Sunlight Open Cities Director Stephen Larrick practices some personal and professional transparency, announcing his departure from Sunlight, sharing a retrospective on his three years with the team, and bidding a fond farewell as he passes the baton to new Open Cities Director, Katya Abazajian.
Continue readingCity halls are leading the way on open government
What is my government doing? Where are time and resources being invested? How are those investments shaping my community today—and... View Article
Continue readingNew York City’s open data audit is a promising model for accountability
Eight years since Portland, Oregon passed the nation’s first open data policy, open data advocates are now beginning to shift... View Article
Continue readingIncrease the social impact of open data with user personas
Understanding who uses open data and how helps city staff share public information in ways that are most likely to result in social impact. At “Designing for Community Use," our workshop on the What Works Cities on Tour, we helped city officials brainstorm potential users of open data, develop personas, and then use those personas to design improvements to how city halls disclose information.
Continue readingBringing empathy to data science at the University of Chicago’s Civic ScopeAthon
Open data can be a powerful tool for community advocates working to solve local problems. There are a lot of... View Article
Continue readingWhat city planning taught me about open data
Every day I work with cities to make government data more open and available to the public. I am not a data scientist or analyst, though – I'm a city planner. This is how my background in making cities better has helped my thinking about participatory urbanism and approach to opening data.
Continue readingOn PARK(ing) Day, five things open data advocates can learn from tactical urbanism
Two processes that emphasize observing a community’s needs, experimenting with low-cost ways to meet those needs together with members of the community, and iterating based on feedback.
Continue readingDC data policy balances privacy, security and openness
The District of Columbia's new Data Policy builds on the good work of other American cities working through how to balance competing interests with its strong commitment to open by default and strong commitments to data protection and privacy.
Continue readingToward more open, data-driven cities
Sharing our progress on the What Works Cities initiative, two years in.
Continue readingConnect open data to residents’ lives with our Tactical Data Engagement guide
Announcing "Tactical Data Engagement," a new Sunlight resource to help city open data programs go beyond mere access toward co-creation for community impact.
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