![]() ![]() ![]() He said the release of the list is “a very big deal” because it marks the midway point in the larger goal. “It’s part of an ongoing process,” he said. Xavier Leonard, a spokesman for the open government advocacy group Open San Diego, said while he wants more public data, he’s also not disappointed that the city is starting with 115 data sets. “It sounds like that is not the case, so I applaud them for it,” he said. He said when the city denied the Public Records Act request, “it looked they might be inventing an excuse to not release it period.” Peter Scheer, executive director of the First Amendment Coalition, said he’s glad to see the list will be made public and said the city’s explanation is plausible that releasing an unfinished draft with data sets that had not been scrubbed was a security concern. All of the city’s data that can be made public will be published by Jan. Urdys told KPBS those data sets will continue to be published over the next four years. In a report to the City Council in September, he said about half of the 2,000 data sets are likely to eventually be made public. He expects the list will grow as more data is deemed ready for public release. While the city initially identified more than 2,000 data sets, it’s only publishing a list of 115 for now because those are the data sets that are ready to be made public, Udrys said. We wouldn’t want to have this information out there and make our software vulnerable to any type of attack.” “Sometimes those can be hinted and can even be in a data set name. “When hackers are exploring how to attack a network, they’ll look for names and versions of specific technologies,” he said. Udrys said the city also could not release just the list, not the data itself, because the city’s IT department had concerns over cybersecurity. Those include personnel records, anything with personal information about residents, or data that the city deems a security risk. Pecherskiy and Bower had to go through all of it to ensure that each was actually a data set - not, for example, a Word document or something that could not be quantified - and that it did not include data sets that would not eventually be made public. He said every city department released to his office more than 2,000 data sets, covering everything they thought could possibly be data. The city denied an earlier Public Records Act request for the list of data sets because the list was not complete, Udrys said. ![]() It also called for publishing the list of public data sets and hiring a chief data officer to oversee the process - the city has hired Maksim Pecherskiy and an open data coordinator, Andrell Bower. That policy called for the city to take an inventory of all available data sets and publish every data set that could be made public online. The list was a year in the making, and began soon after San Diego’s open data policy was passed in December 2014. “That will help guide us on future data sets that we either look for or try to create.” Related Story: Tough To Get Data From San Diego’s Open Data Initiative “If you don’t see a data set that’s in here that you either think we have or that you would like us to have, you’ll be able to submit that information as well,” he said. Residents can also use the website to suggest data sets they don’t see on the list. He said he doesn’t yet know what data sets will be published first, but he hopes public input will help the city prioritize. Udrys said other factors will be data the mayor or City Council wants to be published, data sets that are frequently requested under the Public Records Act and how much work needs to be done on the data set to get it into a format useable by the public. However, that vote will only be one consideration the city uses in deciding the release order. On the website, users can scroll through all of the data sets that will be made public and vote on what they’d like to see first. “We want them to feel connected and feel like our government is helping them accomplish whatever task, whether it’s starting a business, seeing when their streets are going to get paved, help them accomplish what they’re looking to accomplish.” “Ultimately this data belongs to the taxpayers, and I know (Mayor Kevin Faulconer) feels strongly about that,” Udrys said. He said he hopes the publication of databases empowers residents to get more information, encourages start-up companies to find uses for the data and increases civic engagement. That publication will begin July 1 and will continue over the next five years, said Almis Udrys, the city’s director of performance and analytics. The website also allows the public to vote on what data sets should be published first. Fix This: A community reporting project from inewsource. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |