Measuring Public Sector Open Data Initiatives
PSD launched the Open Cities Index (OCI)—Canada’s first benchmarking study for municipal open data programs—in 2015 and has expanded to invite organizations from all over North America. This tool provides a way for local governments to measure the maturity and performance of their open data initiatives while providing insight on how they can improve. With open access to public sector data becoming increasingly important through legislation and public demand, the OCI aims to push the conversation forward.
This benchmarking program evaluates open data initiatives and allows organizations to track their improvement over time based on:
- Governance and capacity (Readiness)
- Dataset infrastructure and quality (Implementation)
- Community and organizational impact (Impact)
With the goal of promoting transparency and accountability in government, the OCI also provides an opportunity for municipalities to build and grow their open data programs. As part of a larger open data community, participants also receive access to insight reports and educational webinars to continue developing their programs and provide a collaborative environment for knowledge-sharing.
North America’s Top 20 Most Open Cities – 2020
Full Reports and Previous Results
Top 20 Cities Over the Years
The Open Cities Index has provided Edmonton with an important way to objectively benchmark our Open Data program. It was instrumental in providing us a goal to aspire to and to challenge ourselves with. The City of Edmonton is extremely proud to be ranked #1 in Canada for all four years of the Open Cities Index.
“Open Ottawa has been a key platform for us to share relevant data regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, including an interactive dashboard, neighbourhood level COVID case counts, community outbreaks and more. It’s truly been a One City, One Team effort with representatives from every single City department, Ottawa Police Services, Ottawa Public Library and Ottawa Public Health on our open data team. We’re very proud to be one of the top three open data programs in North America and look forward to further expanding our program with our many community partners.”
Open and transparent government has never been more important than now as we all deal with the challenges of COVID. Having Open Data as a guiding principle within our City ensures citizens have access to the information most important to them by default.
