Last week, city officials from Seattle were in the nation's capital, marking a decade since the revolutionary DATA Act, America's inaugural open-data law, which commanded the online publication of government spending, was signed into force, as reported by TechTalk Seattle. The anniversary bash, thrown at the Bloomberg Center for Government Excellence, paid homage to the legislation that significantly increased transparency and catalyzed cities like Seattle to kickstart their open-data endeavors.
Seattle’s take on the open-data crusade bore fruit in 2016 with their Open Data Policy, resulting in a bonanza of information ranging from budget digits to emergency response times, all readily up for grabs on data.seattle.gov—over 1,000 datasets and counting, creating a digital smorgasbord of information at the fingertips for anyone curious or concerned about city spending and operations. At the celebration, a panel featuring Ed Deseve, a former Special Advisor to President Obama, shared nuggets of the game-changing strategy needed to slice through the maze of red tape, dish out quality data, and build a stronger rapport with the public eye.
However, Seattle's not resting on its laurels, according to the event scoop, with current Mayor Harrell's administration actively polishing up the One Seattle Data Strategy to drive the transparency and connection between the city's data machine and its citizens to a whole new level. The city's IT chiefs have rolled up their sleeves, all set to unveil more and increasingly polished Open Data sources, making it a snap for city staff and Seattleites to harness this trove of information.
Adding their two cents on the data revelation, Seattle's own Leah Tivoli and Steve Barham from Innovation & Performance took a deep dive at the DATA Act event to exchange know-how and catch fresh ideas on the open data wave and its bedfellows, like AI, being surfed across the country. Presentations, ranging from incubating the first open data strategy to the trajectory of federal data policy, showcased the strides made in the past decade and offered a peephole into what the future holds for the evolving landscape of government transparency and how it interfaces with citizens.
