Mark Saturday, March 4, 2017, on your calendars! In line with the City’s Open Data Policy, passed by City Council in October 2015, the City of Asheville is partnering with Code for Asheville to host Open Data Day 2017 as an opportunity to continue our collaboration with the community on open data.
Asheville Open Data Day 2017
10 a.m. – 2 p.m., March 4
Linwood Crump – Shiloh Complex
121 Shiloh Road, Asheville
In February 2014, Code for Asheville gathered members of the community and a number of City staff and council members to talk about open data and to come up with ideas for moving forward. That meeting kicked off efforts that led to two exciting results in collaboration with the community: an interactive open budget site that showcased new ways of engaging with citizens around public data and the passing of the City’s Open Data Policy in October 2015.
The City has built on these community efforts with its own significant achievements, from SimpliCity to its new Open Data Portal to a new public records request portal that will be launching shortly. We’re excited about the progress we’ve made and about our plans for the future.
This year’s open data day is an opportunity to build on all these successes, to realize more of the promise of open data.
The fact is, realizing that promise is not always easy. Early rhetoric around open data seemed to imply that governments need only put the data out there and the magic would happen. But, as with most magic, there’s actually a lot of hard work involved.
Data prompts questions and conversations and some of those questions and conversations are hard. They challenge the way we are accustomed to doing things. They sometimes spark disagreement.
These are not bad, but they do require that the City develops new ways to engage, to collaboratively build shared understanding of the data that lets us move toward meaningful conversation about solutions.
That is our goal in sponsoring this year’s Open Data Day in partnership with Code for Asheville. The day will be an opportunity to reflect on what we’ve achieved and hope to achieve. It will be a time to work building on a framework and relationships that support the kind of collaboration that open data and the principles of open government promise.