Open Knowledge Foundation Blog

Over the last few months there have been lots of exciting announcements about open data from cities around the world. We decided to take a look at what is currently out there - in particular taking note of:

1. Whether datasets are open as in the Open Knowledge Definition - i.e. whether they explicitly say that they can be used by anyone, for any purpose, without restriction (except perhaps attribution, integrity or sharealike requirements).
2. Whether or not there are facilities to download raw data in bulk - i.e. whether they easily allow users to directly download all the data in open, machine readable formats.

We’ve now got 16 packages with the city tag on CKAN, our open-source registry of open data:

• http://ckan.net/tag/read/city

United States

Boston

• Background: Boston’s Datahub was mentioned in this post on open data in different cities from October 2009.
• Open?: There is no explicit notice saying the data is open.
• Bulk download?: No bulk download available.
• More information:
  • http://www.ckan.net/package/city-boston-gis-datahub
  • http://www.ckan.net/package/metroboston-datacommon

Chicago

• Background: Mentioned in this blog post from May 2009, and this blog post from October 2009.
• Open?: There is no explicit notice saying the data is open.
• Bulk download?: Boundary data is available for download in bulk.
• More information:
  • http://ckan.net/package/city-chicago

New Orleans

• Background: Mentioned in this post from May 2009.
• Open?: No re-distribution allowed.
• Bulk download?: No bulk download available.
• More information:
  • http://ckan.net/package/city-neworleans

New York

• Background: Nyc.gov/data was reported in New York Times earlier this month.
• Open?: Though not explicit, terms imply that data can be re-used.
• Bulk download?: Data available for download on a single page.
• More information:
  • http://ckan.net/package/city-nyc-gov-data

Portland

• Background: Announced on this post and reported in ReadWriteWeb in September 2009. At time of writing no open data appears to be published yet.
• Open?: Not yet published.
• Bulk download?: Not yet published.
• More information:
  • http://ckan.net/package/city-portland

San Francisco

• Background: Reported in Guardian in October.
• Open?: No explicit license or terms of use stating material can be reused.
• Bulk download?: Direct links to datasets given on HTML pages.
• More information:
  • http://ckan.net/package/datasf

Washington, D.C.

• Background: One of the earliest and best examples of publishing local government data online - publicised by Vivek Kundra, who went on to work on data.gov.
• Open?: Users must notify the OCTO and redistribute a disclaimer.
• Bulk download?: All datasets are linked to from main page.
• More information:
  • http://ckan.net/package/dc-octo

Canada

Calgary

• Background: A draft motion to make the City of Calgary’s data open was reported in July 2009. At time of writing no open data appears to be published yet.
• Open?: Not yet published.
• Bulk download?: Not yet published.
• More information:
  • http://ckan.net/package/city-calgary

Nanaimo

• Background: Reported by datalibre.ca in July 2009.
• Open?: No explicit statement that data is open. Legal disclaimer states that permission must be sought.
• Bulk download?: Datasets all linked to from main page.
• More information:
  • http://ckan.net/package/city-nanaimo

Toronto

• Background: VisibleGovernment.ca report in April 2009 that toronto.ca/open is announced announced at Mesh 2009. At time of writing no open data appears to be published yet. On November 2 the open data catalogue was launched at http://www.toronto.ca/open/catalogue.htm
• Open?: Bespoke terms and conditions compliant with Open Knowledge Definition
• Bulk download?: Yes. See catalogue page.
• More information:
  • http://ckan.net/package/city-toronto

Vancouver

• Background: Reported on ReadWriteWeb in May 2009.
• Open?: Data is explicitly open.
• Bulk download?: Data is available for download in bulk.
• More information:
  • http://ckan.net/package/vancouver-open-data-catalogue

UK

Birmingham

• Background: Digital Birmingham announce their ‘Open City’ initiative to increase access to public datasets in April 2009. They host an event in August 2009, reported here. At time of writing no open data appears to be published yet.
• Open?: Not yet published.
• Bulk download?: Not yet published.
• More information:
  • http://ckan.net/package/city-birmingham

Lichfield

• Background: Reported in the Guardian in October 2009.
• Open?: Datasets cannot be used for commercial purposes.
• Bulk download?: All datasets are available for download on a single page.
• More information:
  • http://ckan.net/package/city-lichfield

London

• Background: Initiative to open up the City of London’s data was reported in the Guardian in October 2009. At time of writing some datasets are published.
• Open?: . Currently no permission is granted to reuse data.
• Bulk download?: Datasets cannot be downloaded in bulk.
• More information:
  • http://ckan.net/package/city-london

How to open up city data

There are some excellent examples of publishing open data on cities - in particular New York, Washington and Vancouver. However not all data is explicitly open, or made available in bulk. Below is our recipe for opening up city data:

1. Use a license or legal tool to make datasets legally open! - If you are using your own custom copyright notice, license, disclaimer or terms and conditions, make sure they are compliant with the Open Knowledge Definition. You can also use existing licenses and legal tools, such as:
   • the PDDL, the ODbL, or CC0 for data
   • and CC-BY or CC-BY-SA for content
2. Make the raw data available in bulk! - Publish data in open, machine readable formats in a way which makes it easy for users to automatically download it. This could mean directly linking to all files in a single HTML page, or putting files in a single publicly accessible directory. Don’t make it difficult for users to download material by only allowing access to data via a shiny interface. Keep it simple!

Get involved!

Does your city publish open data? Do any of the details above need to be amended or added to? If you would like to get involved we encourage you to:

• add more open datasets on cities to CKAN, using the tag ‘city‘ tag, or let us know about them in the comments below…
• update the packages for the datasets listed above - just click edit on the relevant CKAN pages!
• use the Is it Open? service to request whether or not datasets in your city are legally open

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