Sunlight Foundation’s local policy team is excited to be teaming up today with the National League of Cities and Harvard Ash Center to host a free webinar examining open data policies in local governments and their impacts.

More cities are sharing their data online  to increase municipal transparency — a movement that prompted us to update our Open Data Guidelines to reflect the advances that have been made and highlight emerging opportunities. This webinar will look at those advances and opportunities, in addition to defining what open data is and how policies can guide its release. We’re pleased to announce that Oakland City Councilmember Libby Schaaf will  join the discussion to provide insight on the city’s experience with releasing more open data and its impacts in the community.

We hope you can join us for this free webinar from 1-2 p.m. ET today.

This webinar will also lay the foundation for a deep-dive session at NLC’s Congress of Cities and Exposition in Seattle, Engaging Residents in Solutions: Using Data and Technology to Improve Local Government (on Saturday, Nov. 16, at 9:00 a.m.), which will feature Stephen Goldsmith of the Harvard Ash Center (and former mayor of Indianapolis), Mayor Vincent Gray of the District of Columbia, and Laurenellen McCann of the Sunlight Foundation.