Providing public access to local government information no longer has to mean that residents come to city hall and request permission to sift through paper documents. Technology has enabled governments to provide faster, more efficient, and more user-friendly access to its information--benefiting both those who work in government and the public they serve. As more and more cities, counties, and towns across the country increasingly explore these benefits, however, there’s a need to articulate what it means to open data--and how to create policies that can not only support these efforts, but to do so in a sustainable way.

That’s the focus our support for local governments from the Sunlight Foundation. Sunlight Foundation is a nonpartisan nonprofit founded in 2006 that uses technology to foster government transparency. We began as an organization focused on open government at the federal level, but as our work began to expand to the international level, we realized the need to look at open government here at home, too. States, counties, and cities across the United States have been wielding technology in new and unique ways to not only increase their own efficiency, but also to connect services and decision-making more deeply with the public. In early 2013, we received a grant from Google.org to start a new local program to support these efforts and others related to open data, and to collect and share best practices in the field.

So, what are local governments doing on the open data and open government front--and where is there room to grow?

We're taking several approaches to answer both these questions. For one, we track existing and developing open data policies in states, counties, and cities, and we've found that local governments are embracing this movement, from Hawaii to New Hampshire. Seeing these policies develop (some of which are now on their second or third version) was part of what prompted us to update our Open Data Policy Guidelines, a detailed best-practice resource that's been of help to states and municipalities like Utah; San Francisco, California; South Bend, Indiana; and Montgomery County, Maryland. Our most recent guidelines update, which originally launched last summer, includes more sample policy language and use cases to reflect the great new examples of how cities and counties are realizing the importance of open data--and to help other lawmakers learn and build from these successes.

As listed at the top of our guidelines, we believe that, at its heart, open data is about setting the default to open for public information. This principle is grounded in our belief that governments need to make public information available proactively and to put that information within reach of the public (online), with low- to no-barriers for its reuse and consumption. At a time when government websites have become a primary means of engagement for many constituents, proactive sharing is not only easier, but benefits public servants, too, many of whom are either overloaded with requests or feeling the burn of expenditures on paper and administrative costs. Providing open access to data is good in its own right, but it has plenty of practical implications, too, which we are actively exploring through our blog in a series on local electronic public records management.

That’s not to say that open data should be pursued blindly. We’re heavily invested in exploring the nuances of data disclosure, and recently rounded up the top reasons governments cite for not releasing data. Our ultimate goal is to help people on both sides of the data discussion understand and articulate the technical and administrative challenges before them in opening up information, to deepen the dialogue around some of the toughest stalemates, and to help provide resources for the sundry unknowns. In the coming weeks, we’ll be releasing resources based on these challenges and crowdsourced feedback we collect from experts, government officials, technologists, and advocates all over the country.

We relish opportunities like this to work with our peers, many of whom are approaching this issue from a different perspective, such as focusing on particular data standards and formats. Yelp, a website that lets users review businesses, recently partnered with the city of San Francisco and New York City to create a data standard to show restaurant health inspection information on Yelp. This standard, called LIVES, although not yet widely adopted, serves as a guidepost to other municipalities looking to address the quality and release of this information. Other standards tackle issues such as 311 services and residential inspections. Our Open States team, which has gathered legislative info from all 50 states, DC, and Puerto Rico, is currently working toward gathering legislative information from nine pilot cities for sharing in a standardized format. This project will help support and encourage standardization of civic data, helping more cities share important information about lawmakers and legislation with the public online.  

Data standards are just one piece of the puzzle, however. Ultimately, open data is about sharing public information online -- something that requires both technical and policy consideration. That's why in addition to our general open data policy support, we also provide resources exploring how specific kinds of information, like lobbying and zoning, are currently published in cities around the country (and how they can be made more widely available). That’s also why we keep a close eye on news from local governments about public records and open meetings issues -- both of which are rooted in the core values also fueling open data movements. On our watch, we’ve pushed back against California's close call with a public records disaster, applauded open meetings progress in Atlanta, Georgia, and responded to much more.

We are eager to support new and continued efforts for sharing public information, regardless of community size or technical expertise. As we continue our policy and tracking work here, on the Sunlight Foundation blog, we welcome you to reach out to us directly at local(at)sunlightfoundation(dot)com if you'd like to talk more about open data and open government in your community.

 

The #LocalGov Technology Alliance is an Esri-ICMA initiative to explore the world of big data, open data, apps and dashboards, and what it all means for local governments. For more resources to help navigate the complex world of technology, go to icma.org/localgovtechalliance.