Rebecca Williams of the Sunlight Foundation reviews Open Data policy in the US at Open Data NJ on May 15, 2014.

1. Open Data and Policy: Today and Tomorrow
Rebecca Williams
Municipal Policy Analyst
@internetrebecca
#OpenDataNJ 2014

2. Policy
Technology
Reporting
Making & using
open government
data since 2006

3. Past: Reactive open government data
… (eventually) leads to Impact

4. http://openstates.org
●Data sourced from
all 50 state
legislatures; DC,
Puerto Rico
●Search state bills,
legislators, votes
●Access and reuse
the data with an
open API
●5 yrs total to make
Opening government data: an example

5. http://openstates.org
Made with the
API:

6. http://openstates.org/reportcard
NJ got a “B” in the Open States report card

7. http://scout.sunlightfoundation.com
Iterative tools reusing open data:

8. http://scout.sunlightfoundation.com
Tracking new open data laws w/ open data

9. http://sunlightfoundation.com/policy/opendatamap
2006-2014;
30+ general
open data
policies, 7
this year

10. Open Data Policies
a taxonomy
Varying Legal
Authority
Varying Scopes &
Goals
Legislation Beefed up Right-to-know
laws; #OpenFOIL
Executive Orders General
Administrative Memos Specific: tax, law, GIS,
budget data; webcasting
IT ad hoc internal policies Open gov plans
Terms of Use Open source plans

11. http://sunlightfoundation.com/opendataguidelines
A plug for: strong, thoughtful
open data policies

12. Future: Proactive open government data
… leads to (more) Impact (faster)

13. Impacts of proactive open data
• Engagement
• Civic Legibility
• Public Safety
• Cost Savings

14. Open data can change policy.

15. Open data can really change policy.

16. Policy
Technology
Reporting
Making & using
open government
data since 2006

17. www.sunlightfoundation.com/policy/local
rwilliams@sunlightfoundation.com