Opening Up City Data

Next American City columnist Christian Madera looks at new efforts to get local government to make municipal data available and accessible, and some of the ways reluctant cities can be convinced to open up.

1 minute read

February 24, 2010, 11:00 AM PST

By Nate Berg


"Convincing local government leaders to jump on the open data bandwagon can be a challenge. While cities that publish their data online stand to accrue a number of benefits, most officials tend to focus on what they perceive to be the potential drawbacks of such plans. To combat these attitudes, the National Neighborhood Indicators Partnership, a project of the Urban Institute in Washington, D.C., has published a list of the five most commonly given reasons public data providers resist open data efforts, along with suggestions for overcoming them."

Madera looks at ways cities can ease into making their data available.

Tuesday, February 23, 2010 in Next American City

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I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching. Mary G., Urban Planner

I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching.

Mary G., Urban Planner

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