The San Francisco Board of Supervisors on Tuesday approved Supervisor Mark Farrell’s open data law intended to standardize the city’s data format and release timeline.
"We know that opening our government data to the public will promote innovation throughout San Francisco, while also improving the quality of life for our residents and strengthening the city’s role in maintaining and growing a strong local economy," Farrell said in a press statement.
Farrell’s open data law will require that San Francisco releases its open data in machine-readable formats, sets timelines for departments to release the data set, helps citizens and private companies prioritize data sets and creates a strategy to give residents access to the data.
The law requires that within three months of developing a data set, city departments must assign a data coordinator to oversee implementation of the law and must publish a catalogue of datasets that can be made public within six months on DataSF.
"Tighter deadlines regarding the release of open data sets creates certainty that will be extremely beneficial to the public and entrepreneur community," Farrell said. "With more certainty, entrepreneurs and the public can better plan around their individual ideas and implementations of our city’s open data sets that will be the base of the next product, service or application that helps to benefit all San Franciscans."
San Francisco has several high-profile start-ups that have used public data for websites or apps. For example, the online review site Yelp posts public health scores of city restaurants, and the San Francisco Recreation and Parks App helps visitors find park locations and make reservations.
The city’s Open Data Initiative dates back to 2009 when then Mayor Gavin Newsom directed city departments to make all non-confidential datasets available on DataSF.org.
In October 2012, San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee announced the creation of a chief data officer position to encourage using data sources to make government services more efficient.
