New York City plots its next decade of open-data projects

Published: September 19, 2019

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New York City has released a report outlining past accomplishments and future plans around the use of data.

New York City published a new report outlining initiatives regarding the use of data. The report both celebrates accomplishments around data initiatives, as well as sharing a ten year plan of what other endeavors are on the horizon. Officials want a more dynamic and open platform for sharing data, improve the capacity for more agencies to share data, and to involve more people in the process to foster collaboration and equity-minded missions. Another point is that this data should be available for strategic, focused uses, rather than simply posted online without specific objectives in mind.

In FY 2019, the city published 595 new datasets to its open data portal, representing an increase of 38% in total datasets published. The Department of Education published the most with 312 new datasets, and in total, 42 agencies published new datasets, while 67 datasets were automated. According to the report, these datasets had about 119,000 unique visitors per month, up 16% from the previous fiscal year.

As part of the report, the City also provided a roadmap of future initiatives in the short, medium, and long term. The City will be focusing on improving the user experience by providing a user friendly, dynamic platform and creating a repository for its data, strengthening the City’s capacity through improving support, streamlining publishing, and developing new policies, and building communities by sharing stories of impact and success.

New York has already emerged as a leader in implementing open data policies, thanks to the expansive scope of initiatives such as these. The City has an Open Data Advisory Council to guide the vision of the City’s data initiatives, while also hosting the annual Open Data Week and operating an Open Data Youth Leadership Council. New York City is one of many government entities across the country pursuing new data-driven initiatives, and it will remain worthwhile to watch these endeavors unfold around the gathering, use, and security of this data.

Source: StateScoop