NYC Updates Open Data Plan

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New York City has updated its Open Data plan for the next decade. The plan includes several initiatives designed to improve access and use of open data within city government.

The plan pushes for the creation of open data program metrics that will help the city better understand how data is used. Metrics will also be linked to how frequently data is updated, slow updates plague municipal open data projects and can make it difficult for developers and others to use data in a meaningful way. NYC also plans to bring in new publishers that can work with data to provide applications that are meaningful to city residents.

NYC officials say that they want this plan to be a jumping off point for an evolution in open data policies from publishing only to problem solving. Where the past ten years of open data have been about getting the data online, the next ten years are meant to focus on making data usable. The idea, the city says, is to make open data more relevant to citizen’s everyday lives through better applications, service delivery, and public information.

Against this backdrop, NYC is exploring how to redesign its open data platforms so that they are more user friendly, available to people with disabilities and are more responsive to the desires of residents. The Mayor’s Office also wants to connect NYC’s open data platform to citywide performance reporting so that city officials and residents can have a deeper understanding of where city government is as it works to meet service delivery goals.

“In city government, our work is often driven by the data we collect and analyze,” said Jeff Thamkittikasem, Director of the Mayor’s Office of Operations. “For the past 10 years, Open Data has given the public the opportunity to more easily access and use city data to better understand agencies, conduct their own analyses, and interact in a meaningful way with local government. We’re excited for what the next decade of Open Data will bring.”

The full report is available here.