Celebrating Open Data Day
February 03, 2020 by Melissa Crowe
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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, 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 25 Socrata-powered open data projects we love. If you have one to share, tweet to us @socrata and @tylertech!
- Public-private partnerships that use 311 data for tenant empowerment. Check out and read our blog about it here.
- GIS maps that show urban forests, including Melbourne, Australia’s tree data. Check out the .
- Campaign spending dashboards that simplify complex candidate reports to help voters make informed decisions. Check out Hawaii’s .
- Open data initiatives by universities, including University of Southern California’s .
- Dashboards to search payments made to physicians and teaching hospitals by drug and medical device manufacturers. Check out .
- Dashboards to see how the U.S. economy is growing. Check out .
- Nassau County Comptroller’s fiscal health scorecard gives residents an easy dashboard to explore financial data. .
- Interactive maps to explore murals in Chicago. Check out .
- Seattle’s performance metrics, including dashboards on addressing homelessness and climate change. .
- Health indicators across San Bernardino County all tied to the Public Health Department’s strategic plan. Check out its .
- Data to track opioid response in Pennsylvania and connect the public with resources and information. Check out the .
- Community indicators with details on past and current trends in Ramsey County. See how helps the county improve the overall health of the community.
- Massachusetts’ CTHRU portal, which includes data on payroll, spending, and budget. .
- Cannabis sales, distribution, and licensing data from coast-to-coast, including and .
- Near real-time bicycle traffic reports over .
- The comprehensive performance management program in Chattanooga, with dashboards and data covering .
- in the Netherlands by RDW.
- Interactive data involving 311 cases across San Francisco. .
- Real-time air quality measuring in Australia. Check out the .
- 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. .
- Active law enforcement call maps in cities across the U.S., including , , and .
- 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 .
- 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 “.”
- 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. .
- 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 .