Houston Passes Open Data Policy

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Earlier this year Houston, Texas launched the Performance Improvement Portal,a hub for all of the city’s performance and open data resources. Through the Performance Insight report and the Performance Improvement Portal, citizens are now able to see how the city measures its own performance, and participate in civic innovation projects. Now the city is moving forward with its open data work by passing an open data by default policy.

Houston has had an open data portal for some time now. The portal houses a range of municipal data sets, but the new policy will codify what gets released and when for the first time.

Under the new law, most of the city’s data will be public.

The city is also implementing a new feedback function on the open data portal in an effort to get more information from users about the most accessed and most desired data. Open Houston, a local open data organization will also host Civic Hacknights to bring in the local developer scene.

The open data portal will work together with the Performance Improvement Portal in terms of engaging developers around the technology needs for government. The tools found in the Performance Improvement Portal are part of the mayor’s strategic vision to create a lasting and impactful performance management system in the city.