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Communities Matter
Philadelphia is unique among big cities in how it publishes open data for civic hackers, journalists, entrepreneurs, researchers and other users. The City of Philadelphia has designated the community-built Open Data Philly website as it’s official data directory for open data – we’re the only big city in the country (maybe the only city period) […]
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This Is How It’s Supposed To Work
Openness in government strengthens our democracy, promotes the delivery of efficient and effective services to the public, and contributes to economic growth. — Federal Executive Order on Open Data, Section 1. People in the open government community talk a lot about the potential and promise of open data. The things that it might enable. The […]
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Why Publish Open Data?
I get this question a lot, particularly from government officials who may still be skeptical about the real benefits. And though I feel like I’ve made the open data pitch a thousand times before, working in city government for the past year has focused me on the practical aspects of this question. What are the […]
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Philly Tech Week Hackathon Recap
On Saturday, April 28th, the 2nd Philly Tech Week came to a close. Like the inaugural Philly Tech Week last year, this weeklong series of technology events and panels concluded with a hackathon focused on open government data and journalism. I gave a brief preview of this event over on the Code for America blog, […]
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The Next Big Thing: Open311 Inquiry API
Earlier this month, Philip Ashlock of OpenPlans published a nice Open311 “wish list” for the new year. There is a lot of exciting stuff on this list, and Phil’s thoughts are sure to be the basis for lots of innovative and interesting work in 2012. When people think about the “Open311 standard” they typically think […]