Change in cities is a community effort. Data is the newest tool that cities have to understand and address their most entrenched challenges. For data to have the biggest impact, however, it needs to be open and it needs to involve residents. City staff will need to incorporate resident feedback in their data-driven work as well as support residents in using open data on projects of their own.
Involving community members in open data work can be unfamiliar, unclear, or even intimidating. How can city staff recognize these fears, understand the powerful potential of public collaboration, and cultivate that power to create a robust and enduring open data program?
Canadian nonprofit OpenNorth and the U.S.-based Sunlight Foundation Open Cities team have both created models for what engaged, collaborative data publication and use looks like and on this webinar they discuss these two approaches, take questions, and explain how cities anywhere can empower community use of open data.