UPDATED: Nov. 29 at 8:45 p.m.

The city of Syracuse has recently been selected to join What Works Cities, an initiative launched by Bloomberg Philanthropies to improve the city’s use of data to make the government work better and more efficiently.

Zachary Markovits, director of city programs at What Works Cities, said open data and the need for data transparency is becoming increasingly important not only in the government but across all industries.

“It becomes a part of how the business is done in a lot of situations,” Markovits said. “This is why the city’s mayor, Stephanie Miner, is moving in this direction because they are in the vanguard of how we use data in a really effective and strategic way.”

By opening up the data, Markovits said it creates a conversation that can find the efficiency of sharing data, which he said helps the city government work better for the community.

“It’s an element of transparency,” he said. “A city creates a lot of data every day and the conversation allows residents to know what they have and what’s not there.”

Emily Shaw, a senior analyst at the Sunlight Foundation, one of the initiative’s partners, said the goal is to increase the transparency and accountability of governments by establishing meaningful and sustainable open data policies, which includes making public data more accessible.

Shaw added that the Sunlight Foundation doesn’t directly guide cities on what to do but instead helps them create appropriate data programs.

“We learn about how they govern the management of their data and make recommendations based on that,” Shaw said.

There are variations for cities to integrate the idea of creating a policy structure for open data, she said, adding that the idea behind the policy structure is to help prioritize the data that people want.

Shaw said open data could help achieve several goals, including improving the relationship between the community and the police, creating open data about housing in Syracuse and creating data-focused conversation around how the city is doing and how people can contribute to the conversation to keep track of issues that matter to city residents.

With the partnership, she said it would make the government resources more accessible to the public.

“The point of open data is to put public data online in ways that have no legal restriction for use,” she said.

Kristin Taylor, communications associate at What Works Cities, said the project encourages cities to elevate community engagement efforts to improve the living quality in the community.

“Cities can build solutions that engage residents more in the process of what the government looks like,” Taylor said. “Making decisions that are more data-driven ultimately creates more effective programs and more effective services and have the ability to improve the lives of the residents.”

Although there are some cities that are more advanced in using open data and are seeking to expand their “what works” practice, Shaw said the initiative also includes cities that just start with data and evidence. Their ultimate goal is to bring those cities to the next stage of improving open data practice, she said.

Syracuse is one of the 55 cities in the What Works Cities community, according to the project’s website.

Shaw said cities need to go through a comprehensive evaluating process to be considered joining What Works Cities. Only U.S. midsize cities with a population between 100,000 and 1,000,000 are eligible for joining the project, according to the initiative’s website.

“Syracuse has some great folks and some great institutions that are very adaptive to using data,” Shaw said. “The city should be in a good position to make good use of those networks.”

CORRECTION: In a previous version of this article, Emily Shaw was incorrectly paraphrased. Shaw said open data could help create open data about housing in Syracuse. The Daily Orange regrets this error.

Published on November 17, 2016 at 8:33 pm

Contact Chieh: chchen@syr.edu