More than 100 American cities host online open data portalsbrimming with information on crime, housing, transit, traffic, and neighborhood boundaries. Such initiatives have promised to make government more transparent, accountable, and accessible, at a time when the public’s trust is scraping bottom.
But so far, open data has largely fallen short of those lofty ambitions. Part of the problem seems to lie in design: Many online portals are hard for non-expert citizens to use. They keep datasets passively afloat, leaving it up users to know exactly what data they want and how to skim it out, skills which many lack. The numbers are there—but for whom, and for what purpose?
Years in the making, a new tool aims to sh
[For more of this story, written by Laura Bliss, go to https://www.citylab.com/soluti...ter-citizens/533217/]
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