open data – Page 7 – National Freedom of Information Coalition

Culture jeopardizes open data’s future beyond Obama — panelists

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The problem with opening data is often a cultural one — not a technical one — a panel of open data experts said Monday at the AWS Public Sector Summit.

As the public sector prepares for a change in administration, experts are looking to codify Obama’s open data strategy in a way that survives the transition. Meanwhile, agencies are still fighting against an internal work culture that is averse to open data, panelists said. Continue…

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History as Data Science

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We are a team of scholars, designers, scientists, and engineers building tools to preserve the fabric of the past and provide lessons for the future. Continue…

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Tech firms, advocates call for action on new open data bill

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Nearly 50 businesses, industry groups, civil society organizations and transparency advocates are calling on oversight committees in the House and Senate to advance a bill ensuring government data is open to the public by default.

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Salt Lake City police launch use-of-force data website

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Amid a growing national conversation about police shootings, Salt Lake City police are launching a website to post open data about how often officers use their weapons.

The Utah department is part of a small but growing number of agencies around the country who are moving to put the information online in an effort to be more transparent.

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Sunlight Foundation: Lessons learned from a year of opening police data

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It’s been almost a year since the White House first announced that it would be leading an effort to unite law enforcement agencies around the goal of achieving greater transparency through data.

In April, the White House Police Data Initiative (PDI) celebrated its progress by gathering leaders in the field for a two-day event to discuss the challenges and successes of releasing open police data to the public. The initiative began with 21 participating jurisdictions last May.

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Only 53 police agencies participating in national push for use of force statistics

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As part of the Obama administration’s push for improved policing in the wake of highly-publicized police shootings, the White House last year launched the Police Data Initiative and asked local law enforcement agencies to voluntarily provide, and publicly post, their statistics on use-of-force incidents and other interactions with citizens.

The idea was that greater transparency would lead to greater citizen confidence in the police, with more public support and fewer critical incidents.

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Opinion: Open data + increased disclosure = Better public-private partnerships

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The benefits of open and participatory public procurement are increasingly being recognized by international bodies such as the Group of 20 major economies, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, and multilateral development banks.

Value for money, more competition, and better goods and services for citizens all result from increased disclosure of contract data.

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Philadelphia goes transparent — with its data

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As Philadelphia’s chief data officer, Tim Wisniewski, 28, holds a fairly new job title. He helps publish the city’s data—employee salaries, crimes and property assessments, among other things—for public consumption on the Web.

It’s all in the spirit of transparency and spurring civic innovation. Since Mr. Wisniewski took over in 2014, he has seen a number of promising outcomes, he says.

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Police chiefs: ‘There is nothing to fear’ about White House open data initiative

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Police departments participating in the White House’s Police Data Initiative want other agencies to know that there’s nothing to lose and everything to gain from becoming more transparent with their data.

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Congress wants to turn Obama’s open data actions into law

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A new bill introduced Thursday would give a legislative basis to a number of open data initiatives already underway in the federal government under executive order.

The Open, Public, Electronic and Necessary (OPEN) Government Data Act, introduced by Reps. Derek Kilmer, D-Wash., and Blake Farenthold, R-Texas, would build upon a number open data policies from the Obama administration that push federal agencies to make as much data as possible free for the public to use.

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