State & Local Government Policy, Business and Technology

Planning the Data-Driven City

Data-Smart City Solutions: A city’s data is one of its most valuable assets. Urban data is the bedrock of the performance management programs that allow cities to ensure continuous improvement. Reliable data can facilitate interagency collaboration, improve partnerships with the private sector, and expand public engagement. Innovative uses of data allow cities to enforce regulation and improve social services. And, increasingly, open data is serving as the foundation for good government activism, allowing journalists and civic hackers to highlight government inefficiencies or even spot corruption.

Yet these digital resources are often taken for granted. Outside of the dedicated world of civic technologists, many of us imagine that city data is readily accessible and easy to use. But the process of collecting, cleaning, integrating, and analyzing data requires extensive capital investment, interagency collaboration, and long-range vision. In the face of complex organizational and technical challenges, cities are developing strategic plans to guide the development of more open, data-driven city government.

Read article