District of Columbia's Open Data Feeds

John O'Leary interviews John Strigel, one of the architects of the District of Columbia's City's Data Warehouse initiative, on the impact of making the city's data available to citizens in real time.

Over 320 raw data feeds - in multiple different formats - is made available through the http://data.octo.dc.gov. This was the centerpiece of the the seminal "Apps for Democracy" initiative; an open source competition for the creation of services based on open government data. It has since become a template for open data competitions around the world.

 

Strigel's advice for other cities thinking of getting opening up their data:

  • Start small
  • Don't wait for perfect data
  • Get publishing

For more on the intervew, check From Data to Transparency in D.C.

(H/T @governing).

Posted on Tuesday, Jun 8, 2010