The portal — a collaboration between the Government Operations Agency (GovOps) and the California Department of Technology (CDT) — is designed to centralize and enhance open data in state government.
The portal offers data from the California Health and Human Services Agency (CHHS) and the California Natural Resources Agency (CNRA).
“We began the work of establishing a state open data portal to allow the public and other government agencies access to data,” said GovOps Secretary Marybel Batjer. “Around one-third of open-data consumers are from other government agencies, which means that as more data sets are added, transparency increases and government can work that much more effectively.”
CHHS Undersecretary Michael Wilkening noted: “In August 2014, the California Health and Human Services Agency became the first state agency to have an open data portal. With all 12 CHHS departments publishing data, we have built strong peer-to-peer relationships across government, posted more than 270 data sets, and received over 250,000 visits."
Thomas Gibson, undersecretary of the CNRA, noted that the value of the open data portals extends to other jurisdictions.
“The California Natural Resources Agency Open Data Portal helps local, state and federal agencies make resources-related decisions by giving them access to data that was previously locked in silos,” Gibson said.
“The addition of these data sets provides the opportunity for users to access this data in context with data already available,” said a statement from GovOps Deputy Secretary for Communications Lynda Gledhill.
The state open data portal now includes the following six topics:
- Water
- Economy and Demographics
- Health and Human Services
- Natural Resources
- Government
- Transportation
