Open Government

President Trump has made no secret of his disdain for many of the traditional data points used to represent the health and prosperity of the country. The budgetary process offers an opportunity to match words with action.

March 9, 2017 - Pacific Standard

Participatory budgeting (PB) has been tried on a limited local level in several cities across the United States. A new White House initiative indicates the practice may become a common way of determining how to distribute certain federal funds.

December 14, 2013 - Next City

On Eric Garcetti's 100th day in office, the new mayor of Los Angeles showed progress on his promise to increase accountability by launching a beta website to track City Hall performance in nine categories and for each city department.

October 9, 2013 - Los Angeles Times

This week, the Knight Foundation announced the eight recipients (out of 886 applicants) to share in $3.2 million in grant funds intended to promote the use of public data "to improve the way people and governments interact."

June 25, 2013 - Fast Company Co.Exist

As the ways in which cities across the U.S. are utilizing the web continues to increase, open data is changing the way citizens interact with their government. Philadelphia is one city using information to level the power playing field.

August 24, 2012 - Next American City

Sarah Lai Stirland reports on the new bill, that was to be voted on by the City Council on Wednesday, which would codify many of the principles articulated by open government advocates in recent years.

March 1, 2012 - Tech President

Urban Omnibus talks with Jennifer Pahlka of Code for America, a group looking to get the youth involved in developing computer programs and applications that help improve urban areas.

August 12, 2010 - Urban Omnibus

Governing's Stephen Goldsmith looks at the trend of smart phone applications related to city governance and civic improvement. He sees huge potential in these early stages of a trend that's likely to experience exponential growth.

March 25, 2010 - Governing

The City of San Francisco has for years had a "Sunshine" ordinance, requiring that public agencies make their documents and proceedings available to the public. But recent reviews show that sunshine has been hard to find in the city of fog.

March 12, 2010 - San Francisco Bay Guardian

Keeping government open and accountable has led to some problems for cities, according to John D. Donahue.

February 12, 2010 - Governing

A growing number of cities are opening up public data streams to computer developers. Some say the move will improve civic discourse, but the nascent trend is still developing.

December 8, 2009 - The New York Times

City data catalogs are fast moving from the exception to the norm for large U.S. cities. Washington, DC's Data Catalog, spearheaded by former CTO Vivek Kundra, was an early leader. The site combines hundreds of static government-created datasets from across DC government with administrative feeds like the city's 311 system. Their site emphasizes providing data in multiple formats, including where possible formats that don't require proprietary software. Kundra's selection as the nation's first Chief Information Officer, and launch of the federal government's Data.gov has elevated the principle among the federal government's vast datasets. DC's two "apps" contests sought to encourage creative uses of the data made available, and some of which are available at the DC App Store. Beyond DC, many big cities have recently launched or are planning open data catalogs of their own.

October 19, 2009 - Robert Goodspeed

This morning, Mayor Mike Bloomberg unveiled New York City's long-awaited Big Apps contest. Big Apps seeks to promote the Internet industry in the Big Apple (it's sponsored by the New York City Economic Development Corporation) and make local government more transparent.I've been following the evolution of open data initiatives at the municipal level for about a year now, and was really hoping that New York was going to set the bar for future efforts across the country. It doesn't. In fact it's hard to understand why some notable local tech superstars like investors Fred Wilson and John Borthwick would sign on to such a lame effort.

October 6, 2009 - Anthony Townsend

The City of Nanaimo, British Columbia is a leader in the open data and open government movement, according to this post from the Creative Class Exchange. Getting there is easier and cheaper than many might think.

August 28, 2009 - Creative Class Exchange