OpenDataVote enables non-profits to nominate data sets to support their mission while the public votes for the data sets they believe their government should release. Winning non-profits will receive cash prizes.
Philadelphia, PA, March 3, 2017 – OpenDataVote launched today. OpenDataVote is a cooperative effort between Azavea, Tech Impact, Technical.ly Media, Code for Philly, the City of Philadelphia and others. It gives social service and advocacy groups a platform to nominate data sets that are not currently openly available but would support their mission, and the public an opportunity to vote for the data sets they believe their government should release first. Organizations that serve the Philadelphia region have until Friday, March 31, 12:00PM to nominate data sets that could strengthen their programs and improve their services.
OpenDataVote (https://www.opendatavote.org/) is a follow-up on a previous open data release initiative that took place in Philadelphia in 2011. At the time, Azavea, in collaboration with Technical.ly Media, TechImpact, the William Penn Foundation, and the City of Philadelphia’s Open Access Philly initiative, launched OpenDataPhilly.org, a Philadelphia-centric catalog of online data, applications and APIs. The project was a smashing success and since its launch at the end of April 2011, the catalog has grown to almost 350 data sets, applications and APIs for anyone to use.
The City of Philadelphia now has a nationally recognized Open Data team that includes a Chief Data Officer and staff dedicated to the promotion and use of open data as part of an official policy. OpenDataVote.org is being launched to accelerate the release of data sets by the City of Philadelphia as well as grow the community of people that care about and are engaged with municipal data.
The project has specific objectives:
- Attract interest, attention and focus on local open data initiatives
- Assist the City’s Open Data team with prioritization of potential data sets to release
- Encourage non-profit organizations to see open data as a resources for pursuing their missions
- Maintain and enhance Philadelphia’s leadership role in the international open data ecosystem
- Create a template for a potential future national-scale open data vote
The Open Data Vote is organized in three phases:
- Nomination: Nonprofit organizations nominate one or more existing data sets that would be useful to the organization, but aren’t currently available to the public.
- Voting: The general public votes for either their favorite organization or the data set they want to see released.
- Data Release: Nonprofits will be awarded prize money from OpenDataVote Sponsors if their data nomination wins. OpenDataVote partners will work with local City government officials to publish the data sets that receive the most votes from the public.
“We believe that communities of knowledge, culture, and innovation rely on the ability to share and remix the work of others, and innovation in our cities increasingly relies on access to good data. With initiatives like OpenDataPhilly and OpenDataVote, we want to encourage the non-profit and technologies communities in Philadelphia to transform rows of text, numbers and shapes into applications and visualizations that inform the public and help improve our region’s well-being, inspire action, and contribute to a more dynamic community,” says Robert Cheetham, Founder and CEO of Azavea.
OpenDataVote sponsors and collaborators include: Azavea, Tech Impact, Technical.ly Media, Code for Philly, Reed Tech, and the City of Philadelphia.
For more information and to either nominate a data set or vote, visit: https://opendatavote.org/
About Azavea – Azavea is a certified B Corporation that applies geospatial technology for civic, social, and environmental impact while advancing the state-of-the-art through research. https://www.azavea.com/.
If you would like more information about Azavea or to schedule an interview with Robert Cheetham, Azavea CEO and President or Dan Ford, Azavea Community Ambassador, please contact Karissa Justice at (215) 701-7715 or e-mail kjustice@azavea.com.
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