3 big open data trends in the United States

3 big open data trends in the United States

The open data community got a surprising piece of news when the Trump Administration recently announced that it would no longer be supporting the Open.whitehouse.gov's Open Data portal. (Open data is the idea that certain data should be freely viewable and usuable without controls.) Their argument is that the information is duplicative and is either already available online or will soon be made available elsewhere.

The administration also has no plans to continue the practice of making White House visitor logs available to the greater public, a procedure began by the Obama administration. Those records will be kept private for at least five years after Trump leaves office.

This has raised many questions for those that believe in the idea of transparent government or open data. It has also made some like myself, turn around and evaluate where we stand as a community.

Is this a trend that will take hold down the line at the state and local level as well? Is it a sign that after years of progress, openness in government is ready for its own recession of sorts? The more I think about it, the more I recognize trends that show there is still plenty of progress being made in the open data and open government world. Progess that is just now being lead by cities.

Cities have always been the measuring stick for what it means to be open. They lend themselves to the grassroots efforts that have come to define the civic tech and open data community that push forward policy to make information more easily available to those that need it. However, with recent events at the federal level, the work of cities to create a more open society is needed now more than ever.

According to the Sunlight Foundation, there are currently over 50 cities that have some form of open data policy, resolution, or executive order, and I would guess that the actual number is much larger. Data.gov counts 47 cities and counties that have some type of data catalog (again, the actual number is probably bigger than this). These numbers will continue to grow. Cities are pushing open data not just to be transparent, but also to build a data governance model that can create a network of information that can span both states and regions.

The topic of data standards often triggers a lot of eye rolling. It's the true embodiment of an imperfect science. No two cities collect data in the same way. At the same time, no two cities need their data to be available in the same way. This creates a problem without any obvious solution. Every time the open data community thinks that it's created a set of standards that it can use, either a "better" set of standards comes along, or infighting begins over how to improve existing standards. However, through the process of trial and error, some consensus is starting to be reached.

The Building and Land Development Specification (BLDS) standard is starting to take hold for the reporting of building and construction permit data.

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