Report: Municipal Open Data Policies

We’ve released a new report, Municipal Open Data Policies.

The best way to ensure that San Diego area nonprofits and citizens get useful data is for local governments to adopt Open Data policies. These policies, which have been implemented in many cities around the country, mandate that cities publish data. So, instead of fighting for months to get data through a Public Records Act request, you can just download what you want from a website.

Our latest report, Municipal Open Data Policies, analyzes 10 documents from other cities and breaks down their components, to create a guide for our own leaders to use when crafting similar policies for San Diego.

Open Data policies are increasingly popular because they are  powerful commitments to openness and have   a broad range of benefits to citizens, social organizations and civic groups. With more open data, everyone in the region can work together to improve our communities. That’s a future that the San Diego Regional Data Library is working toward, and one that our governments can support by adopting Open Data Policies.