. Check out Hawaii’s candidate finance dashboard here.
4. Open data initiatives by universities, including University of Southern California’s Neighborhood Data for Social Change.
5. Dashboards to search payments made to physicians and teaching hospitals by drug and medical device manufacturers. Check out Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services data here.
6. Dashboards to see how the U.S. economy is growing. Check out Department of Commerce’s performance site.
7. Nassau County Comptroller’s fiscal health scorecard gives residents an easy dashboard to explore financial data. Explore the scorecards.
8. Interactive maps to explore murals in Chicago. Check out the city’s project.
9. Seattle’s performance metrics, including dashboards on addressing homelessness and climate change. Explore more here.
10. Health indicators across San Bernardino County all tied to the Public Health Department’s strategic plan. Check out its progress toward the plan.
11. Data to track opioid response in Pennsylvania and connect the public with resources and information. Check out the state’s dashboards.
12. Community indicators with details on past and current trends in Ramsey County. See how the dashboard helps the county improve the overall health of the community.
13. Massachusetts’ CTHRU portal, which includes data on payroll, spending, and budget. Check out CTHRU.
14. Cannabis sales, distribution, and licensing data from coast-to-coast, including Massachusetts and Washington.
15. Near real-time bicycle traffic reports over Seattle’s Fremont bridge.
16. The comprehensive performance management program in Chattanooga, with dashboards and data covering safety, economic growth, and government operations.
    

    Performance Community of Practice (PCOP)

    Learn the best practices where performance management and open data meet. Watch the webinar to hear from the city of Chattanooga.

17. Dynamic parking data in the Netherlands by RDW.
18. Interactive data involving 311 cases across San Francisco. Explore the portal here.
19. Real-time air quality measuring in Australia. Check out the chart here.
20. The Data 101 program in Buffalo, New York, empowers the public through a data course to help people learn about data, data visualizations, data analysis, and the city’s open data portal. View the courses here.
21. Active law enforcement call maps in cities across the U.S., including Dallas, Nashville, and Baltimore.
22. Partnership with the City of Fort Collins and Code for Fort Collins in creating FCx, a series of data discussions on topics such as flood warning data and equity programs. Learn more about the community series.
23. Montgomery County, Maryland, took a data-driven approach to observe and measure progress and trends regarding women’s experiences. This information guides better policies for women, girls, and families. Check out “A Tale of Two Counties: The Status of Women in Montgomery County.”
24. State of California Franchise Tax Board launched an open data portal with detailed data stories to help the public use and understand personal income tax data and corporation tax data. Check out the portal here.
25. Grand Rapids, Michigan, developed a user-friendly interface focused on mobility issues — including a comprehensive portal for on-street parking zones and off-street parking maps. Learn more about the city’s parking solution here.