Cities should release data focused on enhancing transparency: Chief Data Officer Mark Headd

How should cities measure the success of their open data program?

In a recent blog post, Chief Data Officer Mark Headd made a case against using sheer volume as a metric. Quality, he suggested, is more important.

While data sets on library hours and SEPTA schedules are valuable, he wrote that cities should also be dedicated to releasing data focused on enhancing government transparency, like the the Philadelphia Police complaint data set and the geographic markets used for the city’s property reassessments.

It’s heartening to know that Headd believes this should be a priority of Philadelphia’s open data program, despite the fact that transparency-focused releases “can take longer to realize and require much more effort to achieve.”

But Headd has never been the hold up his year in City Hall. The question is if he can get the rest of the city on the same page.

Read the whole blog post here.