PHILADELPHIA—The City announced today the release of an interactive Open Data Dashboard that shows the use of its open data across the globe, the datasets that it has recently published publicly and those that are in progress, as well as overall performance metrics of the Open Data program.
The creation of this dashboard stems from the results gathered during the 2020 PHL Open Data Survey. These results showed that users value data visualizations, want to see more up-to-date data, and want to stay better informed of new releases.
“The goal of this dashboard is to show the importance of open data and to be transparent with the public about how we’re managing the work of publishing open data,” said Mark Wheeler, Chief Information Officer at the City of Philadelphia. “We have stats that researchers, journalists, businesses, and nonprofits across the world utilize Philadelphia’s open data. Our city’s data is a tremendous resource that should continue to be available to citizens for multiple types of problem solving and insights.”
The Open Data Dashboard shows when datasets were updated (“refreshed”), the status of new data releases, the number of automated datasets, the total number of released datasets, and more. The dashboard is also interactive—it allows users to search and filter the information according to their main interests. Users can filter by release year, department, or search for specific datasets. The dashboard also includes FAQs to explain key terms. It presents information through graphs and visualizations of the data—and even maps—offering users the opportunity to more easily explore the data.
“The City’s 2020 PHL Open Data Survey showed that people use open data in meaningful ways and want to be able to access it easily,” said Kistine Carolan, Open Data Program Manager. “The results from this survey are driving our internal work, which includes increasing data automation and building our capacity to create more visualizations.”
This dashboard was created for the public so they can continue to see how the City’s data work evolves and moves forward. Transparency and access are at the heart of Philadelphia’s open data work.