City of Houston Launches Open Data Policy

By Annise D. Parker, Mayor of the City of Houston

In our continued commitment to transparency and government accountability, the City of Houston has instituted an Open Data policy to allow for greater public access to City data.  Houston joins a growing number of local, state, and federal government agencies across the country that are putting in place formal Open Data policies.

Under the Open Data Administrative Procedure, an Enterprise Data Officer (EDO) and an Open Data Advisory Board will be appointed to work with City departments to catalog datasets, establish standards, and refresh guidelines for the City’s open data portal which hosts government information in open, machine-readable formats while also ensuring privacy, confidentiality, and security.  The EDO and Advisory Board are also responsible for working with the public to identify important, high-value datasets.

First and foremost, this is about increasing transparency.  It is also about citizen engagement and increasing the pace of innovation in our City.  We want to engage the talents of our strong science, technology, engineering, and math community to help us solve the challenges of the 21st century.

This portal will enable civic technologists, entrepreneurs, innovators, researchers, and others to use the data to generate new products and services as well as build businesses and develop community resources in partnership with government to better serve the public.  We want to know what the public wants to see that isn’t already available.

This is not a new concept to the City of Houston which already has interim and mapping centric portals with more than 220 publicly accessible datasets.  The City is also fortunate to have one of the largest civic technology communities in the country and benefits from a strong partnership with Open Houston, a local nonprofit, open data advocacy group that organizes hackathons and other events to develop useful solutions for the public.

At the City of Houston’s 1st Hackathon, held in May 2013, we announced the launch of the City’s Open Data Initiative.  The new Open Data policy, in combination with continued civic innovation events such as hackathons and monthly civic hack nights, enable the City to partner with the community in taking advantage of new technology platforms, respond to community data interests, and increase transparency and accountability in local government.

The City’s Open Data Initiative ensures that we continue to move towards Government 2.0.  Citizens expect their government to work for them but they are also often willing to propose ideas and solutions to help us tackle our diverse challenges.  I’m immensely proud of our innovative community for stepping up over the past few years to help civic innovation thrive here in Houston.  This is an important first step.

The City has implemented three projects through its civic innovation efforts – Budget Boot Camp, 311 Performance Dashboards, and City Fee Schedule.  In addition, the City of Houston’s IT staff has also benefited from the exposure to new technologies and different development techniques.

We're really excited to see the City's commitment to open data.  Just by publishing up-to-date data, the City instantly engages a community of people who will put it to good use.

Serving since January 2, 2010, Annise D. Parker has been elected as the Mayor of Houston three times.  She is Houston’s 61st Mayor and one of only two women to hold the City’s highest elected office.  In 2010, Time Magazine named Mayor Parker one the 100 most influential people in the world.  Mayor Annise Parker is a Steering Committee Member of the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group and serves on President Barack Obama’s State, Local, and Tribal Leaders Task Force on Climate Preparedness and Resilience.  She is also on the advisory board of Small Business Today Magazine.  For more information, go to www.houstontx.gov/mayor/.