As a founding partner in the What Works Cities initiative, Sunlight has worked with more than 40 U.S. cities to create and publish open data policies, expanding public access to public information in local governments.

Now, we’re excited to help cities take the next step in their open data work. Governments can go beyond making public data accessible, and proactively work with residents to put open data into use. Our forthcoming Tactical Data Engagement guide will show cities how to do it.

As you may remember, we released a beta version of the guide in March. After several months of feedback and revisions, we are excited to officially release it for use and reuse around the world.

Please join us on Tuesday, September 19 for the official launch of Tactical Data Engagement, a guide to help cities increase the social impact of open data by collaborating with communities. The new edition will outline Sunlight’s four-step methodology for city governments to help their residents make an impact in their community using open data.

As part of the launch, we’ll be hosting a kickoff conversation about the guide. Please join us on September 19 at 1 PM EDT for a free webinar about the tactical data engagement process. You’ll hear from the Sunlight Open Cities staff who have worked with cities on the ideas outlined in the guide, as well as experts in the field of user stories and community data, including:

• Stephen Larrick, Open Cities Director at the Sunlight Foundation
• Emily Herrick, Service Designer at Reboot
• April Urban, Research Associate at Case Western Reserve University’s Center on Urban Poverty and Community Development
• Kara Kratowicz, Data Projects Coordinator at the City of Madison, WI

Register for the webinar to ask us questions about the ways open data could be used to help solve your own city’s challenges. When you register, you’ll ensure that you’ll be the first to get a copy of our forthcoming guide.

You can also join the conversation on Twitter at the hashtag #TacticalData, where we’ll be sharing highlights from the new guide as well as the kickoff discussion. We hope you can join us on September 19.