Dataset Pipeline Strategy

About the Program

Category: Information Technology (Best in Category)

Year: 2014

In December 2012, Montgomery County, Maryland passed open data legislation requiring the County to make public datasets available on a single web portal and develop an implementation plan for publishing our data. The resulting portal, dataMontgomery, is similar to open data websites proliferating around the country, but the methods by which our datasets are identified and queued up for inclusion constitute a process from which other jurisdictions can learn. Often, jurisdictions require individual departments to populate the open data platform, resulting in a “kitchen sink” approach that publishes all available data without regard to its value. Rather than putting the onus on individual departments, Montgomery County has devised a strategic approach that not only respects the time and resources (technical, financial, and otherwise) that it takes to convert government data into an open format, but also identifies the information likely to be of the most value to our residents and employees. The result is an open data portal that amounts to much more than an exercise in compliance: a tool that increases transparency, accountability and efficiency of operations, and creates opportunities for residents and businesses to engage their government while producing new technological tools and applications that can build upon our data.