This past May, President Obama visited Capitol Factory in Austin, Texas, a civic startup that leverages open government data to create new products. Only a few hours earlier, the president had signed an Executive Order, declaring that going forward, "data generated by the government be made available in open, machine-readable formats, while appropriately safeguarding privacy, confidentiality, and security."
This monumental step in government transparency by the President has captivated elected officials and government agencies across the country. We have seen cities like Dallas, Chicago, Austin, Oakland, and so many others embrace this forward thinking policy. Just look at New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, he moved to create an example for the country at the state level by launching open.ny.gov, which provides the public with easy-to-access to data from multiple state agencies. And other forward-thinking leaders like California Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom, Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter, and San Francisco Rec & Park General Manager, Phil Ginsburg have been promoting the open data movement for years.
A little over a year ago, San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee and the Board of Supervisors President David Chiu announced revised Open Data legislation for the City of San Francisco. Since then, I’ve been spending a lot of time traveling around the country, trying to spread the word about the benefits open data has for local governments, concerned citizens, and companies like mine, Appallicious.
In March, I attended San Francisco’s Government Audit and Oversight Committee hearing and spoke in favor of the revised legislation offered by Mayor Lee, which was eventually approved. And just last month, I went back to City Hall to attend a hearing in support of San Francisco Supervisor Mark Farrell’s updates to San Francisco’s open data policies. The latest change would standardize the way that the city stores its data, create open data point people in each department and would set up timelines for implementing open data standards.
At the hearing, I shared how Supervisor Farrell’s legislation will give teeth to the open data movement — helping spur a burgeoning new industry. There are hundreds of civic startups like ours coming out of Silicon Valley, San Francisco and cities all over the country that use and consume open data to create useful products for the public. Supervisor Farrell’s ordinance will support companies already working with open data — encourage even more innovation within the industry and make it easier on city employees to provide city data.
A new report from McKinsey and Company estimated that worldwide — open data, particularly government data, could help generate over $3 trillion a year in value. The report states that, "open data can become an instrument for breaking down information gaps across industries, allowing companies to share benchmarks and spread best practices that raise productivity." But in order for that to happen, the report says, "there is much work to be done by governments, companies, and consumers."
This is why progressive leaders like Supervisor Farrell’s ordinance that was spurred by the White House early this year is so important for residents in San Francisco, civic startups, and local governments all over the country. As elected leaders and citizens continue to push for a more open government by making data publicly available and machine-readable — civic startups will help empower citizens, create greater transparency, save time and money for cities. What started as a trickle is turning into a river of opportunity.
With all of this incredible effort over the past year, the open data movement has turned a corner and has now become an open data industry. A thriving sector with unfathomable potential to create jobs, tools, transparency, revenue, better government, save lives, efficiency, and revolutionize the economies of the future. This is governance that can be embraced by all.
This is just the beginning.
